This doctoral dissertation is a contribution to the current Scandinavian debate on "the integration of immigrants". It is based on a case study of a group of labour migrants from Yugoslavia, the romanian speaking Wallachians who in the late 1960's and early 1970's settled on each side of the Öresund, the narrow strait dividing Denmark and Sweden. Here they have developed two different social patterns and form of integration in Danish and Swedish local communities.
Departing from a concrete social situation - the celebration of the Yugoslav national day in a Danish provincial town - the study uses anthropological fieldwork, personal biographies of migrants and a sociological survey to analyze different strategies of integration among "Danish" and "Swedish" Wallachians. The analysis elucidates developments within two fields of social life: work and public community life. Conflicts and developments in these two fields are analyzed in conjunction with conflicts in the Wallachian family.
It is argued that an autonomous cultural development and organization among immigrants is crucial for their positive integration into society. In the concluding part of the book this is discussed in conjunction with the development of the welfare state and in relation to different political ideologies in Scandinavia and Western Europe.