Decision-Making and Destination Selection Among Syrian Refugees

Decision-Making and Destination Selection

Among Syrian Refugees

A mixed-method research of asylum destination choice

The Case of Sweden

Ehab Alhousari

International Migration and Ethnic Relations

Master Thesis 30 credits

Spring 2020: IM639L

Supervisor: Margareta Popoola

Word count: 20400

Abstract

This research explored why self-selected refugees made a decision to choose Sweden as a final destination after introducing the restrictive asylum laws (2016:752) by the Swedish Government in 2016. With a pragmatist approach, data were gathered through a mixed-methods research design to investigate the research questions at hand by analyzing quantitative surveys, further supported by and expanded upon by the qualitative follow-up interviews with five respondents. The findings showed that Sweden was selected as a destination of choice due to the country’s perception in terms of freedom, human rights, “welcomeness” and quality of life. The results from this research demonstrated that refugees’ social networks played a decisive factor in the asylum destination decision. Thus, it showed the importance of migrants networks in forming the image of the intended country, hence, influencing the destination choice. On the other hand, the restriction of migration laws played only a minor role in the decision-making, and economic opportunities played a marginal role in influencing the choice of destination. Accordingly, from the results of this research one can conclude that the choice of destination is primarily directed by irrational reasons.

Keywords: destination selection, refugees, decision-making, Sweden, mixed-method

Acknowledgements

I wish to acknowledge the support of my family and all kind people surrounding me. They kept me going on and this work would not have been possible without their input.

I would also like to express my sincere thanks to my professors and my fellow students. They were enthusiastic about the study from its very beginning and were a constant source of support and encouragement, especially to my supervisor Margareta Popoola.

Table of the Contents

1. INTRODUCTION …………………………….……………………………………… 6 2. AIM AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS ……………...……………………………….. 8 2.1 Aim ………………………………………………………………………………. 8 2.2 Research Questions ……………………………………………………………….8 2.3. Delimitations …………………………………………………………………….8 3. CLARIFYING CONCEPTS AND TERMINOLOGY ……………………………….. 9 3.1. Refugees and Subsidiary Protection Migrants …………………………………...9 3.2 Quota Refugees (UNHCR Programme) ………………………………………... 10 3.3 Economic Migrants ……………………………………………………………..10 4. BACKGROUND ……………………………………………………………………...11 4.1. The New Restrictive Temporary Law in 2016 (Limitation Act) ……………….11 4.2 Dublin Regulation III VS Self-Selection ………………………………………..11 4.2.1 Dublin Regulation III ……………………………………………………...11 4.2.2 Self-Selection and Refugees' Routes to the EU …………………………....12 4.3. Comparison to Germany and Austria …………………………………………...14 5. REVIEW OF THE RESEARCH FIELD AND CONTRIBUTION ………………….15 5.1. Research on Destination-Selection ……………………………………………..15 5.2. Research on Refugees …………………………………………………………..17 5.3. Contribution of The Thesis ………….…………………………………………..19 6. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK …………………………………………………....19 6.1. The Behavioural Approach …………………………………………………….21 6.1.1 Place Utility ………………………………………………………………..21 6.1.2 Perception of the Destination ……………………………………………...22 6.1.2.1. Expectations ………………………………………………………...23 6.2. Social Network Theory ………..………………………………………………..24 6.2.1 Smugglers …………………………………………………………………24 6.2.2. Migrants Networks (Relatives, Friends and Associations) ……………….25 7. METHODOLOGY, METHODS AND MATERIAL ………………..………………..26

7.1. Philosophy of the Research (Pragmatism) ……………………………………..26 7.2 Research Design ………………………………………………………………..27 7.2.1 Mixed Method Research …………………………………………………..27 7.2.2 Explanatory Mixed Methods Design ……………………………………..29 7.2.3 Phase 1 – Quantitative Data: Questionnaire …..…………………………...30 7.2.3.1 Data Collection ……………………………………………………...30 7.2.3.2 Access to Quantitative Data ……….………………………………...32 7.2.3.3 Sample ……………………………………………………………….32 7.2.4. Phase 2 – Qualitative Data: Follow-up Interviews ……….……………….34 7.2.4.1 Semi-structured Interviews …………………………………………..34 7.2.4.2. Sampling Techniques ………………………………………………..35 7.2.4.3 Interview Setting ……………………………………………………...35 7.2.4.4 The Interviewee Profiles …………………………………………….36 7.2.4.5. Qualitative data interpretation ……………………………………...37 7.3. Final Methodological Reflections …………………….……………..…………..38 7.3.1. Assessing Data Quality …………………………………………………...38 7.3.2. My Role as a Researcher …………………………………………………..40 7.3.3 Ethical Considerations …………………………………………………….42 8. ANALYSIS …………………………….……………………………………………..44 8.1. Quantitative Results ……....…………………………………………………….44 8.1.1. Research Question 1……………………………………………………....44 8.1.2. Research Question 2 …………………………………...………………….47 8.1.3. Research Question 3……………………………………………………….48 8.2. Qualitative Results ……………………………………………………………...51 8.3. Discussion ……………………………………………………………………....63 9. CONCLUSION ……………………………………………………………………….66 9.1. Future Research………………………………………………………………….68 REFERENCES ………………………………………………………………………….70 APPENDICES …………………………………………………………………………..87 Appendix 1: Survey ………………………………………………………………...87 Appendix. 2: Interview Guide ……………………………………………………...93

1. INTRODUCTION

At the end of 2015, the Swedish government announced that asylum policy needs to be tightened for a limited period, by means of introducing a temporary residence permit, limiting the right to family member immigration and tightening maintenance requirements. At the beginning of 2016, the government introduced the temporary laws that applied for three years, in 2019 these laws were prolonged for another three years. According to the new laws (2016:752), refugees and persons who are eligible for subsidiary protection, will be granted a temporary residence permit to stay in Sweden and limited right of reunification of the family members. The law has been introduced by adjusting the asylum regulations to the minimum level in the European Union in order to push asylum seekers towards other EU countries (Swedish Government, 2016). Before that, the Swedish government introduced border controls, by ID checks on all modes of public transport to Sweden, in order to reduce the amount of the asylum seekers (mainly Syrians and Afghans), who are aiming to enter Sweden since asylum applications reached a new peak in the summer of 2015 (Swedish Government, 2015). Although this sharp reversal of the Swedish asylum regulations toward asylum-seekers, still a significant number of Syrian seek asylum in Sweden, where the number of Syrian asylum-seekers reached approximately 15,000 applications from 2016 until 2020 (Swedish Migration Agency). Respecting to the asylum regulations, borders control and welfare benefits in Sweden for refugees as well as taking into account the risk of a long journey toward the north of Europe (regardless of which routes have been taken by refugees) and the needed resources to reach Sweden still, a few European countries are excelled at those regards. I.e., arriving in countries such as Germany, Austria or the Netherlands to name just a few, costs fewer resources, risk and stress, besides some other aspects. For example, Austria and the Netherlands are more generous in respect of the type of residence permit (Dutch Migration Board (IND); Konle-Seidl, 2018). Germany is more advanced in providing targeted measures early on for asylum seekers and more tolerant with rejected asylum seekers (Konle-Seidl, 2018). Nevertheless, the phenomenon of Syrian migration to Sweden is still ongoing and reaching a considerable number of asylum applications even after 2016 since the Swedish migration policy has become more restrictive. Hence, the

essence of this study is to explore the reasons behind the persistence of some Syrian refugees to particularly choose Sweden as a final destination.

From an academic perspective, the research of factors affecting asylum destinations has at most times been dominated on grounds of economic factors, which focuses more on the economic migrants (Samers, 2010; Belot and Hatton 2012; Borjas et al. 2019). While refugees and asylum seekers are usually categorized within the group of forced migrants, i.e., involuntary migration. However, determining strictly who is “forced” and who is “voluntary” is difficult (Samers, 2010: 11; Castles and Miller, 2009: 188; Brettell and Hollifield, 2015; 123). Interestingly, studies have been done on the refugees’ self-selection and destination preferences tease out contradictory findings. Some studies found out that job opportunities were not a decisive factor explaining destination selection, while others underlined that the perception that somewhere is a good country due to the existence of work opportunities simultaneously with freedom and human rights were a decisive factor explaining destination preferences (Hagen-Zanker and Mallett, 2016; Crawley and Hagen-Zanker, 2018). Furthermore, Crawley and Hagen-Zanker (2018) illustrated that asylum seekers had little limited knowledge about the migration policies of different European countries. On the other, three other studies in the Swedish context strikingly illuminated that asylum seekers were considerably aware of asylum policies which played a significant role in their asylum destination decision (Nordlund and Pelling, 2012; Lundgren Jörum, 2015 and Tucker, 2018).

The contradictory findings raised the need to explore refugees’ decision making process among Syrian refugees in Sweden and the mechanism behind their decision-making to choose Sweden, since the Swedish migration policy has become more restrictive in 2016. Accordingly, the thesis is highly relevant to the Swedish context since it will contribute to our understanding of the preferences of refugees to come to Sweden, concerning groups of significant societal concern and importance.

This research will hopefully contribute to knowledge, both theoretically and empirically to the field of forced migration studies.

2. AIM AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS

2.1 Aim

The aim of this thesis is to explore the reasons behind Syrian refugees in choosing Sweden as an asylum destination and to understand the phenomenon of decision-making despite the new restrictive law (2016:752). 2.2 Research Questions

With a focus on Syrians who have sought asylum in Sweden for the last years, the research is guided by the following questions:

- What makes Syrians seek asylum in Sweden rather than in other Western European countries?

- What do they know about the Swedish migration policies before their arrival in Sweden, and has this knowledge about the migration policies had any influence on the destination decision making?

- What were the expectations about Sweden before the arrival? And how have these expectations been met?1

2.3. Delimitations

In this paper the focus is only on Syrians who came to Sweden seeking asylum after the approval of the new law (2016:752) from the Swedish parliament in 2016. I delimit the scope of the paper to one nationality (as I will extensively clarify later) in order to extract

1 The additional purpose of adopting this question was to build on for further research after achieving the aim of this thesis.

the pull factors that shape individuals’ decisions among Syrian refugees. Furthermore, this study deals with one nationality, Syrians who have been seeking asylum after 2016 until 2020. In this study Syrians who have applied for working residence permits (labour migrants) are out of scope. It is also delimited to men and women whose ages vary between 19 and 59 and who have completed middle school stage and above. The timeframe for the study and the obstacles of recruitment (kind of up-to-date research and the time of the refugees' arrival) as well as the impacts and consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic allowed me to conduct only 5 interviews.

3. CLARIFYING CONCEPTS AND TERMINOLOGY

3.1. Refugees and Subsidiary Protection Migrants

In the migration literature, refugees and asylum-seekers are usually categorized as “forced migrants”, yet, determining strictly who is "forced" and who is “voluntary” is diﬃcult (Samers, 2010: 11). However, since this thesis concerns Syrian refugees in Sweden, the definition of the refugee and subsidiary protection migrants follows the Swedish Migration Agency’s definition (Migrationsverket, 2017), as well as the migration literature. Thus, the term refugee refers to those who are granted refugee status according to the Geneva Convention 1951, hence, the refugee is who had to flee his/her country for reasons recognized by the international refugee law (Migrationsverket, 2017; Castles and Miller, 2009: 188).

According to the 1951 United Nations Convention on the Status of Refugees, refugee status is granted to a person who is forced to flee the country of origin of due to a well-grounded fear of persecution on the grounds of the race, religion, ethnicity, political opinion, sexual orientation or if the person is a member in a social group (Agier, 2008: 7; Castles and Miller, 2009: 188; Castles et al., 2005: 11; Migrationsverket, 2017; UN General Assembly, 1951). It's important to stress the point of Swedish Migration Agency that the term refugee covered only those who granted refugee status according to the Geneva Convention 1951 and the 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees

(Migrationsverket, 2017). Since the distinction between the terms “refugee” and “subsidiary protection migrants” gives rise to a few important differences legally and politically but it does not have too much to do with this research, therefore I will dismiss going through details in that regard.

Subsidiary protection migrants (alternativt skyddsbehövande) are those who are granted protection status based on the European Union’s Qualification Directives in Sweden (Migrationsverket, 2017; EU Regulation No 516, 2014). Thus, Sweden may grant a person residence permit if the person fled the country of origin and cannot return to the home country due to war and armed conflict or who is subjected to torture or injured in addition to if the person fears death sentence (Migrationsverket, 2017). In this thesis, the term “Refugee” is used in a broader sense, i.e. it covers all individuals who enjoy formally recognized refugees’ status (subsidiary protection, refugees status according to Geneva Convention, 1951 or any national legislation on asylum).

3.2 Quota Refugees (UNHCR Programme)

A quota refugee is a person who has fled the country of origin and has been selected by the UN’s refugee agency (UNHCR) in cooperation with national governments in order to be resettled to a third country which offers them long-term residence and protection (Swedish Migration Agency, 2020; Castles and Miller, 2009: 189). This specific group of refugees is excluded in this thesis, as I will elaborate more in the sample's section.

3.3 Economic Migrants

Economic migrants are usually categorized as voluntary migrants. In short, an economic migrant is a person who migrates from the home country (usually poorer countries but not always) to another country (richer countries) in order to gain better income and better job opportunities. In other words, who migrated to follow economic gains and incentives. The decision of migration is primarily revolving around increasing the human capital and seeking for more incomes and better job opportunities (Samers, 2010; 32,194: Castles and Miller, 2009: 188; Brettell and Hollifield, 2015; 123). This group of migrants is excluded in this study as I will elaborate more in the sample's section as well.

Although this category was excluded in my research, it should be noted that some economic migrants left their countries due to economic despair, malnutrition and starvation which is also a form of persecution (Moberg in Samers, 2010: 175).

4. BACKGROUND

4.1. The New Restrictive Temporary Law in 2016 (Limitation Act)

On July 20, 2016, new restrictive laws (2016:752) entered into force, the Swedish legislation restricts the ability to obtain a residence permit in Sweden. In 2019 the law was prolonged therefore it will apply until 19 July 2021. The Swedish government announced the changes on November 24, 2015. These Swedish asylum regulations brought into line with the minimum level in EU regulations and international conventions signed by Sweden.

The most key change is that residence permits given for reasons of asylum must be temporary rather than permanent as it was before this law. The family reunification requirements are stricter than in the basic Aliens Act. As well as asylum seekers who are classified as “others in need of protection” (övriga skyddsbehövande) are not granted a residence permit and the possibility of being granted a permit on humanitarian grounds (distressing circum-stances, (särskilt ömmande omständigheter)) is extremely limited. The rule is a temporary residence for either 13 months (for the subsidiary protection migrants (alternativt skyddsbehövande) or 3 years (for refugees (flyktingar)) (Swedish Government, 2016: Law (2016:752)).2

4.2 Dublin Regulation III VS Self-Selection

4.2.1 Dublin Regulation III

Dublin III is a regulation established by the European Union which is setting up the criteria and mechanisms for determining the Member State responsible for examining an asylum application. If the person is a non-European citizen (third-country nationals), arrives in the EU and applies for asylum, the Dublin III regulation is used to decide which

2 For more knowledge about the political background of the new laws, see (Shakra et al, 2018: 50). http://uu.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2%3A1248422&dswid=3096

country is responsible and will examine his/her asylum claim. The rule states that the Member State of the first entry is responsible, further, there are different exceptions among others for family reunification, unaccompanied minors and the valid visa which is issued by a member state3. However, what we care about here is the rule that persons must seek asylum in the first Dublin country after crossing "illegally" an external border (Dublin III Regulation, No. 604/2013).

In summary, the person cannot decide where to claim asylum thuse the EU countries, (including Sweden) and a few other countries have regulations that determine this.

4.2.2 Self-Selection and Refugees' Routes to the EU

The journey of Syrian refugees arriving irregularly in the EU takes them from their country of origin through several transit countries including Dublin and non-Dublin countries to their eventual country of destination. Within the EU, the most preferred destination countries of these refugees are Germany, Austria and Sweden (Europol, 2016). According to Europol, more than 90% of the migrants travelling to the EU used facilitation services. In most cases, these services were offered and provided by smugglers or as-called “criminal networks” (ibid: 2). Migrant smuggling generates large profits for these networks, and it costs migrants a considerable amount of money to reach their preferred destination (ibid; IOM, 2017).

Indeed, smugglers could simply be found in migrant social networks and their local communities (İçduygu and Toktas, 2003; Karacay, 2017). Interestingly, in the Middle East, these networks are considered closer to the “altruism” point of view rather than to the “organized crime” one (Achilli, 2015; Baird, 2017). However, there are four main routes to EU varied between sea routes and land and air routes as follow:

The Eastern Mediterranean entry route is between Turkey and Greece, many of them continued their journeys through the Western Balkans route and Macedonia. On this

3 For more information about the responsibility of the member states and the exceptions, see The Dublin III Regulation. https://www.mobileinfoteam.org/dublin-3

route, most migrants were refugees from Syria and Iraq in 2017 and 2018 (MacGregor, 2019; Europol, 2016).

The Western Balkans entry route is after crossing the eastern Mediterranean route from Turkey to Greece, the route extends through Macedonia and Serbia to Croatia, Slovenia and Hungary. Mostly, migrants taking this route continue on to Austria and Germany then to Sweden (MacGregor, 2019; Europol, 2016).

The Central Mediterranean entry route is the most popular migration route from North Africa to Europe. Most migrants leave from Libya, aside from with a raise in number leaving from Tunisia to Italy or Malta. In 2018, most of the migrants taking this route come from sub-Saharan Africa and North Africa, especially from Tunisia and Eritrea (MacGregor, 2019; Europol, 2016).

The Western Mediterranean entry route is from Morocco to Spain. However, this route is the least significant route among others, such as the Eastern and Southern Mediterranean entry routes (MacGregor, 2019; Europol, 2016).

Regardless of which route will be taken by Syrian refugees to reach Sweden, it is still reaching Sweden costs more economic resources and it is riskier than arriving in other European countries such as Germany or Austria (IOM, 2017). Sweden, Germany and Austria have been the main destination countries of asylum seekers from war-weary countries in 2016 (Konle-Seidl, 2018). Additionally, the risks of being arrested by Swiss, Austrian or Danish police is high (e.g. from Italy to Sweden by train or car), especially at the border between Denmark and Sweden after implementing the border controls, by ID checks on all modes of public transport between those countries. In this case, people who want to apply for asylum in a particular European country might find hindrance to make their own choice of destination. To sum up, reaching Sweden means taking the risk of crossing several Dublin Countries and costing more money and time. According to the International Migration Organization, in some cases, the journey costs can be as high as 20,000 euro per person (IOM, 2017)4.

4 More information about the cost of smuggling and other related information can be found at: https://migrationdataportal.org/themes/trafic-illicite-de-migrants

4.3. Comparison to Germany and Austria

In order to deeply understand the insistence of Syrian refugees to arrive in Sweden in spite of the higher costs and risk than arriving in Austria or Germany, it is worth looking into the differences and similarities between the asylum and integration policies in those mentioned countries.

As a response to the influx of refugees in 2015, all three countries have implemented policies aimed to weaken the so-called “pull factors” of migration with the view of making the country unattractive for potential further asylum seekers (Konle-Seidl, 2018). National asylum policies are an important factor in determining the number of asylum applications (Hatton, 2017).

Drawing on a comparative analysis study on the integration and asylum policies of refugees in Austria, Germany and Sweden (Konle-Seidl, 2018), the study teases out that Austria is more generous in the respect of the type of residence permit granted. Since Austria grants more often a full GCR (Refugees status according to Geneva Convention 1951, three years residence permit) compared to Germany and Sweden (subsidiary protection, one year in Germany and 13 months in Sweden). In terms of the groups of asylum seekers who benefit from integration programs. Germany is most advanced in providing targeted measures early on before the official recognition of the status of refugees i.e. during the asylum process. Whereas in Sweden and Austria only who is officially recognized as a refugee has (so far) access to integration programs. In terms of the rejected persons, in Germany still, the rejected people have access to integration measures in contrast to Sweden and Austria. Sweden is the most liberal in access to the labour market. While Austria is more restrictive, and Germany is less restrictive than Austria in that respect. In terms of public attitudes and political culture. In Sweden, a large number of the population has a positive opinion of the migration of people from outside the EU than Germany and Austria (Konle-Seidl, 2018).

The similarity between all three countries could be summarized by they are the main destination countries of asylum seekers in 2016. Moreover, they host people having comparable educational levels and age and gender structure as well as hosting people

coming mainly from the same origin countries. In respect to the labour markets conditions, refugees are seen as an opportunity to manage skill shortages and a possibility to bridge demographic and labour supply gaps in the situation of an ageing society. Furthermore, in all three countries, there are considerable plans of investments in targeted measures for refugees in order to achieve more effective integration which is contrary to other countries such as Greece, Italy and Hungary (Konle-Seidl, 2018).

The comparison above indicates that on the one hand, policy reactions have been similar in all three countries, and on the other hand, Sweden is the most liberal in access to the labour market and has a positive attitude of the public and political culture towards migration. Nevertheless, Germany and Austria have excelled Sweden in some respects such as the generosity of the type of residence permit granted in Austria and the ability of accessing the integration measures in Germany, as well as fewer costs, risks, time and efforts to reach Germany or Austria than reaching Sweden to name just a few. However, a notable number of Syrian refugees preferred to seek asylum in Sweden despite the existence of some superior aspects in Germany and Austria than in Sweden.

5. REVIEW OF THE RESEARCH FIELD AND CONTRIBUTION

5.1. Research on Destination-Selection

An extensive literature has been written about the destination-selection and decision-making in the migration field, but still, the majority is focusing on the economic migrants, which primarily revolves around increasing the human capital and seeking for more incomes and better job opportunities. The topic of destination selection has been viewed from the angle of economic factors more than other angles, such as Ravenstein’s laws in the very beginning of the migration field, passing through the neo-classical economic approach and the new economics approach, in addition to, dual labour market and labour market segmentation approach (Samers,2010: 55 ff). However, in general, theories of migration show little attention to migration resulting from war or violence (Fitzgerald in Brettell and Hollifield, 2015; 123). Historically, much of the thinking into migration studies and decision-making has been at the helm of so-called “push-pull” models based on principles of wage differentials, maximization of income and rational

choice on grounds of economic thinking, i.e. “economic factors”. These approaches have been criticised as being overly simplified and economically deterministic (Mayblin and James, 2016; Van Der Velde and Van Naerssen, 2015; King, 2012). In Summary, migrants’ self-selection topic has an enormous literature, but its focus still has been on economic migrants (see Borjas 1987; Chiquiar and Hanson 2005; Hatton and Williamson 1998; Moraga, 2011; Grogger and Hanson 2011; Abramitzky et al. 2012; Belot and Hatton 2012; Borjas et al. 2019).

Despite the discussion above, this does not mean that refugees’ destination preferences or destination selection topic are not addressed by scholars. With this said, various literature on asylum destinations and country-specific studies were written such as that of Brekke and Aarset (2009) in Why Norway? Understanding Asylum Destinations, or Robinson and Segrott (2002) in Understanding the Decision Making of Asylum Seekers. For the United Kingdom, several key factors shaping the destination preferences were identified. These were the influences of relatives or friends, belief that the UK is a safe, tolerant and democratic state. Moreover, the study shows that the previous links between the home country and the UK including colonialism and the ability to speak English or desire to learn it were influential factors in choosing the UK (Robinson and Segrott, 2002). For Norway the reasons for coming are as follows: Security, promising future, networks, asylum policy and the reputation or image of Norway (Brekke and Aarset, 2009). With a broader understanding of the attractiveness of West European countries as destinations for asylum seekers. A study by Neumayer (2004) in Asylum Destination Choice: What Makes Some West European countries More Attractive Than Others? has also shown that the image of the destination country, language, job opportunities, education, welfare, freedom, democracy and human rights are factors affecting asylum destinations. Further, a research study has been done by Hagen-Zanker and Mallett (2016) based on in-depth interviews with more than 50 refugees and asylum seekers who have recently arrived in Western European countries, found out that job opportunities were not a decisive factor explaining destination selection. By contrast, the perception that somewhere is a good country due to the existence of work opportunities simultaneously with freedoms and rights were a decisive factor explaining destination preferences in the research by

Crawley and Hagen-Zanker (2018). However, according to this study, the refugees who have been interviewed had little limited knowledge about the migration policies of different European countries (ibid). Likewise, worth mentioning, Katie Kuscmider's work under the title “Deciding which Road To take”, who reviews how migrants and refugees in Greece plan onward movement by shedding light on the factors that influence the economic migrants and refugees' decisions in choosing their destination, but the study is still not focusing specifically on refugees resulting of war or violence and it mixed up between refugees and economic migrants (Kuscmider, 2018). These contradictory findings of the previous studies push me to be more motivated to explore the influential factors in their decision making in choosing Sweden.

In the Swedish context on the attractiveness of Sweden for asylum seekers, three studies have been done in that regard. Two studies concern asylum seekers from Syria: Emma Lundgren Jörum (2015) in Valet och vägen: En intervjustudie med nyanlända syrier i Sverige. Lundgren Jörum focuses on her work on how asylum seekers choose countries of destination by interviewing Syrian refugees in Sweden. The second study is by Jason Tucker (2018) in Why here? Factors influencing Palestinian refugees from Syria in choosing Germany or Sweden as asylum destinations. Tucker focuses on stateless Palestinian refugees by conducting 33 in-depth interviews with stateless refugees in Germany and Sweden. The third one is focusing on Iraqis asylum seekers by Veronica Nordlund and Lisa Pelling (2012) in Den nya vägen in: ett migrantperspektiv. These three studies built a consensus on that Swedish asylum policy was the most influential factor for asylum seekers in choosing Sweden as a final destination.

In the end, it is noteworthy that these previous studies that concern Syrian refugees were conducted before introducing the Swedish restrictive laws (2016:752). On the other hand, Tucker (2018) in his study concerned only with Palestinian refugees (stateless refugees ) from Syria. Thus, it is interesting to explore the reasons behind Syrian refugees in choosing Sweden after the introduction of the Swedish restrictive laws (2016:752).

5.2. Research on Refugees

Refugees studies usually tend to focus on a legal, political and socio-economic context after the arrival of refugees in the host countries. Most of the studies focus on integration, assimilation and the effects on countries of origin and/or receiving countries (Aksoy and Poutvaara, 2019). More precisely, regarding the legal perspectives, a large literature on refugees aiming to examine specific angles according to, e.g., their legal status, rights and political participation and primarily citizenship (for example, see, Khosravi, 2010 and Willen, 2007; Bauböck, Rainer, 2006; Bauböck, 2010). In the same vein, the earlier pre-1990 literature and the modern era after the refugee crisis, refugees studies mainly oriented itself towards the study of the policy and asylum system and its influence on refugees (e.g., see Zetter, 1988, 1991; Jacobsen and Landau, 2003). Also, many studies touched the angle of the resettlement plans and how refugees entered the country (see, e.g., Deng and Marlowe, 2013 and Harkins, 2012). Also, the religious perspective in the era of refugees crisis is largely discussed in many studies (see, e.g., Casimiro, Hancock and Northcote, 2007; Palmer, 2009, Mavelli and Wilson, 2016) as well as gender perspective and the queer refugees and their relationships in the host countries (see, e.g., Sahin, 2019, Hajdukowski-Ahmed et al, 2008; Smith, 2013) which are often used as a scope delimitation in studying refugees. Nevertheless, to the best of my knowledge, employment integration of refugees, and the influence of national factors on refugee job opportunities take the largest share of the migration studies. Large amount of research focused on an economically disadvantaged position of refugees, through the lens of health problems, integration process as well as the problem of education, in line with human capital and social capital theory in many European countries (e.g. see Gericke et al, 2018; Sarvimäki, 2017; Schultz-Nielsen, 2017; Vroome and Tubergen, 2018). Some studies addressing the topics of the discrepancy between the educational background and the available job opportunities for refugees in the host countries, as well as the invalidation/validation and misrecognition/recognition of qualifications held by refugees (e.g., see, Renaud, Piché and Godin, 2003; Mangan and Winter, 2017). Also, destination selection studies for asylum seekers and smuggling as well as country-specific

preferences have had a share of migration studies (e.g., see, Krivonos and Näre, 2019; Gilbert, A. and K. Koser, 2006; Neumayer, 2004; Barsky, R.F., 1995).

In the Swedish context of refugees’ studies, the situation is not different from what mentioned above. The issues of integration into society and labour market, the social and legal status as well as racism and hostility towards refugees have been discussed at length (e.g., see, Bevelander, 2009; 2011; Bevelander and Pendakur, 2014, on the employment integration of refugees; Wigerfelt et al, 2013, on racism; Bucken-Knapp, Fakih and Spehar, 2018; on the social integration of Syrian Refugees).

As previously mentioned, studies of refugees destination selection have also had a share in the Swedish context (e.g., see, Tucker, 2018; Lundgren Jörum, 2015; Nordlund and Pelling, 2012 ).

5.3. Contribution of The Thesis

With this thesis, I am seeking to contribute empirically and theoretically to the field of research in migration studies. Theoretically, I aim to shed more light on the asylum destination decision making. Empirically, I produced and explored new empirical material with 240 participants in the survey and five participants in the follow-up interviews after the restrictive changes to asylum laws in 2016.

6. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

The network theory and the behavioural approach constitute an integrated framework for this study. The theoretical framework was chosen on the grounds of previous research, migration literature and my personal experiences as an insider researcher. Since the theoretical framework “reflects researchers’ personal stances toward the topics they are studying, a stance based on personal history, experience, culture, gender, and class perspectives” (Creswell et al., 2003: 222). In this research, the purpose of integrating the theoretical framework is to present the interaction of probabilities from different theoretical perspectives that could address the studied phenomenon and help to examine the factors influencing refugees in choosing Sweden as an asylum destination. On the other hand, the motivation of the selected theoretical framework in social science research

has more to do in accordance with several aspects during designing the study, especially, while designing mixed methods research. Accordingly, this study has been done in line with the interactive model of Maxwell and Loomis (2003), which involves five interrelated angles: (1) purpose, (2) theoretical framework, (3) research questions, (4) methods, and (5) validity. After determining the research aim, it is crucial that the researcher examines the theoretical perspective in order to argue that the selected theoretical framework is applicable and relevant to the aim, research field and intended contribution. Last point to take into consideration is; one's theoretical framework controls and influences the types of research questions that are asked, the way data are collected, and the manner in which data are interpreted (Mertens, 2003: Lincoln and Guba, 2000).

Building on the discussion above, Why is an integrationist standpoint the best choice in this research? On the one hand, the interaction between sets of points in host countries shapes the spatial preference patterns of decision-making, thus, not only one aspect could completely explain the phenomenon (see, e.g. Wolpert, 1965; R. Lieber, 1978; Curry 1979; Sheppard 1980; Baker, 1982; Roseman, 1983; Mostowska, 2014; Wahba, 2015; Hagen-Zanker and Mallett, 2016: Kuscmider, 2018; ). On the other hand, since this study represents a large number of Syrians in Sweden, and the aim is to explore the reasons behind their preference of Sweden to seek asylum in. Taking into consideration the nature of the present topic, on one hand, and connecting to the existent data and previous research on the other hand, as well as the gained experiences during the journey of this research, “migrants networks”, “destination perceptions”', “place utility”, with some theoretical ideas suggested by scholars, prevailed as the most relevant theoretical framework to implement.

Accordingly, drawing on the chosen theories/approaches that could help to understand the reasons regarding the destination selection of refugees at the general level and choosing particularly Sweden at a specific level. I will investigate the role of social networks in terms of location-specific social capital. More concretely, I will explore the influence (if there is) of the migrants network on destination decision-making and chain migration processes. Meanwhile, I will examine the role of the smugglers if they influence the refugees in deciding their destinations (Samers, 2010). In the same vein, the existing

literature indicates that the concepts of “perception” and “place utility” play a key role in in the asylum destination decision, which has more to do with the Behavioural Approach (Hofmann, 2014; Samers and Collyer, 2016: 65; Wolpert, 1965).

What’s more, the concept of “expectations” as a pull factor which is suggested by several scholars (see, e.g., Benson and O’Reilly 2009; Kainth, 2010; Heelsum, 2017) will be brought to the light in this study in order to support and help the obtained material to find out all possible factors that affect individuals’ decisions in choosing Sweden rather than other countries.

6.1. The Behavioural Approach

One of the denominators commonly used for understanding and studying migrants self-selection and migratory flows is the economic motives that make individuals choose a particular country to reside in (Faist, 2000: 46-49; Fan and Stark, 2010: 3-4). However, Julian Wolpert (1965) published his influential conceptual paper “Behavioral Aspects of the Decision to Migrate”, when he discusses one of the concepts that he considers as central to a behavioural approach in the migration field, thus, he states “the flow of population reflects a subjective place- utility evaluation by individuals”. Through this paper the so-called “place utility” came to light and that notion is still used so far in migration research (Wolpert, 1965: 162; T. Fawcett, 1985). Besides the notion of place utility, the behaviorists emphasize that migrants’ perception of places plays a key role in shaping the decision-making and destination selection (Samers and Collyer, 2016; 70). Accordingly, the aim of adopting these concepts is to capture the complexity of refugees’ self-selection and the reasons behind their decisions, thus, they will take a vital role in the analysis of the collected data.

6.1.1 Place Utility

Wolpert and his fellows in the behavioural approaches argue that neo-classical explanations defined migrants as groups of people moved from low-wage countries to high-wage countries, but according to the behaviourists that do not mean that all individuals migrated or prefered a particular spatial destination for reasons relating to

wage differentials (Boyle et al., 1998, in Samers and Collyer, 2016; 69). Thus, the behaviourists concern themselves with understanding the process of choosing a particular country as a destination and the reasons behind this phenomenon. In this way, they try to understand decision-making and migrants’ cognition, through means of psychological or emotional reasons for migration and destination selection. The decision-maker derives a measure of utility from the past or expected future rewards at this point, therefore Wolpert (1965) argues that migrants choose certain destinations because of what he called “place utility”. This “utility” does not necessarily concern the acquisition of better incomes, nor does it necessarily include a cost-benefit calculation of economic benefit. In short, migrants choose certain destinations because they feel satisfied from psychological and emotional perspectives, and have been offered or expected of being offered the highest “utility” in these particular places. In the same vein, migrants may choose particular locations for emotional reasons, for instance, to be closer to their friends and relatives, or because they have simply formed preconceptions about a place before migrating. According to Wolpert (1965), migrants are seeking satisfaction, rather than seeking to maximize their incomes or seeking optimization. From Wolpert’s standpoint, “migrants are therefore satisficers (seeking satisfaction), rather than “maximizers” (seeking optimization)” (Boyle et al., 1998; Conway 2007).

Accordingly, I will put the notion of place utility into the conversation in order to examine its influence on the refugees’ choices, as well as if they considered Sweden as a “place of utility” during the decision making to particularly choose Sweden. Lastly, it should be pointed out that what distinguishes the behaviorists from the neoclassicists is that “the behaviorists were as much interested in the apparent irrationality (rather than the rationality) of individual decision-making, especially in terms of why migrants choose certain destinations” (Samers and Collyer, 2016; 69).

6.1.2 Perception of the Destination

The notion of place utility is a natural result of the migrants' perceptions or imaginations of the destination country, i.e. without the existence of perception of a specific place, the migrants are not able to perceive the expected utility in any country during their decision

making. Consequently, “place utility” and “destination perception” are two interconnected and correlative concepts. In other words, “place utility can then be conceived to be a potential function generated by the perception (interaction) between points in action space” (Baker, 1982: 11).

In that respect, the behaviorists emphasize that migrants’ perception of places plays a key role in shaping the decision-making and could explain the reasons behind their selection, hence, it forms the expected utility in a specific place (Samers and Collyer, 2016; 69-70: Baker, 1982: 11). Again, the behaviourists argue that the destination-selection might be irrational rather than rational of individual decision-making (since the rationality is dominant in the migration theories), (Boyle et al, 1998; 63). However, the perceptions play a significant role in the decision-making process and these perceptions are shaped by several sources; the information in the country of origin, the international image of the desired destination and from former migrants in the host countries. These positive perceptions and desired values could be connected with freedom, education, protection, safety and/or ability to offer jobs as well as perceptions of “welcomeness” (Hagen-Zanker and Mallett, 2016; Samers and Collyer, 2016; 97). Accordingly, what should not be neglected is that sometimes these perceptions/information might be misinformation or quite subjective which differ from individuals to another (Wolpert in Samers and Collyer, 2016: 97). Therefore, examining irrationality and the impact of misleading information should not be dismissed in this research.

As a final point, the notions of perception of destination, place utility and imagination in the migration literature are closely interrelated with the concept of “migrants expectations”. These expectations might be realistic and unrealistic about life in the intended destination (Benson and O’Reilly 2009; Kainth, 2010). Therefore, the concept of “expectations” was taken into consideration in this thesis.

6.1.2.1. Expectations

Benson and O’Reilly (2009) argue that people are essentially pulled by the expectations of finding something better in the chosen destinations, those expectations take many shapes and forms, therefore, it is necessary to investigate the role of expectations

regarding the destination preferences (Benson and O’Reilly 2009: 3, 7, 107). In nutshell, the expectations could be good life standard, job opportunities, education, cultural similarity, tolerance, human rights and freedom, therefore, it is useful to examine the role of expectations in shaping the asylum destination decision making (ibid). Last but not least, the concept of “expectations” has a particular interest in the non-economic migration field as is the case of this research (Benson and O’Reilly 2009).

6.2. Social Network Theory

Social network theory has occupied a large part of the researchers’ interest in migration studies. There have been many attempts to examine the effects of the migrants networks through empirical migration research as well as extensive literature has been written on social network theory or so-called “migrant networks” (Boyd, 1989; Faist, 1997; Haug, 2008). Existing literature indicates that social networks play a vital role in international migrants’ selection of destinations including economic migrants and non-economic migrants (Castles and Miller 2009; Hofmann, 2014). By migrants networks, the researchers try to understand migration phenomena through the links between the country of origin and destination.

6.2.1 Smugglers

Interestingly, the researchers do not neglect the intermediaries links such as smugglers (traffickers) that form the ties in networks between refugees and asylum-seekers and possible destination countries. Thus, social network theory focuses as well on smugglers as facilitators of the journey of asylum-seekers. Since they can offer a broad facility such as providing information about the asylum destinations and the process of seeking asylum, as well as providing necessary supplies, resources and forged documents or booking flights. Moreover, the literature indicates the role of smugglers and facilitators in choosing the destination country of asylum seekers to Europe (Böcker and Havinga, 1997). For instance, smuggling between the Middle East, and the European Union, that flourished after the beginning of the conflict in Syria in 2011 and the Rohingya refugee crisis in 2015. (Samers and Collyer, 2016: 95). Furthermore, sometimes migrants choose their destinations based on the ground of finance and the ability to pay smugglers’ fees

(cheaper destinations), hence, the smugglers in some cases have their influence on the asylum destination decision (Samers and Collyer, 2016; 97).

6.2.2. Migrants Networks (Relatives, Friends and Associations)

These networks might be friends, kin and hometown associations or organizations (Samers and Collyer, 2016: 91). In other words, networks are the ties which bind migrated individuals, previous migrants, and non-migrants within and between the destination countries and countries of origin, which could provide financial aid, accommodation, logistic support, information (about health care, services, organizations, and job opportunities) as well as emotional support (ibid: 91-92). Also, the social networks’ importance helps to lower the costs of migration journeys and reduce the risk of migration for refugees and asylum-seekers, hence, social networks are per se useful to migrants (ibid: 92-95). In terms of choosing the destination country, Van Liempt and Doomernik claim that migrants’ decision-making depends on the perception (imagination) of particular countries, past colonial linkages, positive reputation in the migrants’ mind, information from their relatives and so on. On the other hand, migrant networks (social networks) help to explain the continuity of migration phenomena even when wage differentials drop and recruitment policies change. (Van liempt and Doomernik, 2006). In the same vein, the existence of those networks influences the decision-making process of migrants when they choose their destinations (Dustmann and Glitz, 2005).

From a different angle, it is important to recognize that originally the analysis of networks originated from the labour migrations’ studies and family reunification, and did not directly imply the study of asylum-seekers or refugees. However, numerous studies have been done on the analysis of these networks on refugees' studies and refugees self-selection as well as migrant networks (see, e.g., Europol, 2016, 2017, 2018; Hofmann, 2014; Lundgren Jörum, 2015; Hagen-Zanker and Mallett, 2016; Karacay,

2017; Crawley and Hagen Zanker, 2018; Kuschminder, 2018). Therefore, adopting this - theory is essential in a study concerning destination selection.

7. METHODOLOGY, METHODS AND MATERIAL

7.1. Philosophy of the Research (Pragmatism)

It is essential to briefly clarify my philosophical standpoint in order to argue for soundness of my research design and its proportionality for the aim and research questions as well as the employed methods. Leaning on Rosenberg's argument that “the immediate choices that social scientists make in conducting their inquiry commit them to take sides on the most profound and perennial questions of philosophy” (2012: 6). In doing so, my stance will allow me to grasp what is the nature of the knowledge I am producing and what are its limitations (Rosenberg, 2012: 2-4; 6 and Bellamy, 2012: 49-50). The present section provides the philosophical background guiding this research.

Pragmatism is typically used to philosophically based mixed methods research. It enables the researchers to embrace the previously perceived dualism and take advantage of all possible methods, which provides the best answer to the research questions. The worldviews are described as a way of perceiving and explaining the world surrounding the researcher (Tashakkori and Teddlie, 2010: 95). Thus, pragmatism proposes an alternative worldview to the traditional view of quantitative and qualitative research purists. In other words, it offers a pragmatic alternative to the key issues in social science research methodology and its philosophy, I.e.the view of constructivism, positivism or post-positivism (Creswell and Plano Clark, 2011).

Pragmatism was adopted as the practically convenient and suitable worldview in this research. It focuses on multiple data collection methods which assist a complex, holistic and deep view of the research problem, since it is interested in research outcomes and consequences, and it is directed towards the "real world". In other words, “there are singular and multiple realities that are open to empirical inquiry” in a “real world” (Creswell and Plano Clark, 2011). To use the words of Gorard, “mixing methods is a

natural and sensible approach for researching complex issues (e.g. when buying a car we would consider numerical “objective” data on its fuel consumption, but also qualitative visual data or the experience of another owner).” (Tashakkori and Teddlie, 2010: 237; Di Cara, 2016: 70).

In the same vein, the claim that quantitative research is fully objective and the qualitative one is narrowly subjective is not realistic. Since the methods of analysing qualitative data use some setups of scale describing the amounts (to name just a few, sometimes, rarely, always and never), while the alleged “objective” methods in quantitative research contain coding, describing, and selecting variables, which obviously involves very subjective input. Hence, there is no such thing as “completely objective” or “completely subjective” in research (Morgan, 2007: 71-72). In line with Morgan’s argument, the pragmatic approach rejects the traditional solid grounds of the purist quantitative (deduction, objectivity and generality) and qualitative approach (induction, subjectivity and context). Instead, it offers common grounds for mixed-method designs as follows; abduction, intersubjectivity and transferability (ibid). Moreover, the epistemological debate about the non-existence of an external world is not applicable in practical life, where we need to utilize all possible methods to describe what we perceive as the external world (Tashakkori and Teddlie, 2010; Creswell and Clark, 2011).

7.2 Research Design

7.2.1 Mixed Method Research

Considering the research questions to be asked and answered is the most important matter while choosing a specific methodology in a research study. Since “what is most fundamental is the research question – research methods should follow research questions in a way that offers the best chance to obtain useful answers” (Johnson and Onwuegbuzie, 2004:17-18). Accordingly, the essence of the research questions in this thesis clearly leads to a methodological preference in favour of mixed methodology.

Mixed methods means mixing or using both quantitative and qualitative data in one study or in a set of correlating studies. In combining methods, it is fundamental that methods be chosen that will enrich each other, as well as balance strengths and weaknesses. In that respect, the essential concept of mixed methods research is to integrate methods in a way that considers the strengths and weaknesses of each individual method (Bryman, 2012; Johnson and Turner, 2003). The use of mixed-method in this thesis has been taken in order to combine the strengths of qualitative research (for example, it is helpful in exploring in-depth cases and it reflects participants’ perceptions and understanding) and quantitative research (for example, I will make use of its generalizability, as well as its advantage for including and studying a large number of people, etc.) (Creswell and Plano Clark, 2007).

In other words, mixed-methods involve collecting both qualitative and quantitative data, in contrast to taking advantage of only one type of dataset. Accordingly, mixed methods can provide researchers with the capability to answer complex research questions, and the possibility of corroborating findings as well as provide comprehensive results and answers. Likewise, it helps for a better understanding of the social problem by complementing the strengths of qualitative and quantitative study (Creswell and Plano Clark, 2007). However, it is important to consider the weaknesses of mixed-method which includes involvement in time-consuming research design, data collection, and analysis, besides the need of familiarity with multiple methods (Johnson and Onwuegbuzie, 2004).

Mixed method designs can be categorized into two broad categories: sequential mixed design and parallel mixed design (or so-called simultaneous or concurrent ). In a sequential mixed design, qualitative and quantitative data are collected in sequential order, with one data relying on the prior data. In a parallel mixed design, qualitative and quantitative data are collected in a parallel manner, at different times or simultaneously (Bryman, 2012: 631-632; Teddlie and Tashakkori 2009:143). In this thesis, Creswell and Clark explanatory mixed-method model will be employed, which is also called “follow up”. Considering the nature of the aim and research questions in this study, collecting and analyzing the quantitative data has the priority for addressing the study’s questions.

Thereafter, qualitative interviews have been conducted with respondents to explain and expand the result of the quantitative portion. Accordingly, this model was adopted because it is the most consistent and relevant to this research (Creswell and Clark, 2007) (see, Almalki, 2016: 292; Bryman, 2012: 641; Doyle et al 2009: 181).

7.2.2 Explanatory Mixed Methods Design

An explanatory design is a two-stages mixed method study in which the researchers start with the quantitative stage and then the qualitative stage. In other words, the researcher in the first stage gathers and analyses quantitative data and then builds on the results of the collected data in the second stage of qualitative data collection and analysis. Thus, this model is employed when a researcher intends to acquire qualitative data in order to expand or explain quantitative data or results and vice versa. The strength of this model is its straightforward manner of implementation, since the researcher collects one type of data at a specific time, and the report can be written in two stages. The disadvantage is that the method needs more efforts from the researcher and some amount of time (Almalki 2016: 293; Creswell and Plano Clark 2007: 74; Doyle et al 2009: 181). In this design, the quantitative data informs the qualitative data selection process, I.e. Since data is collected in a sequence, both types of data depend on each other. The researcher will make use of a qualitative approach as a “follow up” to a quantitative approach in order to explain quantitative results for a deeper and comprehensive understanding. Along these lines, this requires that the same participants should be included in both the qualitative and quantitative data, therefore the interviewees will be chosen from those who have taken and completed the survey (ibid). In this thesis, I will collect data using a quantitative survey instrument and then I will follow up with interviews with a few individuals (randomly chosen and/or who were willing to be interviewed) who participated in the quantitative data (survey) for the sake of having a deeper understanding of the survey responses. To sum up, by doing so, I will be able to know the reason(s) for a specific response. Besides, the survey (quantitative data) will comprise the reasons for choosing Sweden as a final destination to seek asylum in. What's more, the interviews (qualitative data) will be conducted to know the reasons for the

participants’ responses, as well as to dive more in-depth in the interest of gaining a holistic picture of the research problem.

In the first phase, quantitative data is collected by survey and the results are analyzed. In the second phase, quantitative results are identified in order to be followed up by qualitative data. Qualitative data is collected by so-called follow-up interviews with 5 of the individuals who participated in the survey. The interviews questions are designed and guided on the basis of the quantitative data results. (Creswell and Plano Clark, 2007: 123).

7.2.3 Phase 1 – Quantitative Data: Questionnaire In this section, I will present inside information regarding the questionnaire design, data collection process, participants' recruitment strategy, the sample population and the procedure.

7.2.3.1 Data Collection

In the initial phase of this research employing the sequential mixed design, the quantitative study was based on a self-administered web-based questionnaire (survey).

Since a study similar to mine has not previously been done after the restrictive migration law in Sweden 2016, and in order to expand the sample of the project, I aimed to collect a larger number of responses in my survey concerning the reasons behind choosing Sweden as a final destination by Syrians. Between 27/02/2020- 27/04/2020, I created a questionnaire consisting of 10 questions (the whole questionnaire is available in Appendix. 1). Migrants are well-known to take advantage of communication technology to contact their significant other (Madianou and Miller, 2011). All of the potential respondents had at least completed the middle school stage and used computers or mobile phones in daily life. Therefore the use of web-based/online survey is convenient for this population (Polit and Beck, 2004), especially considering the variable geographical location (whole Sweden) of the potential respondents.

The instrument of data collection was an online cloud-based software supplied by (www.SurveyMonkey.com). This software program is used for designing, collecting and analyzing surveys. The professional and paid plan (called “The Flex plan”) was important to see all the responses since The Basic plan is free to the limit of 100 survey responses.

The literature on how to design questionnaires, especially the general rules of thumb and other rules in designing questions in Bryman (2012) have been taken into consideration during designing the survey (Bryman, 2012: 254-265; Galloway, 2012). The survey contained a brief cover letter, which explained the intent of the study and the inclusion criteria, likewise, it informed the potential participants about the ethical considerations (including the anonymity, voluntariness and neutrality) related to this study. Themes to be explored in the survey were based on the previous literature review; in consonance with the first rule of designing questions “ensure, that the questionnaire questions you ask will allow your research questions to be addressed” (Bryman, 2012: 254), the items of the questionnaire answered the three general research questions (see section 2.2). The questionnaire’s format was prepared in line with the recommendations and suggestions found in the literature (ibid) and then reviewed with my supervisor, a researcher and sociologist.

Questionnaire questions no. 1, 2, 3 collected personal information regarding the age, gender and education of the respondents. Questions no. 4, 6, 7 are related to the first research question. Questions no. 5 is related to the third research question, and last but not least, questions no. 8,9 are related to the third research question in this thesis. Following the instructions of designing a questionnaire, question no. 3 designed as a multiple-choice and open-ended response question (with activation of the option for entering “other” as an answer). The questions no. 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10 offered the option of entering “other” or “for more clarifications”. The questions were designed so in order to obtain diverse information from the respondents, as well as to avoid “leading question” which is in the sense that “suggesting a particular reply to respondents, although invariably they do have the ability to rebut any implied answer. However, it is the fact that they might feel pushed in a certain direction that is undesirable” (Bryman, 2012: 257). The questionnaire was created in Arabic, the language was formal, simple and clear

in the interest of avoiding ambiguous terms and very long questions. In the same vein, the questions were specific to some extent in order to avoid very general questions, since “the respondent may be tempted to omit very general questions or to skim them and therefore not give them sufcient attention” (ibid: 55, 57). I pre-tested the survey before making it public, so that one could identify any unclear content, instructions and questions, as well as any problems with the technical functioning of the instrument. Accordingly, I made some changes in the content (ibid: 263).

7.2.3.2 Access to Quantitative Data

In February 2020, I posted the questionnaire online for approximately two months (from 27.02.2020 to 07.05.2020) to collect responses from Syrian refugees in Sweden. The link to the questionnaire was accessible in many Facebook groups concerning refugees in Sweden and was also published at Alkompis network, an Arabic-speaking Swedish media service, which is the most popular non-Swedish media service in Sweden and Northern Europe, (https://alkompis.se). My access to the quantitative dataset was through SurveyMonkey website, and I could constantly monitor the amount of the collected responses via my private account on the mentioned website.

7.2.3.3 Sample

Since the questionnaire was a web-based survey, the participation in the survey was self-selected. I, as a researcher, stated the inclusion and exclusion criteria.

The inclusion criteria are: a) The participant is a Syrian refugee who came to Sweden after 2016, ( N.B. The time of arrival and/or seeking asylum is fundamental in this research). b) She/he has completed middle school at least. c) Men and women whose ages vary between 19 and 59. d) Living in Sweden (regardless of which region).

The following exclusion criteria were applied:

● Syrians who have applied for working residence permits (labour migrants) rather than seeking asylum. ● Syrians who came to Sweden through the Quota Refugees (UNHCR Programme).

In this study, I use the term “refugee” to refer to the participants, who have been granted asylum on the grounds of refugee status (flyktingstatusförklaring) or another type of protection (alternativt skyddsbehövande), (Swedish Migration Agency, 2015). The strict differentiation between refugees and asylum seekers is not relevant to this thesis. The important point is that the Syrians who will be included are those who have been granted residence permits in Sweden on grounds of the humanitarian protection basis, i.e. war, violence or persecution, and not on the basis of work, study or even family reunification. The temporal criterion of arrival is essential since the manifest function of the study is to map and find out the reasons behind refugees' decisions regarding choosing Sweden in spite of the new restrictive law (2016:752). The education criterion has been taken in order to ensure that they had the capacity (regardless if they did or not) to access to the information/internet, e.g. general information about Sweden and/or the migration policy and so forth.

The reasons for excluding the above-mentioned categories were, firstly, to avoid the economic migrants since the study is delimited only to refugees. Secondly, the exclusion of the Quota Refugees (UNHCR Programme) or family reunification is built on the idea that their decisions of destination selection are influenced or have been taken by the partner or UNHCR, and hence cannot be considered an individual choice.

The questionnaire participants in this thesis consist of approximately 64% male respondents, 36% female respondents and 2% unspecified. Ranging from 19 to 59 years of age, further, the largest group of respondents based on the level of education is 57% those who obtained a university degree or above, 34% completed high school stage and 9% completed middle school stage.

7.2.4. Phase 2 – Qualitative Data: Follow-up Interviews In this section, I will provide details regarding the follow-up interviews, data collection process and sampling technique. The qualitative inquiry was conducted for the purpose of verifying the results of the survey as well as having a deeper understanding of the participants' responses. Also, it allows me to follow the aspects I need to address, when the quantitative instrument (the survey) can not sufficiently cover and explore in-depth all angles of the research problem.

7.2.4.1 Semi-structured Interviews

A semi-structured approach was employed to the follow-up interviews which allows me to follow the aspects I need to treat, in order to explain and expand quantitative results. As underlined earlier, this study adopts a follow-up explanations model of explanatory design procedures of mixed methods. Accordingly, the interview questions were thus structured on the basis of the results of the quantitative data. The advantage of this method is that it gives me the flexibility to ask more specific follow-up questions in order to deepen my understanding of the qualitative portion results. With that said, the chosen method fits the nature of the chosen design very well, as well as the aim and research questions. In another respect, this method gives the opportunity for the interviewees to express their opinions and stories, including aspects in their decision-making process that might have been ignored by the quantitative data or myself as a researcher. Furthermore, to follow the topics they consider important. Such an approach would allow me to collect a rich and complex description and facts of reasons that made them choose a specific response to the survey questions, respectively, the reasons behind their decisions regarding choosing Sweden as a final destination (Bryman, 2012: 470-471; Creswell and Clark 2007).

The set of follow-up questions were asked on grounds of the answers the interviewees gave. I phrased the questions as exactly as possible to the original, so that all the interviewees would be asked the questions in the same way. The initial plan was to ask

the interviewees to explain and respond to the survey results, rather than articulate their personal thoughts about the issues, but most of the time, the interviewees were expressing their opinions and stories. However, from their narratives, I could extract rich material and information which helped me to understand their responses to the survey and form a holistic picture of the researched issues. In conclusion, the follow-up interviews were conducted for the purpose of verifying the results of the quantitative data as well as exploring in-depth the broader aspects of their responses (See Appendix. 2 for Interview

Guide).

Since scientific integrity is first, I would underline that the narratives I obtained from the interviewees were much more valuable than just to ask them to elaborate and respond to the survey results. Without their narratives, opinions and information this thesis would have not been possible.

7.2.4.2. Sampling Techniques

My initial plan was to conduct interviews physically, but the crisis of COVID-19 and its consequences made physical interviews almost impossible. However, I conducted one interview physically at the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, at Malmö University. With that said, the most challenging part of this thesis was recruiting participants. Although the interviews would be carried out online, people were not willing to be interviewed, potentially because of the stressful feeling and the general situation due to COVID-19 pandemic. After posting invitations several times on the one hand, and using my network on the other hand, I succeed to conduct 5 interviews. All the interviews were conducted at my home over Skype, excepting the first one.

As mentioned earlier, a self-selection process was adopted, i.e. the interviewees were those who participated in the survey (Creswell and Plano Clark,2007: 123) and indicated their willingness to be interviewed.

7.2.4.3 Interview Setting

A pilot interview was conducted physically with one of my friends in order to pre-test the interview guide. Even though he is an economist and far from social science, he confirmed that the language is understandable and terms are clear. Some minor changes were made to the questions with sentences simplified and certain terms clarified to prevent future misunderstandings (Guthrie, 2010:125). All interviews were conducted in Arabic which is my mother language and the interviewees’ as well, thus, I have not faced any language difficulties. At the beginning of each interview, I started with welcoming and expressing my thankfulness to the interviewees, then I presented myself as a researcher, also, I provided information about the research project and how the results would be privately and anonymously treated. Furthermore, I informed the interviewees that they had the possibility of breaking off the interview whenever they wished. Last but not least, I asked for permission to record the interviews, following the suggested tips and skills of Audio-recording interviews digitally (Bryman, 2014: 483-484), at the same level, the attention paid to the recommended tips and skills regarding interviewees and distance (ibid: 477). During the interviews, at each major question ending, I summarized my understanding with the informant, in order to avoid any misunderstanding or ambiguous sentences. At each ending of interviews, I concisely looked over the interview guide to check all key questions were addressed so that all data would consistently be maintained for later analysis and asked interview informants if they had anything to add (Bryman, 2014; Adams, Raeside and Hafiz 2010: 146-147). Lastly, I ended each interview by expressing my gratefulness and provided my contact information in case they have any concerns or questions.

7.2.4.4 The Interviewee Profiles

Regarding the qualitative data, this section will provide details on each interviewee. A total of 5 follow-up interviews were conducted with 2 women and 3 men. The names were randomly chosen and applied to individuals.

The below is a brief presentation of each person who took part in interviews for this study.

● Mohammed (around-30s), is a male who lives in southern Sweden, he came to Sweden in 2017. Mohammed holds a university degree. ● Adnan (mid 20s), is a male who lives in central south of Sweden, he came to Sweden in the middle of 2016. Adnan is currently an engineering student at a university in Sweden. ● Sami (late 30s), is a male who came to Sweden in 2019, he lives in eastern Sweden. Sami holds an intermediate institute certificate, and is currently studying in SFI. ● Bana (mid 40s), is a female who came to Sweden in 2016, she lives in central Sweden. She completed a middle school stage, and is currently studying in SFI. ● Liliane (mid 30s), is a female who came to Sweden in 2016, she lives in central Sweden. She completed a high school stage and is currently studying at an intermediate institute in Sweden.

7.2.4.5. Qualitative data interpretation

In the stage of interpreting the qualitative follow-up interviews, the process was carried out in several steps through two phases. In the first phase, an initial listen of all of the interview recordings was done, then in the second session, I transcribed each of the recorded interviews in Arabic in order to avoid misunderstanding or facing any translation difficulties in this phase. Through this second session, I was able to indicate the highlights and points of interest, also, it allowed me to map out the initial themes which were relevant to be later reevaluated. After, I then more extensively listened to all recordings a third time in order to verify that I included all the important statements and narratives. The third listening session was required, on the one hand, to ensure that I have not distorted what the interviewees have said and on the other hand, as a researcher, to ensure that I was not only picking up the information that confirmed my presumptions (Schmauch, 2006: 70).

In the second phase, the method of coding and thematic analysis was adopted. Mainly, this method allows me to recognize themes and patterns across a dataset, and to break them up into focused codes in relation to the research questions (Braun and Clarke, 2013). Through these methods of coding and synthesizing the qualitative interviews, a more systematic analysis was able to be presented and the research questions answered.

The process of interpreting the data in this thesis was implemented in several steps. First and foremost, I have clustered all the data I obtained through the interviews. Next step was sorting the data into some themes relevant to my research objective as well as the quantitative data results, remembering that the follow-up interview guide was built on the results of the survey (see section 7.2.4.1). In this stage, I also started off by sorting and synthesizing the interview material through qualitative coding. I categorized the codes into relevant groups and thereby started to create thematic patterns. However, the terms “theme” and “code” are interchangeably used, since “for some writers, a theme is more or less the same as a code, whereas for others it transcends any one code and is built up out of groups of codes” (Bryman, 2014: 578). Thirdly, I provided a description of the cases, where those cases are related to the research questions. Fourthly, I applied focused codes to the selected text sections in order to further my understanding of the gathered material and organize them to facilitate the analytical process. Fifthly, I interpreted these patterns making use of the theoretical tools and instruments along with the relevant literature. Finally, I presented the overall findings of the qualitative data.

The process of integrating quantitative and qualitative results will be presented while discussing the outcomes of the whole study and drawing implications (Ivankova, Creswell and Stick, 2006).

7.3. Final Methodological Reflections

7.3.1. Assessing Data Quality

Since this study is a mixed-methods research design, the validity and reliability of both quantitative and qualitative data should be assessed.

Reliability concerns the accuracy and consistency of the data, as well as the repeatability of the research, i.e., to what extent the research would obtain the same findings if it is rerun by another researcher with the same measurements and methods (6 and Bellamy, 2012: 21, 33; Creswell, 2014: 201, 203). The validity means accuracy and capturing what the researcher intends to find out, in other words, whether the research instrument is measuring the concept it seeks to measure (6 and Bellamy, 2012: 21; Creswell, 2014: 201).

In the quantitative portion, face and content validity of the questionnaire were assessed. Content validity involves whether the instrument covers all aspects of the measured construct (Taherdoost, 2016: 30). Face validity involves “a concern with whether an indicator appears to reect the content of the concept in question” (Bryman, 2014: 711).

The judgemental approach to establish content validity involves the assessment by expert judges or panels. Thus, “the procedure of the judgemental approach of content validity requires researchers to be present with experts in order to facilitate validation” (Taherdoost, 2016: 30). In this regard, content and face validity of the quantitative instrument (the survey) was evaluated and approved by my supervisor, an expert and sociologist (Margareta Popoola). In addition, the content of the questionnaire in terms of clarity and the technical issue was addressed through pre-testing before publishing it online.

Several steps are considered to ensure the validity of my research, including the quantitative and qualitative portion, which could be summarized as follow; first of all, my involvement in the field of refugees (both professional and personal) helped me to develop a deeper understanding of the subject matter of the research, thereby it helps in increasing the level of accuracy of the findings (Creswell, 2014: 201). Also, the attention

was paid to the conceptual framework in order to avoid any ambiguity in defining and operationalizing it, thereby, the concepts and theories were defined and operationalized clearly. The making use of a mixed methods research design allows me to increase the validity of this research by utilizing different sources of data in this instance to check the accuracy of the findings. What is more, pre-testing the interview questions and conducting a pilot interview helped me to ensure that the interview guide and its settings measures what it is built for. Accordingly, it helps to increase the soundness of the interview questions and thus grading up the level of the validity.

Looking at reliability, I mainly focused on strengthening the transparency of the research in order to ensure a better level of reliability in the mixed-method research design. I presented step by step the process of collecting and analyzing both quantitative and qualitative data, and more specifically, I paid attention to keep the collecting data consistent by coding and thematizing them systematically (6 and Bellamy 2012: 21). Moreover, I recorded and transcribed all the obtained data, furthermore, to bring my interpretations as close as possible to the interviewees’ original information, I reviewed and summarized my understanding with each interview participant after each major question during the interviews. Last but not least, it’s notable that my mother tongue is Arabic and it was the mother tongue of the interviewees as well, thus, that increased the reliability of the obtained material in some aspects since we could avoid any linguistic misunderstanding during the interview and/or in the survey (6 and Bellamy, 2012: 233, 259-260; Creswell, 2007: 207-209). From the above discussion, the overall transparency of the research design enables the study to be replicated and thus more reliable.

7.3.2. My Role as a Researcher

Reflecting upon the issue of my status, background and position -as a researcher- has great importance for delivering the most reliable representation of my study’s findings. Thereby, it's necessary to reflect upon the issue of insider/outsider status since the position of the researcher is an important part which could influence the data collection process (e.g, interviews, recruitment ... etc) and analysis (Dwyer and Buckle, 2009: 55; Creswell, 2014: 186-187). To give a quick glance at my background, I belong to the

community in which I conducted the study since I am a Syrian refugee who sought asylum in Sweden at the end of 2015. This position was a double-edged sword during my research journey, however, I could clearly see that the advantages were many more than disadvantages. Being an insider allowed me more rapid and more complete acceptance by the interviewees in the qualitative portion and the participants in the quantitative one. Therefore, participants were more open with me so that has given me a greater depth to the data gathered. As Dwyer and Buckle (2009) state “The benefit to being a member of the group one is studying is acceptance. One’s membership automatically provides a level of trust and openness in your participants that would likely not have been present otherwise. One has a starting point (the commonality) that affords access into groups that might otherwise be closed to “outsiders.” Participants might be more willing to share their experiences because there is an assumption of understanding and an assumption of shared distinctiveness; it is as if they feel, “You are one of us and it is us versus them (those on the outside who do not understand).” (ibid: 58). In the same vein, my background that I share an identity, language, and experiential base with the study participants was an opportunity, because they shared their experiences without feeling any doubt about me or any linguistic difficulties since they freely expressed themselves in their native language. It would otherwise be impossible to access the field in a short period of time as such and especially in the period of COVID-19 pandemic.

On the other hand, despite those benefits of being an insider researcher, there are also drawbacks that have the potential to impede the research process as it progresses. In this respect, it is possible that the interviewees will assume similarity and as a result, they fail to explain their individual experience fully and/or they will make assumptions of existing the necessary knowledge as an insider researcher, therefore, they will fail to state detailed experiences and full information (Dwyer and Buckle, 2009: 58). I faced this problem in practice seeing that while few of the interviewees ended their statement by saying “as you know how it is in Syria'' and "you already know the situation there”. That was specifically when they were articulating their perceptions about Sweden before migrating by telling me “you know what is the perception/image of Sweden in Syria”. Thus, it was crucial highlighting the necessity of remaining reflexive, (Glesne, 1999, in Dwyer and Buckle,

2009: 60) therefore I asked for more detailed information each time I faced this issue. Also, in terms of my position as an insider, and in order to ensure neutrality regarding the relationship between the researcher and the participants, hence, reliability of the obtained data and findings, I followed the suggestion of Glesne that “it is important to not hide behind the mask of rapport or the wall of professional distancing… we must be fully authentic in our interactions with our participants and honour the consequences of acting with genuineness” (ibid, 1999: 105). Last but not least, I was aware that it is possible that my perceptions might be clouded by my own personal experience and that as an insider I might have difficulty separating it from that of the interviewees. Accordingly, this might result in an interview that is formed and guided by the core aspects of my experience and not the participants. Furthermore, it is possible to influence the analysis, leading to an emphasis on mutual aspects between me and the participants and a de-emphasis on aspects that are discrepant, or vice versa. However, I acknowledge these concerns, therefore, I tried to be honest and transparent in all stages of the study as well as systematic in conducting my research rather than ignoring or denying them.

7.3.3 Ethical Considerations

This thesis is social research involving people and their private angles of life and experiences, therefore “the ethical guidelines and the ethics committee are there to protect research participants” (Bryman, 2014: 131). On the other hand, “the ethical issues cannot be ignored, as they relate directly to the integrity of a piece of research and of the disciplines that are involved” (ibid: 130). Accordingly, this research carried out in line with the instructions of the Central Ethical Review Board in Sweden (Etikprövningsnämnderna, 2015), including the four main areas of ethical principles in social research as follows: no harm to participants, no deception, informed consent and privacy (Diener and Crandall, 1978 in Bryman, 2014: 135). The first measure taken is concerning anonymity, I consequently emphasized that all information gathered or discussed throughout the interview were confidential and the presented material will be anonymized. I stressed that I am the only one who will listen to the records, then after publishing the thesis all recordings and transcripts will be disposed of. In doing this, I could ensure a considerable extent of privacy and anonymity ( for more knowledge about

the degree to which invasions of privacy can be condoned, see Bryman 2014: 142-143). In this thesis, pseudonyms have been assigned to protect identities. At the beginning of each interview, I presented my name, the aim and overview of the study. Moreover, in this research, participants’ consent was confirmed through voluntary participation and the possibility of withdrawal at any time.

According to my experience of working with refugees, I stressed on the point that their participation in the survey and interview will not influence their residence permit status. In other words, I clearly clarified that the participation in the survey or interview won't help one to get a permanent residence permit or to lose it. The previous points could help to gain more honest statements of their information without trying to produce a version that is suitable to gain benefits or to lose it. Finally yet importantly, all the interviewees gave consent that the interview would be recorded as well as that the information would be used for the purposes of this thesis. By doing so, the voluntary, comfortability and transparency were taken into consideration, hence, there was not any kind of deception.

8. ANALYSIS

This chapter focuses on the analysis and results of the mixed-method data collected in chronological order. The first section will present the quantitative results and address the research questions consecutively in succession. The second section will then present the qualitative results of the follow-up interviews interrelating with the research questions. The third and final section will provide a discussion on the integrated results of the quantitative and qualitative data through the chosen theoretical framework.

8.1. Quantitative Results

This section presents the quantitative results, first addressing research question 1, followed by the second and third research questions.

The quantitative data was collected by means of a web-based questionnaire containing a variety of questions about different issues, including themes, personal information, reasons behind choosing Sweden, smugglers, expectations and other specific questions relating to the research questions of this study. The written language of the survey was Arabic: the questions that appear in this thesis have been translated from Arabic to English. The questionnaire can be found in Appendix 1. The web-based survey was composed of self-selected participants and consisted of 240 participants residing in Sweden. The respondents' background in terms of age, gender and educations consist as follows:

48% of the respondents are between 19-29 years old, 37% between 30-39, 11% between 40-49 and 4% between 50-59. In respect to gender, 64% are males, 34% females and 2% unspecified. The educational backgrounds of the respondents are, 57% hold a university degree or above, 34% completed high school stage and 9% completed middle school stage (see, question 1, 2 and 3 in Appendix.1).

8.1.1. Research Question 1, identifying the reasons behind choosing Sweden

Starting with this subsection, it will address research question 1 which is as follows:

What makes Syrians seek asylum in Sweden rather than other countries after the new restrictive law (2016:752)? This research question was answered by respondents’ answers to questions Nos. 4, 6 and 7 of the questionnaire. There are several variables included in the questionnaire which identify the reason behind choosing Sweden.

Sweden Pull Factors

The variables are exhibited in Table 1 below. This question was a multiple answer one, hence respondents could check off all the choices that apply to them instead of being forced to pick just one. With nearly 55% of the respondents justified their choice on grounds of the good reputation of Sweden, 40% built their decision on the grounds of having relatives and acquaintances living in Sweden. Issues of existing job opportunities and economic benefits in Sweden were listed by 18% of respondents, other choices such as “my decision was not based on any basis (arbitrary)” listed by 7%, lastly, only 4% of the respondents indicated that their decisions were influenced by smugglers.

Table 1. Questionnaire results of the reasons behind choosing Sweden

Answer Choices Responses

The good reputation of Sweden 54.85%

Relatives and acquaintances in Sweden 40.08%

Job opportunities and economic benefits 9.70%

Decisions based on no basis (arbitrary) 7.59%

Smugglers or facilitators’ influence 4.64%

An additional specific reason was identified through open-answers (others). The additional responses (others) that mentioned by respondents were extracted and grouped

into similar themes/topics, which aligns with reasons (pull factors) identified by Lundgren Jörum study (2015). The reason was the possibility of acquiring Swedish citizenship within a relatively short time.

Choices in Where to Seek Asylum and Free Will

Question no. 6 in the questionnaire examined free will of refugees’ self-selection by means of examining if the refugees had options and abilities to access other EU countries rather than Sweden, even so, they preferred coming to Sweden. The results of this question are exhibited in Table 2 below.

Table 2. Did you have other options or ability to access other European countries like Germany, Austria, Netherlands ... etc?

Answer Choices Responses

Yes, I had the option and ability, 83.40 % but I preferred to come to Sweden.

No, I had only the option to reach Sweden. 14.47 %

Smugglers and influence

Question no. 7 Specifically examined the role of the smugglers on the decision of destination selection, the results of the influence of smugglers/facilitators are exhibited in Table 3 below. Drawing on the results of the survey, we could see that the smugglers had not a significant influence on the decisions of refugees regarding destination selection, however, a wider view will be explored by the follow-up interviews in the qualitative portion of this mixed-method research.

Table 3. Questionnaire results on the influence of the smugglers

Answer Choices Responses

There was no influence 56.54%

Minor influence 9.70%

Moderate influence (ca 50% on my choice) 1.27%

Significant influence 2.11%

I did not use/deal with smugglers at all 30.38%

8.1.2. Research Question 2. New Restrictive Law (2016:752) and Destination Preferences

After addressing the first research question, this section will address research question 2, which is as follows: - What do Syrians know about the Swedish migration policies before their arrival in Sweden, and has this knowledge about the migration policies had any influence on the decision of destination?

To answer the study’s second research question, quantitative results are derived from analysis focusing on the knowledge of refugees about the new restrictive regulations in the Swedish migration policy on the one hand. On the other hand after identifying the

results, the follow-up interviews will explore to what extent these changes influenced their decisions on the selection of the destination. In order to explore the relationship between the new restrictive law and the destination selection, questions were conducted in the survey and the results are identified in table 4 below. From the analysed results, we could see that nearly 53% of the respondents did not know about the new restrictive law before arrival in Sweden, which could indicate irrationality and/or other aspects that are almost impossible to explore just by means of a survey, therefore, in-depth interviews were essential in this research. To continue presenting the results, nearly 25% of the respondents knew about the restrictive law, nevertheless, they came to Sweden and sought asylum. Lastly, nearly 18% of the respondents were not interested to know about the migration policy in Sweden, since their intentions were just to arrive in and seek asylum.

Table 4. Examining awareness of refugees about the new restrictive law (2016:752) before arriving in Sweden.

Answer Choices Responses

Yes, I knew about that law 25.64%

No, I did not know about that law 52.99%

I was not interested. My only concern was to reach Sweden 17.95%

8.1.3. Research Question 3. The Role of Expectations and Fulfilment after Arrival

This subsection will address the third and final research question which is as follows:

- What were the expectations about Sweden before the arrival? And how have these expectations been met?

This question consists of two parts. The first one was chosen in order to examine the role of the expectation (if there was one) before arriving in Sweden, and the second part was geared toward obtaining material for further research, i.e., after the decision had been taken and the asylum application was already submitted. The quantitative results derived from the web-based survey were used to answer research question number three. In order to do so, an analysis was conducted using Questions Nos. 8 and 9 from the questionnaire.

Existence of Expectations

Table 5 presents the results of participants if they had any expectations about Sweden before reaching it. Nearly 80% of participants responded that they had positive expectations. While only close to 5% responded that they had negative expectations before arriving, furthermore, there were nearly 14% who responded to the survey that they had no expectations. In general, the quantitative results indicate that the majority of respondents had positive expectations about Sweden. The follow-up interviews will specifically explore those expectations the participants had, i.e, in which area the expectations were related to.

Table 5. Examining refugees’ expectations before arriving in Sweden

Answer Choices Responses

Yes, I had positive expectations 80.67%

Yes,, I had negative expectations 5.04%

I had no expectations 14.29%

Additional descriptive answers were obtained from participants through the option “if you would like to elaborate more”. The additional answers (others) mentioned by respondents were extracted and grouped into similar themes/topics.

Fulfillment of Expectations

The second part of the third research question was conducted by question No.9 in the questionnaire. The results are presented in Table 6 below. Close to 30% of the respondents responded that their expectations were fulfilled, while nearly 53% responded that their expectations were not fulfilled, also, 13% responded that they do not know yet, and only 3% of the respondents had no expectations.

Table 6. Fulfilment of refugees’ expectations about Sweden

Answer Choices Responses

Yes, my expectations were fulfilled 30.38%

No, my expectations were not fulfilled 53.16%

I do not know yet 13.08%

I had no expectations 3.38%

Additional descriptive answers were obtained from participants through the option “if you would like to elaborate more”. The additional answers “others” that mentioned by respondents were extracted and grouped into similar themes/topics.

Interestingly, the majority of the respondents had positive expectations in the question No.8, while the majority of the responses 53% indicate that the expectations were not fulfilled. The follow-up interviews will give a wider view in order to undo this puzzle.

8.2. Qualitative Results

This section of the analysis will provide results directly from the 5 follow-up interviews.

Since this study is a mixed-method study, in which a qualitative study is carried out to explore and further the understanding of the quantitative study, the data drawn from the qualitative part is presented according to identified themes related to destination selection from the results of the qualitative portion and the theoretical framework as well as the additional factors which were identified by participants in the survey, which include the followings: the perception of Sweden, family and social networks, smugglers, job opportunities and economic benefits, choices in where to seek asylum, the restrictive asylum policy, expectations and fulfilment and citizenship.

Perception of Sweden (Image)

The good reputation of Sweden was mentioned by all interviewees as a factor influenced their decisions regarding choosing Sweden to seek asylum in. Sweden's positive image through the lens of interviewees was about freedom, human rights, good education, job opportunities, welfare and the desire to live in a state with democracy as well as the low rates of racism compared to other countries. Mohammed explained how Sweden's reputation had fundamentally affected his decisions to put reaching Sweden as the only goal to do during his journey, when he stated: “I fled Syria because of my political activities [...] in Greece my aim was to reach the UK to seek asylum [...] all people I met in Greece told me do not go anywhere rather than Sweden, it is the best in the world [...] the reputation of Sweden regarding democracy, humanity, the ability to establish a new happy life or the possibility of feeling happy again in addition to that Sweden is a good

country to raise children were what made me change my mind to end up in Sweden rather than the UK.”

In a lower tone, Adnan explained “for me, all European Union countries are at the same level in terms of democracy and human rights, especially that racism is not legalized in the EU.” He concluded his statements, “Image of Sweden is like the image of Germany or The Netherlands, for me there are no differences.” It should be noted that Adnan is the only one among the interviewed participants who mentioned his intention to continue his studies in Sweden. Hence, he considered also the benefits of good education as a part of the positive image of Sweden. He explicitly explained that Sweden's reputation partly had an influence but he stressed that it was nott in the first place since in his eyes all EU countries share the same values and features.

In the same vein, the rest of interviewees (Sami, Bana and Lilliane) articulated that Sweden's image played a secondary role in their decision-making rather than a primary one since they had been essentially influenced by other factors as the following sections will present.

Ten additional descriptive answers related to the theme of image or perception of Sweden were obtained from the participants in the survey, through the option “others” and “if you would like to elaborate more”. All these answers revolved around the notions of democracy, freedom and human rights.

Family and Social Networks

Interestingly, in agreement with the results of the quantitative portion, the aspects of family members and acquaintances have come to light through the follow-up interviews. Four out of five interviewees straightforwardly articulated how family members and acquaintances played a primary role in their decision-making.

Bana described her decision's motivation by saying “My youngest son in addition to my daughter and her husband have been living in Sweden since 2014, they were regularly contacting us and motivating us to come to Sweden [...] They described to me all the details about Sweden and how life is there [...] Regardless of the positive lifestyle in

Sweden, my decision has been taken on the ground of being close to them [...] The war in Syria dispersed us and my only concern was to live the rest of my life near my children, no matter what life there was. I just wanted to live with them, therefore I came to Sweden.”

Similarly, Liliane explained, “The only reason for choosing Sweden is to be with my son, I have only one son [...] Regardless of how much the asylum policy was restricted and regardless of any other things, I wanted to be with my son, and I did.”

Adnan came to Sweden with his parents and similarly expressed his motivation, stating:

“My siblings who live in Sweden informed me about everything here (Sweden). They told me about the new law and the implementation of the temporary residence permits, despite all of that, we came here (Sweden) to be close to them, to live our life together as a family.”

Sami was more detailed when he reflected upon his decision. In addition to the reason of his willingness to be close to his acquaintances (his wife's family), there was another reason besides having acquaintances in Sweden which will be presented in the section of the smugglers' influence. Thus, Sami said:

“I would say that 70% of my decision has been built on the ground that my wife's family are in Sweden, but also I had no other options since the smuggler's offer was only to reach Sweden. The smuggler lives in Sweden and he had no other options to offer me.”

Quite the opposite of the statements above, Mohammed had no acquaintances living in Sweden, but on the other hand, he previously mentioned that all random people he met in Greece advised him to seek asylum in Sweden, in this sense he articulated “All people I met in Greece told me “do not go anywhere rather than Sweden, it is the best in the world.” [...] They portrayed Sweden as heaven, therefore I came here (Sweden).”

In agreement with the quantitative portion's results on the one hand, and in line with the theoretical framework on the other hand, migrants network are demonstrated to be the most influential factor on refugees' decisions regarding destination selection.

Smugglers’ Influence on Where to Go?

With regard to the role of smugglers in choosing the destination country of asylum seekers to Europe, as highlighted by literature, this was only raised by one participant (Sami). However, it should be underlined that all of the interviewees left Syria and entered Europe (Greece at least) with making use of smugglers.

Bana, Liliane and Adnan made the decision to move to Sweden before leaving Syria. In other respects, the use of smugglers for those participants was only limited to the stages of their journeys from Syria to Turkey and then after from Turkey to Greece. All of the three mentioned participants explicitly explained that there was no influence from the smugglers at all, moreover, the used smugglers did not ask or know them where they were willing to go.

With regard to smugglers, Mohammed reflected upon how the smuggler had a minor influence on his decision:

“In Athen, I got a Spanish passport from the smuggler whom I used, when he knew my intended destination (Sweden), he had increased the price of the passport and simultaneously encouraged me to go to Sweden. He was a liar and eager to get more money. I can say, he encouraged me by portraying reaching Sweden like "a walk in the park" but only by the passport he sold to me.”

Mohammed further explained that the smuggler played an encouraging role more than an influential role in his desire to reach Sweden, “I think he would encourage me in any case. “[...] I did not really trust him, he just wanted to sell the passport at the highest possible price.”

The only participant who explicitly raised the role of the smuggler in choosing the destination country is Sami.

“Definitely, the smuggler had a significant impact on my decision, the smuggler only offered me Sweden as a destination, if I had the option to go to another country, I prefer Norway than Sweden, but I was kind of compelled to come here. Also, he portrayed Sweden as the easiest place in the world of getting a job. Further, he could convince me that about one year after my arrival, I would sort of automatically receive a permanent residence permit, moreover, my income would be about 5,000$ per month since I am a chef.”

It should be noted that despite the reflection of Sami about the influence of the smuggler, he stated “I would say that 70% of my decision has been built on the ground that my wife's family are in Sweden and 30% on the ground of the smuggler's influence.”

As might be expected, all the interviewees made use of smugglers at some stages of their journeys. This included using them to cross the borders, secure fraudulent passports and arrange flights. With that said, there was a significant possibility for the smugglers to influence the final destination of those refugees.

Economic Opportunities

The economic opportunities were rarely featured as being influential in the refugees’ destination decision making process among participants.

From the follow-up interviews, only one participant indicated that his choice was influenced, in part at least, by the "information" about the existence of abundant job opportunities in Sweden which he obtained from the smuggler.

“The smuggler whom I used and other people provided me with exaggerated information about the job opportunities in Sweden. During the period of my negotiations with the smuggler, I got information that Job opportunities abound in Sweden and my salary would be about 5,000$ per month after taxes, for the reason that I am a chef. According to the smuggler, I would get

a permanent employment contract after about one year of my arrival in Sweden. That had also influenced my decision, but they were just exaggerations and misleading information.” (Sami).

An interesting point related to economic opportunities was highlighted by Liliane when she articulated upon her financial condition in Syria and during her journey how that was nott influential in her decision making.

“Our financial condition in Syria was awful, I mean my husband and I. When we decided to leave Syria, we borrowed money to go to Sweden, then in Greece, we ran out of money and got stuck for a while until we were able to borrow some money to continue our voyage to Sweden where my only son lives. Nevertheless, we did not think about financial temptations or economic opportunities in other countries, therefore the economic opportunities did not affect our decisions at all.”

Similarly to Bana, the rest of interviewees explicitly stated that the economic opportunities had no influential role in the decision-making process.

Choices in Where to Seek Asylum and Free Will

Since this study is concerned with refugees who were self-selected into Europe on the one hand, and in order to understand the limitations of where those refugees could seek asylum on the other hand, it is interesting to examine their free will by shedding light on the following question. Did refugees in Sweden have other options and abilities to seek asylum in other EU countries?

All interviewees excepting Sami stated that they had available options and abilities to seek asylum in other EU countries, nevertheless, they chose Sweden. With that said, Mohammed explained how he undertook the costly journey to the intended destination country despite his ability to seek asylum in the transit countries that he passed by.

“Of course, I had the option and ability to seek asylum in several countries which I passed through on my way to Sweden. [...] It was cheaper and easier to stay in Spain or France

rather than continuing to Swede but I preferred to end up here (Sweden) [...] I left Paris by train during the Christmas holiday heading toward Gothenburg, the ticket was quite expensive [...] I was thinking at that time that I will continue toward Sweden regardless of how much that journey will cost me.” Mohammed added, “[...] When I arrived in Paris, I was surprised how beautiful it is, and I was fascinated by it, but I wanted to come here (Sweden), for the sake of living an amazing life in Sweden depending on what people told me.”

By the same token, Liliane articulated upon what happened with her on one of the Greek islands to confirm that many choices were available in terms of destination selection, and she was able to choose other countries rather than Sweden. In this regard, Liliane narrated her story to assert that although she received a very tempting offer to go to France, she and her husband were determined to seek asylum in Sweden.

“In Greece, we ran out of money and got stuck for a while there [...] A French guy who was a volunteer helping refugees on that greek island offered us a safe way to travel through Europe to France then seek asylum there [...] His offer included a job opportunity for me and my husband on his farm since my husband excels in working in the agricultural field. Furthermore, he offered us housing and a good salary. However, we turned down that very tempting offer despite the fact that we did not have the money at that time. Our rejection was just because we wanted to live with our only son in Sweden.” Liliane concluded by saying that “I can say that we got such an offer that no one else got on that island [...] We would never hesitate to accept his offer If my son was not in Sweden.”

As likewise Bana and Adnan added to the discussion that they were able to seek asylum in other European countries which they passed through during their journeys such as Germany, Austria and Denmark, even so, they were determined to continue to Sweden.

On the other hand, the only participant who raised the issue of limited choices is Sami.

“I had no access to other European countries except Sweden since Sweden was the only available country which was offered by the smuggler. In the

meantime If I could choose another country I would have left immediately, but I have been fingerprinted here (Sweden).”

The Restrictive Asylum Policy

The purpose of bringing to light the issue of the restrictive asylum policy is to examine the impact of the Swedish temporary asylum laws (2016:752) in choosing the final destination country. In order to do so, the first step was examining the interviewees' awareness of the introduced new laws (2016:752), then after, attention was centred on the idea of the impact of the Swedish temporary asylum laws in choosing the final destination country.

In this regard, the statements of those interviewed were diverse, since Mohammed and Adnan were not aware of the temporary asylum laws introduced at the end of 2015. In contrast, Bana, Liliane and Sami were aware of these laws.

“I did not know the meaning and effect of a temporary residence until I arrived in Sweden. My main concern was only arriving in Sweden without paying attention to any laws regarding residence. In short, all that dominated my thinking during that journey was that ending the tragedy and suffering of being an irregular person.” (Mohammed).

Regarding whether his knowledge about the restrictive laws was going to influence his decision to seek asylum in Sweden, Mohamed stated, “It was a shock for me because I waited for one year to receive only a 13-month residence permit. [...] I wish I did not come here.”

Adnan added to the conversation, “I had no information that the laws had changed, and I thought that I would grant permanent residence like my brothers who live in Sweden. In addition to that, my brothers also were not aware of these changes. Regardless of all of that, my first goal was to bring back the family reunion.[...] Accordingly, even if I had known before reaching Sweden it would not have affected my decision.”

Bana added to the discussion of the restrictive laws. “I was aware of the restrictive laws, moreover, I knew that I would be granted a temporary residence permit, despite all of that, I came to Sweden to be with my children and relatives.” In the same way, Lilliane explained, “We were aware of the changes in the asylum laws but our choice was taken on the ground of being with my son regardless of which types or how long the residence permits we would receive.”

Sami who has been exclusively offered Sweden as a final destination by the smuggler expressed his opinion regarding asylum laws by comparing between Sweden and other European countries by stating, “I was aware of the new laws in Sweden, moreover, I was aware that Norway, The Netherland and Germany are better than Sweden in terms of Asylum regulations. Specifically, in terms of the waiting period for the asylum decision and the type of resident permit. [...] The influence of the smuggler and my acquaintances was the biggest factor in my decision. [...] I mean the misleading information I got from the smuggler when he confirmed that I would get a permanent employment contract after about one year of my arrival in Sweden. After then, I would sort of automatically receive a permanent residence permit.”

Expectations and Fulfilment

During the follow-up interviews, I clearly noticed that the notion of expectations is closely interrelated with other concepts such as imagination and perception of the destination, since these terms were used interchangeably by interviewees. In this research, the expectations that stated by the interviewed participants were not very different from what they mentioned as the image or perception of Sweden.

On the one hand, two of the interviewees expressed that their expectations in Sweden had been exceeded, on the other hand, two interviewees believed that they had not been fulfilled. Only one interviewee expressed that his expectations had been fulfilled partly.

Sami expressed his disappointment and elaborated on how his expectations were not fulfilled after arriving in Sweden by stating,

“Most of my expectations were not fulfilled, but I also must say that I built some of my expectations on misinformation. Some expectations were based on the smuggler’s information and others were based on the media. For example, my expectations were based on the stereotypes spread in the media that Sweden is a country of peace and humanity. I was surprised that Sweden is in the top 10 of weapons exporters in the world. Thus, Sweden is a key factor in sustaining conflicts and wars. Also, there is no justice nor equality in Swedish laws and society. I expected life would be much easier in Sweden but I did not feel that since people do not speak about the difficulties of learning the Swedish language or getting a job. Furthermore, I have been granted subsidiary protection status for 13-months, instead, I should have been granted refugee status for three-year.”

In a similar way, Mohammed disappointedly explained how his expectations were not fulfilled. Further, he highlighted the issue of racism by explaining how he had been exposed to racism from officers and civilians in Sweden. “My expectations were not fulfilled since the most things I heard from people about Sweden were justice and humanity. Finding humanity and justice in Sweden was my biggest expectation. [...] From the first day in the centre of the Migration Agency, I had been exposed to racism and injustice. I have been through many shocks in Sweden and I am currently undergoing psychological treatment due to these traumas. [...] The first shock was during the interview of the asylum investigation. The investigator did not have any experience or knowledge about Syria, I explained many times how I had been tortured because of my political activities supporting my claims with pieces of evidence. [...] The proofs were videos and documents, but the investigator did not understand them. [...] The second shock was when I was granted a subsidiary protection status instead of a refugee status despite the fact that I am a dissident soldier and political activist. I waited for one year for

an asylum decision then I received a 13-month residence permit (subsidiary protection status)”. In terms of racism from civilians, Mohammed said, “[...] My Swedish flatmate told me a few times “go out of my country if you do not like me to eat from your food in the fridge”, just because I asked him to ask for permission before eating my food in our shared fridge. I did not expect this much racism in Sweden.” Also, he illustrated other several points such as the difficulties of getting a job for refugees, the low chances of finding accommodation and the rampant bureaucracy in Sweden.

Adnan who stated that his expectations were fulfilled by 75% raised few points regarding asylum regulations and racism.

“In general, I think that we overstated our expectations about Sweden, but I can say that 75% of my expectations were fulfilled in reality, but in fact, my expectation in terms of residence permit did come true because I expected that I would get a permanent residence permit. [...] I see that refugees were not taken into consideration while enacting the new asylum laws. [...] In recent years, I felt a high level of racism, but that is all over the world not only in Sweden. It was the opposite of my expectations as I did not expect that there is racism here (Sweden).”

However, Adnan stated that most of his expectations were fulfilled which revolved around the governmental economic subsidy to refugees as well as good opportunities to build a new life in Sweden. Lastly, he mentioned that he met his expectations of educational opportunities which are offered by Sweden.

On the other side, Bana and Liliane explicitly stated that their expectations in Sweden had been exceeded. Even though they did not have detailed or specific expectations, they explained that what they found in Sweden were better than what they imagined.

“I knew through my family members that Sweden is a good country to live without knowing details. However, what I found here was better than I imagined. In Syria, I was constantly worried about all basic living needs, I mean feeling security and the essential daily living materials such as

foodstuffs and medicines as well as housing. I found all of them in Sweden, where there are lots of facilities for people, therefore, I'm very happy in Sweden. My only concern is that my resident permit is temporary, and I want to be permanently here with my children who will acquire Swedish citizenship soon.” (Bana).

Lillian added to the conversation regarding expectations and fulfillment by stating, “Of course, I had expectations that Sweden provides an economic subsidy and accommodation to refugees during examining the asylum application, thus, my expectations were met. [...] In short, I expected that in Sweden, I wouldn't sleep on the street, now I see that it is true, so my expectations were fulfilled.”

Acquiring Permanent Residence and Swedish Citizenship

As previously mentioned in qualitative results (section 8.1), an additional specific factor in choosing Sweden was identified through open-answers. The reason was acquiring permanent residence and the possibility of acquiring Swedish citizenship within a relatively short time which aligns with reasons (pull factors) identified by Nordlund and Pelling (2012), Lundgren Jörum (2015) and Tucker (2018).

With this regard, 29 descriptive answers that were obtained from the web-based survey point out that acquiring permanent residence and the possibility of acquiring Swedish citizenship within a relatively short time was, in part at least, an influential factor in choosing Sweden. However, the data drawn from the qualitative interviews show that no one of the interviewees pointed out that the decision in choosing Sweden was due to its accessible permanent residency and citizenship as compared to other European countries.

The presented quantitative and qualitative findings will further be discussed below in the following final discussion of results. Reasons behind refugees in choosing

Sweden to seek asylum and its implications will be reviewed using the chosen theoretical framework in this study to answer the research questions.

8.3. Discussion

The previous sections of analysis separately presented the results of the quantitative and qualitative portions of this mixed methods research. In this section, the quantitative and qualitative results are discussed as a whole in order to extend the understanding of the reasons behind Syrian refugees in choosing Sweden as a final destination and to understand this phenomenon despite the new restrictive law (2016:752). By applying mixed methods, I was able to achieve the aim of this study through quantitative inquiry followed up by a qualitative portion in order to explain and expand quantitative results. By addressing the quantitative results together with the qualitative results I was able to answer the research questions.

The key findings from the survey and interviews have been shown that the image or perception of Sweden was specified as an important pull factor, but this was predominantly interrelated with other factors. This finding is consistent with the behavioural approach showing migrants’ perception of places plays a key role in shaping the decision-making and could explain the reasons behind their selection (Samers and Collyer, 2016; 69-70: Baker, 1982: 11). The quantitative analysis, however, was not able to specifically identify which perceptions refugees had. The aspects of Sweden's image were identified only through qualitative results by means of in-depth interviews. Thus, qualitative data specified that freedom, human rights, democracy as well as the low rates of racism compared to other countries make up the image of Sweden through the lens of Syrian refugees. Accordingly, these aspects together play an important factor in refugees decision-making in their decision making.

Social networks was another influential factor identified by qualitative and quantitative results. Quantitative findings pointed out that having relatives and acquaintances in Sweden was an influential factor in their decision making and nearly all those interviewed

had close family in Sweden and they clearly underlined they had drawn on strong family ties during their decision making. Moreover, their decisions in choosing Sweden were taken in order to be close to their relatives, setting aside any consideration on the economic opportunities in other countries.

With this said, the idea of “place utility” introduced by Wolpert (1965) was influential in their decision making since they chose certain destinations because they feel satisfied from psychological and emotional perspectives, and they were offered or expected of being offered the highest “utility” and “satisfaction” in these particular places, like the case of Bana, Lilian and Adnan from the interviews. Thus, they choose a particular country for emotional reasons, to be closer to their friends and relatives. To borrow Wolper’s words, “migrants are therefore satiscers (seeking satisfaction), rather than “maximizers” (seeking optimization)” (in Samers, 2010: 63).

Most notably, the findings have shown the apparent irrationality (rather than the rationality) of refugees decision-making in choosing a certain destination, as the scholars working in the behaviouralist vein argued for (Samers, 2010: 62). Further to the discussion of rationality/irrationality which distinguishes the behaviorists from the neo-classicists, drawing on the results of this mixed methods research, all the interview participants made clear that their decisions in choosing Sweden were not significantly concerned with “job opportunities” and “expected wages”, nor did not involve an individual “cost-benet analysis” around improving one’s human capital. Overall, the economic opportunities were rarely featured as being influential in the refugees’ destination decision-making for all participants in the interviewees and survey.

Particularly worth mentioning, conceptualisations of the role of social networks including relatives and intermediaries links such as smugglers demonstrate useful to draw upon here to enhance the understanding of asylum destination decisions. The findings have shown that the refugees drew on relatives or smugglers' information in forming their perceptions of the destination, hence, shaping their expectations about the intended destination. Interestingly, most of the refugees underlined that this obtained information was not

always accurate, but also it is tinged with myths or vague information from their families, other relatives, friends or compatriots in countries of destination as well as the smugglers.

As a result of that inaccurate information, refugees expectations were not always met in reality, hence, the study shows a sort of considerable gap between refugees’ expectations and reality.

However, the findings demonstrate that the role of smugglers in choosing the destination country of asylum seekers is not decisive.

With regard to the factor of limited choice in where to seek asylum within European Western countries, the mixed evidence in this study proved that refugees were not restricted by limited choice, therefore, the idea of limited choice is irrelevant to the context of Syrian refugees in influencing their destination decision making.

It is interesting to add to the conversation whether the new restrictive laws (2016:752) influencing asylum destination decisions for those who sought asylum after introducing this policy. In this respect, my findings illustrated mixed evidence that not all asylum seekers were aware of the new restrictive asylum policies in Sweden such as namely the interviewees, Mohammed and Adnan, and nearly 53% of the respondents in the survey.

Nevertheless, this restrictive policy was not a significant barrier in preventing Syrians from choosing Sweden as a final destination. Discussions with Bana, Lilian, Adnan and Sami highlighted the irrelevance of tightening Swedish asylum policy in their decision making. Once more, the most key finding of this mixed method research illustrated that participants chose Sweden in order to be closer to their family members and/or were influenced by other considerations including mainly the image or perception of Sweden. Therefore, there was significant scope for these factors (migrants network and perception of Sweden) to influence the final destination of the participants.

On the other hand, few respondents ( 29 out of 240 respondents) in the survey pointed out that their decision making was influenced by their desire to reach Sweden due to its accessible permanent residency and citizenship in a relatively shorter time as compared to other European countries. That saying indicates the impact of misleading information that

was discussed earlier in this section, since the new asylum policy restricted acquiring permanent residency consequently acquiring Sweden citizenship. It should be noted that on the one hand, refugees must have a permanent residence permit when applying for Swedish citizenship. On the other hand, obtaining a permanent residence permit was restricted by the laws(2016:752), hence, acquiring Swedish citizenship is interrelated with obtaining a permanent residence permit which became more restricted.

To conclude this point, drawing on the quantitative and qualitative results in this mixed method research, the study demonstrates that the desire of acquiring a permanent residence and Swedish citizenship played only a marginal role in the decision making for those who sought asylum after 2016.

Last but not least, with regard to expectations and fulfilment, more than half of the participants in the survey responded that reality in Sweden does not meet their expectations. Furthermore, the proposed result was supported by the qualitative findings. In agreement with Benson and O’Reilly (2009) and Kainth (2010), all interviewees explicitly concurred that tolerance, acceptance, human rights and good life standard were the main expectations they looked forward to meeting in Sweden. Interestingly, more than half of the interviewees raised the issues of racism and, in part at least, injustice while elaborating on expectations versus reality.

9. CONCLUSION

The thesis accounted for the decision-making regarding choosing Sweden as a final destination of Syrians who came to Sweden as refugees. By integrating the results of the web-based questionnaire and follow-up interviews, the aim in this thesis is to explore the reasons behind Syrian refugees in choosing Sweden as a final destination and to understand the phenomenon of the decision making after the introduction of the restrictive laws (2016:752). Thereby, the following conclusion can be extricated from the results of this mixed method study and its analysis.

Some findings from this study are rather similar to those of previously conducted research in this field, and some characteristics of destination selection and decision-making differ markedly from those of the subjects of some of the published studies.

Factors such as destination perception and social networks previously identified by the theoretical framework as influential factors were further supported by the findings of this thesis. Pull factors set out by scholars working in the behaviouralist vein, such as Mueller (1981), Clark (1986), and Wolpert (1965) including the role of destination perception, “place utility” and “migrants network” were also supported by the results in this mixed-methods analysis as decisive factors in choosing the final destination for asylum seekers. There were also additional minor factors identified specific to Syrian refugees such as economic opportunities and influence of smugglers. This corroborates previous work of country-specific studies on destination decision making for asylum seekers (Nordlund and Pelling, 2012; Lundgren Jörum, 2015, Tucker, 2018).

Unlike the results suggested by previous studies (Nordlund and Pelling, 2012), (Lundgren Jörum, 2015) and (Tucker, 2018), there is mixed evidence in this study that demonstrates that the desire for acquiring permanent residence and Swedish citizenship played only a marginal role in the decision making for those who sought asylum after introducing the new asylum policy in 2016. However, it should be noted that Tucker's work in 2018 concerned only stateless refugees (Palestinian refugees).

This research also focused on the aspects of the image of Sweden and expectations as factors influencing the asylum destination decision making. It was obvious during this study that the concept of expectations is closely interrelated with other notions such as the image or perception of the destination since these terms were used interchangeably by refugees, and often was used as one thing. However, tolerance, welcomeness, human rights and high-quality life were the dominant expectations that were identified in this study. Thereby, they form the image of Sweden which played an important factor in choosing the destination. On the other hand, the findings illustrated that not all refugees have met their expectations. Remarkably, issues of racism or injustice were raised by more than half of the interviewees, hence, tolerance and justice were identified as

unfulfilled expectations by participants. Additionally, the study found out that the role of inaccurate and ambiguous information obtained through social networks played a significant role in forming refugees’ expectations about the destinations.

Limited choice as a factor influencing the decision making was not the case for Syrians, since most of the participants underlined that they had several options in where to seek asylum.

Last but not least, the findings of this thesis contributed to the debate between the behavioural and the neo-classical schools of thought when it comes to understanding human behaviour. More specifically, the irrationality/rationality of individual decision-making in terms of why migrants chose a particular place as a destination (Samers, 2010: 60-63). Thus, this thesis made clear-cut mixed evidence of the apparent “irrationality” (rather than the rationality) of individual decision-making for choosing a particular place as a destination.

9.1. Future Research

This thesis was only devoted to a single destination state (Sweden) and delimited to only one nationality. Thus, it could achieve its aim by explaining why Syrians choose to seek asylum in Sweden, but it cannot necessarily explain why a greater proportion of Syrians are seeking asylum in other countries such as Germany. With this said, comparative studies involving several destinations where asylum seekers were self-selected would therefore also be a good way to broaden the knowledge of the topic. The comparative studies on destination selection might deepen our understanding of why some Western European countries are more attractive than others.

Another useful study to deepen the understanding of the decision making would be by focusing more in-depth on the psychological perspective, i.e., on refugees’ cognition and decision making (or the psychological reasons) for choosing certain destinations.

Follow-up studies on integration of Syrian refugees in Sweden would be valuable. The findings in this thesis in terms of refugees' unfulfilled expectations (tolerance and justice) would be useful to build on for another research on how these unfulfilled expectations might influence their satisfaction and ultimately their integration into society.

Last but least important, it would be valuable conducting research on the influence of social “status” on destination selection. This includes gender, but also class. In other words, Do men and women/working class and middle or upper-middle-class people have the same expectations?.

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APPENDICES

Appendix 1: Survey

Online link of the survey can be found below.

Please note that after deactivating the “Paid Plan”, the website shows only the first 100 survey responses of 240. However, a full version of the survey responses can be found under the link and in the following pages.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/stories/SM-MC75DZ69/

Appendix. 2: Interview Guide

1. Background information.

a. Name and Age.

b. Date of leaving Syria, Date of arriving in Sweden.

c. Educational background.

2. Why did you leave Syria?

3. When the decision to leave Syria was taken, did you decide where to seek asylum?

4. How did you leave Syria, which route?

5. Smugglers' questions (if relevant).

a. Which facilities did the smuggler provide?

b.Did you talk with the smugglers to where you would seek asylum?

c. Did the smuggler say anything about Sweden?

d. Did the smuggler offer alternatives other than Sweden?

e. To what extent can you estimate their influence on your choice of choosing Sweden particularly?

6. Do you think there is influence from the smuggler on the decisions of people in where to seek asylum?

7. What did you know about Sweden before the trip? Where did that information come from?

8. How did you expect life in Sweden will be? What were your expectations?

9. Did you have other options during your journey, i.e. other countries to seek asylum in?

11. Did you seek additional information about Sweden before you left?10. Did you know about the new asylum policy in Sweden in 2016 before your arrival? Do you know what the changes were?

12. Do you have relatives/family/friends here in Sweden?

13. Why have you applied for asylum in Sweden and not in another country?

14. Did you think about acquiring Swedish citizenship? Why? (If yes), Do you think that the idea of acquiring Swedish Citizenship influenced your decision in choosing Sweden?

15. Now, when you are in Sweden,Were your expectations fulfilled? How, Which, Why?