Umeå University's logo

The concept of integration is complex and multifaceted and is widely discussed in the social sciences, social and political debates, as well as the media. Previous research in the field of integration has identified different modes of immigrant integration, i.e., multiculturalism, assimilation, and civic integration. The general trend in Europe is that of abandoning the multicultural approach to integration, and Sweden is considered an outlier in this regard. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the political integration rhetoric in Sweden over time by conducting a multiple case study and comparing three major political parties in the Swedish parliament, namely, the Social Democratic Party, the Moderate Party, and the Sweden Democrats. The goal is to analyze their respective definitions of integration and framings of immigrants over time. This paper conducts a qualitative analysis using the matic data analysis and deductive logic.

The empirical findings of this study point to the fact that Sweden is no longer an outlier regarding the general trend in Europe in abandoning the multicultural approach to integration. This paper concludes that regardless of any external factors, party politics and the growing support for SD among voters, a populist radical right party with its anti-immigrantsentiments, have to some extent influenced both S and M and their integration policies overtime, which has resulted in a shift in the political integration rhetoric in Sweden. Currently, all the parties examined in this paper view rights as the end goal of the integration processes at an individual level, despite the differences in the definition of integration and modes of integration policy between the parties. This is also evident in the contemporary political integration rhetoric in Sweden, where all three parties agree that previous integrationstrategies have failed. Another major finding in this thesis is that the time period for integration processes is often neglected both in party politics and in the scholarly literature; therefore, further research is needed on this aspect to determine whether the time frame for integration processes should be country-specific or path-dependent.