Indian high-skilled labor migrants in A study about , interpersonal communication and national identification

Carl Larsson

Communication for Development One-year master 15 Credits Spring/2018 Supervisor: Michael Krona

Abstract This research aims to understand the extent to which integration among Indian high- skilled labor migrants in the Swedish society has occurred. The study takes it stance from the following research field: Social integration, interpersonal communication and national identification. These three research fields are assembled into a model used to analyze the empirical data. As a method, nine semi-structured interviews are used with ten Indian national interviewees in total. The Interviews are conducted in the southern part of Sweden in three different cities, Malmö, Lund and . Core findings show proof of employment as a central part in integration. Other findings show lack of as an issue for better social integration; low levels of interpersonal communication between the interviewees and other social groups in Sweden which leads to low levels of Swedish national identification. In the discussion, the study stresses the importance of: communication between social groups in order to have better integration; time as an important factor for integration and the need of mutual accommodation between social groups in a pluralistic society like Sweden, to improve levels of integration.

Key Words: Social integration; Interpersonal communication; National identification; Globalization; Labor migration

2 Table of contents

Abstract ...... 2 1 Introduction ...... 5 1.1 Background ...... 7 1.1.1 Indian migrants ...... 7 1.1.2 Swedish context ...... 9 1.1.3 General overview of social integration ...... 10 1.2 Research aim ...... 11 1.3 Delimitation ...... 12 1.4 Structure ...... 13 2 Theoretical framework ...... 13 2.1 Social integration ...... 13 2.1.1 How to describe social integration ...... 14 2.1.2 How to analyze social integration ...... 15 2.2 Interpersonal communication ...... 21 2.2.1 How interpersonal communication affect social integration and national identification ...... 22 2.3 National identification ...... 24 2.3.1 Ways of describing national identification ...... 27 2.4 Framework model for social integration ...... 29 3 Methodology ...... 29 3.1 Semi-structured interviewing ...... 30 3.2 Critical method discussion ...... 30 3.3 Method design ...... 31 3.3.1 Semi-structured interviews ...... 32 3.3.2 Delimitations ...... 32 3.3.3 Snowball sampling ...... 32 3.3.4 About the interviewees ...... 33 4 Analysis ...... 37 4.1 Social integration ...... 37 4.1.1 Markers and means ...... 37 4.1.2 Social connections ...... 40 4.1.3 Facilitators ...... 43 4.1.4 Foundation ...... 46 4.2 Interpersonal communication ...... 48

3 4.2.1 Change of behavior in order to adapt ...... 49 4.2.2 Differences in culture ...... 50 4.2.3 Formal versus informal ...... 51 4.2.4 Swedish people closed ...... 52 4.2.5 Language and culture as barriers to interact ...... 53 4.3 National identification ...... 54 4.3.1 Examples of interviewees saying yes to identification with Swedishness ... 55 4.3.2 Examples of interviewees saying no to identification with Swedishness ... 57 4.3.3 Processes to identify with Swedishness ...... 58 5 Discussion ...... 61 5.1 Answers to the research questions ...... 61 5.3 Possible explanations and speculation ...... 64 5.4 Limitations ...... 64 5.5 Implications ...... 65 5.6 Earlier research comparison ...... 65 5.7 Recommendations ...... 66 References ...... 67 Appendix ...... 73 Interview template ...... 73

4 1 Introduction The numbers of people migrating around the world has never been this high according to current estimations (United , 2017). To date, Indian migration workers are estimated to be the largest emigrant population in the world with 16.6 million living abroad – the number doubled from 2000 (Ibid). Over 1 million Indians currently live in the (, 2018) and 29.673 Indians reside in Sweden today (SCB, 2018).

Migrants seek, for various reasons, a better place to reside and live in. A relatively small like Sweden with 10 million inhabitants is attractive for migrant workers due to the stable economy and good job possibilities (World Economic forum, 2017). Sweden has an estimated 1.8 million foreign born residents- a number that has increased steadily since the 1950’s (Swedish Migration Agency, 2018). Due to the recent vast increase of , public discourse has been directed towards immigration and integration (Roden, 2017). As a country favoring for a long time, Sweden has been considered to be an open and embracing country of different cultures and backgrounds (Borevi, 2014).

Many studies have been conducted about migration and integration (Jaskułowski, 2017). Some have focused on middle class Indians migrating to for work and career opportunities (Myrvold, 2012). Others have examined how Indians in Sweden face immigration and integration; while some like Stievano et al. (2017) have interviewed Indian nurses in Italy to understand their social integration. However, compared to such as the (catering half of EU’s Indian population according to Eurostat, 2018), USA and the Gulf area, Indian nationals in Sweden have increased by threefold since the millennium (SCB, 2018) and hence need more focus.

The (SCB) and other Swedish institutions (e.g. Swedish Migration Agency) have a good sense of the accelerating Indian migration to Sweden – still- empiric data and a deeper knowledge of Indians’ thoughts about social integration, national identity and interpersonal communication are missing out in the Swedish context.

Although the Indian population in Sweden have migrated from to Sweden for high-skilled employment, where they have jobs and relatively financially good standards, there are other important factors when immigrating and integrating into

5 other countries. Such features can be traced to social inclusion or political awareness and are necessary to enable immigrants to have a stronger voice in the overall societal development (Ager & Strang, 2008). In a recent study conducted by InterNations (a social network for expats), Sweden is ranked last among 65 countries in the question regarding migrants success in finding friends in the new country (ExpatInsider, 2017). Furthermore, UN CERD (United ’s Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination) has released a report mentioning Sweden as a country with increasing issues with racism and hate-speeches, where ethnicity is mentioned as one social category used to discriminated against others (2017:3). These facts are connected to social development.

With the discussion of Indian high-skilled labor migrants and the issues with immigration in Sweden it is relevant to talk about social integration. This term (social integration) has many definitions, and is many times used successful or unsuccessful, which, misleadingly, makes the process of integration overly simplistic. There are many different factors related to social integration such as background, level of education, social status, language, values, behaviors, group identity, diaspora of the groups investigated (Castles et al., 2001; Ager & Strang, 2008; Turner, 2010:34; Eriksen, 2014:164). In addition to this, social integration could be studied in short or long periods but also goes back to the ability to integrate and on what premises a person has to achieve this. Hence, viewing integration as an umbrella of several factors is important and is used in this degree project (Castles et al., 2001:126-127).

Thus I will claim it is important to continue research in the field of social integration where people from various backgrounds live together because scholars will tell us distances between groups in a society may increase or decrease depending on among other factors; interaction and communication (Dragojevic & Giles, 2014).

With ongoing stark debates in Sweden about integration and immigration in front of the 2018 political elections (Swedish Radio), this type of research is right in time. Hence, it will inform and expand our knowledge; not only the academy but the society at large.

In this study I focus on Indians own perceptions and experiences about their social integration in the Swedish society and the extent to which they feel like . The study is also directed to the importance of interpersonal communication in the integration process.

6 I rely on a qualitative method specifically based on semi-structured interviews (Brinkmann, 2012) for my analysis. I have conducted nine interviews with ten interviewees in Malmö, Lund and Helsingborg in Scania, the southernmost province in Sweden.

To guide my empirical analysis, I built a theoretical framework based on three theoretical fields; social integration; national identification and interpersonal communication (further described in Theories).

1.1 Background 1.1.1 Indian migrants Numerous studies have been conducted about Indian labor migrants in the world. However, this research focus on labor migrants from India with advanced academic backgrounds. Often times, migrants academic background are an important factor for their integration. A study with a focus on Indian labor migrants was conducted in Poland (Jaskulowski, 2017), in Wroclaw, where the researchers focused on the middling class, i.e. the middle class Indian labor migrants, to understand how they viewed their life in Poland, their ambitions and future prospects. Some of the findings suggest that Poland was never these migrants’ given destination. Rather, it was a destination handed out by the multinational company where the Indian laborer is employed (p.265). They also expressed that the career opportunities offered to them were more important than their self-realization. They also faced language barriers and racism due to their low skills in and their different by skin-color and culture (p.267).

In accordance, language is also an issue for immigrants in Sweden. Myrvold (2012) writes about an Indian migrants living in Sweden, where she states that many Indians face challenges with the Swedish language since it’s harder to adapt to a second language for adults (p.29). This has also been confirmed in another European study by Stievano et al (2017) where Indian female nurses participated in an Italian study about their professional and social integration developments. The issues with the native language also effects the verbal communication for the Indian nurses, which makes them find it hard to communicate over all in the Italian society (p.4239).

Both the study by Jaskulowski (2017) and Stievano et al. (2017) mentions discrimination and racism as a smaller issue for the informants in these studies. However, some of the informants confirm patterns of this, which is important because

7 racism and discrimination could hamper social integration (as defined earlier by Berry, 2011).

Another theme for Indian migrants in Europe is the difference in culture (Stievano et al, 2017; Jaskulowski, 2017; Myrvold, 2012). However, Myrvold (2012) argues that Indians in Sweden feel more comfortable with their culture and background since Swedish authorities have clear policies on freedom for religion and diversity, in fact Sweden embrace a multicultural platform for social integration which leads to stronger cultural diversity (Bratsberg, 2017). However, issues many times comes with second generation of immigrants, where the children starts to develop better local language (in this case, Swedish language) skills. This leads to a cultural divide where Indian families struggle between their native (the Indian, and many times regional descent) and the new Swedish context.

Myrvold (2012) further explains Indians in Sweden as being successfully integrated compared to other immigrant groups from other countries, but she calls for further studies on this since there are missing pieces: “[…] it is crucial to conduct more sociological and anthropological research on various aspects of the immigration and integration of different migrant groups within the more heterogeneous community.”

It is important to highlight the differences in these studies, not only by the countries where they are conducted, but how they are conducted. For example, Jaskulowki’s study only interviews eleven informants, which makes this study hard to generalize. The study by Stievano et al (2017) also has its limitations since nurses are highlighted and the focus for the study so it is only generalizable to the professional area of nursing, thus integration questions are only secondly reported. The study conducted by Myrvold (2012) is also more general and descriptive when discussing the immigration and migration for Indians to Sweden.

Although, these studies are done differently they stresses the issue of India as a complex nation with different regions. Stievano et al (2017) mention how some regions in India have been co-operating with regions in Italy about nursing for a long time. This has led to waves of Indian nurses going to Italy for nursing employment opportunities. The same goes for Myrvold (2012) where she explain the earlier immigrants from India as coming from Gujarati and Punjabi (p.24). Today, Myrvold writes, immigrants have changed from working in the industrial areas to work more in

8 the ICT industry, which has also changed the regional background for immigrants going to Sweden for employment (p.11).

1.1.2 Swedish immigration context In the beginning of the 20th Century, Sweden was one of the poorest nations on earth and suffered from a migration deficit, mainly to the of America (USA), Canada, or Australia. After World War II, Sweden came out intact and became a blooming industrial nation. At that time, more people were needed in order to manage global demands. In a matter of decades the population started to grow. Mainly people from former , and Italy immigrated as labor migrants to work in the factories. This was during the height of the industrial boom (Swedish Migration Agency, 2018).

Quite soon, the demand decreased. During the 1970’s, the oil crises slowed down economic surplus in Sweden and resulted in low world demands. Consequently, Sweden among other countries, had to enforce heavy regulations on people immigrating to the country. The open policies on immigration changed and became less open. People now needed to have all their papers in place to have a chance to work and live in Sweden and a shift from labor immigration to family reunion and refugee immigration started to take place (Bratsberg et al., 2017:117).

In 2008, Sweden once again opened up its boarders to mitigate worldwide financial and industrial demands (Myrvold, 2012:2). The government at that time launched new migration policies to attract and develop Sweden to become a forefront runner in the technological battle with other nations. A major step was to let companies deciding on the workforce demand. Before this, the state was in charge of measuring branches with a need of foreign laborer migrants (Emilsson et al., 2014:7).

Due to internationalization within areas such as university studies and high-skilled labor branches, people from India started to arrive in a much higher rate than before – especially because of their international reputation in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector (Myrvold, 2012:5-6).

This is the starting point of this degree project. As a fairly new group, the Indian group live and work in the south of Sweden. Many of them work in Multinational Companies (MNCs) located in or around the cities. My first encounter with one of them came when I was looking for a roommate to my apartment in Helsingborg. It is from this moment

9 my ideas and thoughts came into effect to start analyzing labor migrants and their life situations in Sweden.

1.1.3 General overview of social integration Historically there has been two themes related to the concept of social integration in the Western world: assimilation and multiculturalism. Assimilation can be characterized by total adaption to the new context while multiculturalism is based on the principle where multiple cultures lives side by side without total adaption. One such example is between Sweden and , where roads toward social integration has been divided and worked with differently. Although the countries share many of the same basic principles, Denmark adjusted to an assimilationist approach in the 1970’s while Sweden kept the multicultural perspective (Borevi, 2014:712).

As a critique against the multiculturalism perspective, Koopmans (2010) argues that diversity in a society will maintain differences between social groups, which has led to segregation in societies like and Sweden. While not totally against the idea of multiculturalism, Koopmans continues debating about how immigrant policies leads to embracement of cultures and languages. This, in turn, will lead to maintenance of different cultures and in the end will tear societies apart. As such, Koopmans lays emphasis on an assimilationist approach where immigrants more or less are forced to adapt into the new host environment. Bayram et al (2009) wrote an article about integration in Sweden and share some of the critique Koopmans provides. Some of the insights from Bayram et al’s study informs us that Sweden and Netherlands are the far most multiculturalist nations in Europe. Sweden, has since 1975 used the policy words: equality, freedom of choice and partnership in their slogan for social integration. Although Sweden has changed their concept of immigrants to social diversity, Bayram et al (2009) shows how people with foreign background: earns less compared to Swedish born people; have worse health conditions and lack the same levels of education among others aspects. Especially major cities with segregated communities tend to show these results.

Turkish immigrants in Sweden still feel Turkish and have difficulties developing Swedish identity, many of the researched Turks felt they didn’t belong in Sweden and Swedish people didn’t recognize them as real Swedes. There were indications of Turkish people relating to other Turkish people due to their same in-group identity where an increasing distance to other out-groups were found. Bayram et al concludes

10 Turkish respondents as being not interested in a multicultural society with a shared notion of a common identity (2009:106).

As a response to the critique against the multiculturalism perspective a study about welfare states and immigrants in Europe by Zrinščak (2012) concludes that Sweden has the lowest poverty rates for immigrants compared to other European countries. This is because of the strong welfare state where socioeconomic standards are high even for people with unemployment and lower social status. Borevi (2014) confirms the Swedish welfare state in her study about Swedish multiculturalism and states that the universal welfare state for all people in Sweden despite background has made it possible for people in Sweden, since the 1960’s, to acquire free healthcare, education and language learning without enforcement (p.710). Borevi (2014) mentions language as another important factor for social integration and this goes in two ways for Swedish policies. First, Swedish language is not mandatory and secondly mother tongue language is provided to immigrant’s children. According to Borevi (2014) this leads to cultural diversity which is not necessary good or bad, but it makes Sweden as a country unique, because in comparison with Denmark, the Swedish neighbor, policies are different and more in line with a monoculture i.e. there are one culture where all people living in the nation should confirm to (p.712).

Emilsson et al (2014) conducted interviews with high-skilled labor migrants in Sweden to understand why the immigrants moved to Sweden. Among the answers, language was mentioned as one important factor. The informants said the English level of language was advanced which made it easier for foreigners to communicate and make themselves heard in Sweden. In coherence with Zrinščak (2012), the high level of the welfare state was also something they favored with Sweden.

While Koopmans (2010) argues for failed social integration in multiculturalism societies, other voices such as informants in Emilsson et al’s (2014) study argue for the opposite. This overview about contemporary research in the field of social integration has shown some perspectives about social integration.

1.2 Research aim As a Communication for Development student I am interested in the social psychology in the group dynamics and the way communication may serve as a driver for connection and cross-cultural meetings in Malmö, Lund and Helsingborg, Sweden.

11 The purpose with my study is to expand knowledge and understanding around the topic social integration through broadening the perspective to also include interpersonal communication and national identification. This leads to the following research questions:

RQ 1: In what way are highly-skilled Indian immigrants in Sweden socially integrated?

RQ 2: What aspects in their daily social interactions and communications are important, and how do they affect how and the extent to which these Indians identify themselves as Swedes?

1.3 Delimitation Many of the interviewees in this study are high-skilled laborers who often have years of labor experience in either their home countries or in international contexts. I have chosen not to make a difference in this regard. Instead my focus is on the foreign work in Sweden, where they are living and working. The amount of years are not explicitly a restriction, instead the focus is on a full-time employment, either based on a Swedish work contract or a foreign work contract on Swedish grounds.

Throughout this degree project I will mostly use the concept of the high-skilled labor migrant. This could be interpreted in different ways, but my concept is based on a high- skilled laborer coming from another country, and in this study: India. They have some sort of academic background, where the interviewees have at least a Bachelor degree from either the mother country, India, or from abroad.

Another delimitation concerns the immigration status in Sweden, where many of the interviewees don’t have a citizenship (only two of the interviewees have that). This is of course central to bring forward, because the level of citizenship gives a person certain privileges in the foreign country (i.e. the new country). Instead many of the interviewees in this research are here on either one-year basis where they are extended per year; or are in the process of becoming Swedish citizens. Permanent Residency is discussed during the interviews, but are not a limit for contribution in this degree project.

To clarify, high-skilled labor migrant are, despite lacking Swedish legal immigration statuses, high-skilled labor migrant further on.

12 1.4 Structure This research project is divided in different sections. First a theoretical framework (2.) will be presented along with concepts and theories from the research fields. Secondly the Methodology chapter (3.) will explain what method I have used and how this will have relevance for this degree project. As a third component, the Analysis (4.) is constructed in three pieces: social integration (4.1), interpersonal communication (4.2) and national identification (4.3). As the last part, Discussion (5.) will assemble that analytical framework and discuss different aspects of the findings during this research.

2 Theoretical framework This degree project is based on three major theories: Social integration, national identification and interpersonal communication, which will be connected together in order to address this study’s research aim and research questions. They will all be integrated in the social integration framework developed by Ager and Strang (2008). Since the focus for this degree project is on Indian labor migrants in Sweden most of the literature mentioned takes place in the West World (i.e. Europe and North America). Thus, literature and existing research in other parts of the world will not be emphasized in the same matter. In addition, there are numerous studies on Indian migrants in general, but since the focus is on labor migrants this will be another delimitation. I will start by introducing Social integration (2.1) and then continue with Interpersonal communication (2.2) and National identification (2.3).

2.1 Social integration Definition of social integration There are numerous attempts to discuss how people from different origins can live together in a fruitful order where peace and stability is advocated. For a long time, the concept of assimilation was used, and still is (Lutz, 2017). According to Berry (2011) this explains how a adapts to the majority group in a social setting (p.2.10). However, in this degree project social integration is referred to as when different social groups from various origins live at the same place in a pluralistic society (i.e. Sweden) where the social groups both keep their original culture and background while they accommodate other social groups from other cultural backgrounds and origins.

13 2.1.1 How to describe social integration Berry discuss social integration with point of departure on groups’ position in a pluralistic society (2011). He highlight four kinds of strategies based on two assumptions: First, social groups interest in maintaining their own culture and heritage and second, the ambition to participate with other ethnocultural groups in the larger society i.e. a plural society where all ethnocultural groups (dominant or non- dominant) “attempt to carry out their lives.” (Berry, 2011:2.3).

Based on these two assumptions four strategies will arise: assimilation, separation, integration or marginalization. Assimilation will occur when individuals no longer wish to keep their originated cultural identity and thus aim to change to another culture. Separation happens when the originated culture is maintained and at the same time do not interact with other cultures. Integration takes place when an individual holds on to a specific culture while also learning and seeking contact with another culture. Marginalization is the last resort where individuals neither want to maintain their original culture and neither want to establish contact with other cultures (Berry, 2011:2.6).

He also refers to a third assumption where dominating groups in a particular society has the power to include or exclude non-dominant groups when they try to relate. This approach is based on the assumption that there is a mutual accommodation from both the non-dominant group and the dominant group which will lead to a society where cultural diversity is the norm (Berry, 2011).

Lutz describe social integration by looking into social integration outcomes where either assimilation or multiculturalism policies are used by states or nations (2017). This framework views integration as either geared by assimilation or multiculturalism. States or nations will most probably use policies to integrate immigrants in their societies. But how to do it depends on the capabilities or the aspiration immigrants possesses. Policies built on assimilationist concepts many times force immigrants to adapt to the society before they can enjoy or take part in the welfare system in the host country. Hence, aspirations among the immigrants need to be high in order to integrate in the host community. Furthermore, one states that if everything is served in the new host community (e.g. full rights enabled) aspirations among the immigrants will be low and therefore lead to lower levels of integration. Assimilationists argues that multiculturalism hampers the aspiration and leads to segregation in societies

14 leaving immigrants with low language skills and a tendency to engage only with immigrants with similar backgrounds - leading to local communities (Lutz, 2017:10- 11).

On the other side of the coin, the multiculturalists favor capabilities over aspirations and therefore view the integration process as a need to have capabilities in order to integrate. This could be granted access to the welfare system and education to fully engage in- and develop in the host society. Instead of focus on the individual as responsible to integrate - states or nations becomes granter to achieve integration outcomes. The immigrants have their rights to express their native background and pressures are low on the individual immigrant. The main goal is to enable opportunity structures giving rights and possibilities to immigrants in their integration (Lutz, 2017:12-13).

To be able to understand if the migrants are included or excluded in ways that are discussed here in this section we need to have a framework with different aspects which can explain if a social group such as the Indian high-skilled labor migrants are socially integrated. These will be presented in the next section.

2.1.2 How to analyze social integration To fully understand immigrants views on integration, Ager and Strang developed a conceptual framework in Britain to assess refugees and build up an understanding for where and how and what integration is, but also to fully explain how a society can improve levels of integration and thus achieve a more harmonious society (also named successful). They based their research on 200 indicators for integration, conducted earlier in Europe in the 1990’s (2008:166). At the same time, Ager and Strang say there is no one way of explaining integration (2008).

So, how can we understand social integration? I have decided to take inspiration from the four different themes they used in their model, namely: Markers and means, Social connection, facilitators and foundation. Markers and means mainly handle employment, housing, education and health; social connection is based on social bridges, social bonds and social links; facilitators are built on language and cultural knowledge and last; foundation is conceptualized as rights and citizenship (Ager & Strang, 2008:170).

15 Aside from using these four themes I will also turn to other researchers to deepen the knowledge and analytical possibilities of social integration.

2.1.2.1 Markers and Means This category includes employment, housing situation, education and health. Ager and Strang state that these are important because, the access to a considered good neighborhood will have impacts on access to employment and establishment in society. The same goes for education, where learning outcomes and levels of knowledge will influence people in their capability of finding a job or creating jobs (2008:173).

Employment plays a significant role in social integration. It is by employment that people learn new languages and starts to understand a new culture. Although, refugees and high-skilled labor migrants might have differences in education and reasons to arrive and immigrate to another country, my argument is still that both groups need a platform to understand a new environment based on earlier research in the field (Ager & Strang, 2008:170). Castles et al (2001) says that employment has been a key factor in integration research for a long time. Studies clearly shows the benefits with employment compared to unemployment.

What is important to understand here is the interlinkages between these themes. In fact they all interplay with each other. As an example, if the housing and the employment for a person becomes better then the means to move up in the social hierarchy or improved living conditions might be the results from such actions. Likewise the markers points out a position for a person and suggest the person’s ability (the means) to develop new connections and become more socially integrated. (Ager & Strang, 2008:173).

2.1.2.2 Social connections Based on the framework from Ager and Strang (2008), I will here use two concepts named social bonds and social bridges.

In their research, Ager and Strang (2008) found social bonds between immigrants in their first settlement period to be important in order to feel comfortable. This is the most basic factor, where the refugee (and in this study the high-skilled labor migrant) creates bonds with others identifying with or coming from same place of origin. Here important features such as language or worldview plays a significant role (p.178).

16 The last step, social bridges, emphasizes the importance of harmony between social groups. According to Ager and Strang (2008) differences between groups in a society may cause social tensions and may further develop social unrest, hence, it is important to enable a friendly atmosphere between social groups in a society. Examples could be friendliness and participation in activities such as sports or education to further diminish prejudices (p.180-181).

Using Bourdieu’s theories on capital accumulation and habitus gives us a deeper understanding of social connections that Ager and Strang (2008) presented.

Bourdieu bases his research from the Marxist perspective where dominant classes have a form of control in a society where distribution of resources are not only economic but social and cultural (1986:51-53).

The volume of the social capital, Bourdieu argues, is coherent with the volume of the social network. If an agent (a person) in a certain field (a specific context) has a large social network then this person possess a large portion of social capital. Since economic capital is the fundament for capital at large, social capital will enable the economic capital to be accumulated. Through solidarity to group membership and institutions, an agent has the possibility, but it’s not a given, to increase the material or symbolic assets. By expanding the social network, an agent needs to find relationships in order to become member in social group environments. New members in a social group could become a threat to certain behaviors and values that constitute the group, therefore certain strategies takes place to exclude those not wanted and include those which the group fancy, and a constant search for group homogeneity is the fundament for this. These strategies could be; living in a certain neighborhood, sports in special disciplines or access to superior schools (Ibid).

Habitus is linked to social fields. This is a concept not originated from Bourdieu, but he uses this to explain how an agent, due to the social knowledge and schooling, carries this with her. Bourdieu state that habitus is a social notion within an agent where different sets of dispositions are learnt in a socialization process and “form, store, record and exert” (Navarro, 2006:16) human behavior. Furthermore, habitus, is transferred from the society where the agent lives and will thus be different depending on how the society works. This shows, habitus, is always a factor for all humans and not a fixed factor, instead habitus changes along time where we as humans socialize and develop this condition (Ibid).

17 In addition, habitus, is linked to an unconscious or conscious practice where our historical experiences from generations to generations leads to equations in the social daily life. An agent performs these equations and make estimations of what is reasonable and what is not. Depending on the social world, an agent will act differently and thus, a social practice will differ. Bourdieu and Nice, argues that aspirations and dreams are connected to habitus because the socialization process will make us think and dream of the possible social outcome differently (1977:76-78).

2.1.2.3 Facilitators Language and cultural knowledge is presented under this category.

As mentioned before in this research by both Turner (2010) and Lutz (2017) language is a group identifier and a constant discussion template in the integration discourse because it is the basic criteria for group belonging and a possible barrier breaker for communication to take place. Ager and Strang (2008) argue that language is important to establish oneself in a new society, and the ability to learn a new language is the most important factor when arriving to a new context (p.182).

Language is closely interrelated with culture. To be able to learn a language, cultural learning is essential. Different societies with different language will use words differently depending on, amongst other considerations: social status, gender or age. Besides this fundament in language; motivation and opportunity are drivers for humans to obtain languages (Samovar et al., 2012:53).

Ager and Strang points out: “Being able to speak the main language of the host community is, for example, consistently identified as central to the integration process.” (2008:182). In addition, Samovar et al (2012) states that even if only used randomly, language is a window to another culture and will help a person to broaden the ability to understand cross-cultural phenomenon and stimulate the intellectual parts of the brain. Second language training, is hence beneficial even if not practiced every day (p.54).

Sweden, is sometimes mentioned as a poorly integrated country because language acquisition is not mandatory due to Swedish multicultural policies. Koopmans (2010) states that these policies lead to immigrants not feeling the need to mix themselves with the new culture and therefore continues to speak their language of origin and in the long term this leads to segregated communities (p.10). Dutch studies on

18 immigrants, have shown employment and intermarriage as good entry points for language learning. This enables immigrants to spread throughout the society and diminishes enclaves with specific ethnicities (p.10-11).

In the study by Ager and Strang (2008) refugees felt lost in a new environment and mentioned their own culture to be important in order to continue a healthy life where they could feel ‘at home’. The new social groups arriving to a new country feel their culture is important and would like to share it more, but this is not always viewed as positive by the host community (p.183). Difference in this subject may lead to distance between social groups and assimilation and multiculturalism perspectives may differ in the view of ‘good integration’ (Lutz, 2017:10-13).

According to Bourdieu cultural capital exists in humans (embodied), in objects (cultural artifacts such as paintings) or in institutions (academic diplomas). The embodied cultural capital is important because here in contrast to other capital the resource is invisible but still of main importance to hold a social status or to have influence in a society. The embodied capital can be transferred into economic capital where a surplus of capital can be accumulated (Bourdieu, 1986:47-51).

The second form of capital; objects, are important and have implications either materially or symbolically where the cultural capital have a social meaning and might lead to social advantages. The third, the institutionalized capital, is mostly provided through academic or schooling capital where the social reproduction takes place and agents compete for scarce resources in different fields of the society. This suggest that academic capital is important because with it an agent has the possibility to find new resources and can thus accumulate more capital in other forms. The different forms of capital can later be transferred to other forms of capital which in the end leads to social outcomes in a society. For those with many sorts of capital a constant exchange is possible to find a better disposition in the social hierarchy while for those with small amounts of capital, a lower position in the society will be a fact (Ibid).

In addition, Samovar et al explain culture to be; learned (interaction, observation and imitation), continuing from generation to generation (history taught by e.g. institutions like family or teachers in schools or media); symbolic (words, gestures and images); dynamic (diffusion of ideas make a culture changeable) and ethnocentric (superior to other cultures due to strong ties in the group) (2012:12).

19 In addition, cultural identity and intercultural personhood are two concepts important to separate when looking into culture. Cultural identity is often related to a static view; monolithic and value-based, where intercultural personhood is the opposite and more pragmatic towards culture where human complexity and the evolving nature of humans diminish the traditional boundaries (Samovar et al., 2012:84).

Stuart Hall adds to the first category of cultural identity as something being shared, but also that cultural identity is something between the past and the future –a difference. It consists of history, culture and power. A cultural history is in constant change and will therefore always be positioned and not fixed in a pure formation. Instead politics will always change the way we look back at our cultural identity enabled by memory, myths, fantasies and narratives. Therefore culture is not something totally pure or easy to access and neither a falsity nor total fiction – instead it is something we have to relate to where knowledge and power over it will be the driving forces (2014:224-230).

2.1.2.4 Foundation This parameter is closely connected to the next part of the theoretical framework used in this study; national identification. It is important to understand the difficulties when discussing nation-ness. Ager and Strang (2008), explain that citizenship and rights are connected with not only practical laws and legislations in the new country but also how one identifies with the new country. This will have consequences for integration and the abilities to learn and thrive in new environments. Knowing rules and understanding of a new system such as the political or civic is something that could differ depending on background and knowledge (p.176).

Furthermore, rights comes with responsibilities where countries have different approaches in their policymaking depending on their stance in the assimilation and multiculturalism question. For an immigrant to know the new country and most probably different procedures might take time and will demand efforts from both migrants and host communities (Ager & Strang, 2008:173-177).

20 2.2 Interpersonal communication Studies on individuals and their behaviors towards others have been studied for a long time, while group relations and communication has had less scholarly attention. Gallois et al (2018) argues that time has come to go further into the dynamics of group belongings and communication between groups. As one example given from the article, a woman having a fight with her husband talks to her girlfriends about the fight. The woman discuss how the arguments took different turns. However, the woman is not only considered an individual here, she is also part of a gender group where a shared identity is a fact. Thus, the woman will be viewed both from the outside from her individual standing point and her group identity. Further on, the group belonging for the woman will have consequences because what she believes is the right thing to do might be perceived differently by the group. Not only does language play a part, in a study done by Keblusek et al (2017) clothing and language as communication is researched. The authors state that clothing also defines social belonging and are parts of constructions of social groups. Social groups based on gender or religion are examples where clothing will make a distinction towards other groups. When these clothes are used, social group identification is activated and thus categorization and self-categorization comes in to effect. This is valid research because it tells us that communication, verbal or non-verbal, ascribe us as individuals into social identities and categories (p.634).

Gallois et al (2018) state that there are always power differentials between social groups which will lead to communication outcomes. As examples they mention how doctors speak with patients or how a policeman speaks and interacts with people on the street. In coherence with this, Keblusek et al (2017) discuss power issues between different races in the U.S. where clothing also shows power differentials. As one example, a shooting of a young man wearing a hoodie became a call for political uprising and discussions about race and power imbalance between black men and the police.

In relation to different social groups such a races, Liu et al (2018) has researched how community communication works in the U.S. Through surveys in a housing community they found out that regular meetings between the multi-ethnic citizens in the community led to lower cases of prejudice between social groups based by their race. In relation to Keblusek et al (2017) and Gallois et al (2018), issues in the

21 communication was discovered by Asian-Americans facing problems with language and thus interpersonal communication for this group became difficult while interactions between Latin-American and Anglo-American increased during the study and led to better relationships inside the housing community. Liu et al (2018) also pointed towards the media and the production of stereotypes and prejudices between social groups as problematic for building a common identity in the housing community.

In line with this, Seate and Mastro (2017) conducted a study about how the news and prejudices about immigrants in the U.S. had real consequences for real life interactions. They found that news had an impact on the image of immigrants and thus, this further led to emotions of threat and negative assumptions for the students involved in the study. This also has relevance to this degree project because prejudices and stereotypes may be harmful and negative for intergroup relations and may lead to less contact and understanding of other social groups in a society.

These studies are mainly concerned with the U.S. and hence, these kind of communication studies are less common in Sweden, thus a study about how communication at large and interpersonal communication in particular is important in a setting where intergroup relations are central. I will now introduce an interpersonal communication theory that will be used in this degree project.

2.2.1 How interpersonal communication affect social integration and national identification Dragojevic and Giles (2014) base their new research on the missing parts of intergroup relations and interpersonal communication. Coming from the paradigm of communication accommodation theory (CAT), they are interested in understanding how interpersonal communication might lead to convergence, divergence or maintenance of communication strategies when communicating with others and between intergroups i.e. between social groups identifying or belonging to different social groups.

2.2.1.1 Convergence A communication strategy used by social group members to adapt, verbally and non- verbally, to individuals belonging to other social groups in order to get closer and be approved by the other social group (Dragojevic & Giles,2014:37).

22 2.2.1.2 Divergence The opposite strategy compared to convergence, where social group members increase the distance, verbally or non-verbally, between social groups (Ibid).

2.2.1.3 Maintenance Is a strategy used by social group members where no adjustment takes place, verbally or non-verbally between social groups. This behavior will maintain intergroup relations as a form of status quo (Dragojevic & Giles, 2014:37-38).

They argue group identity plays an important role when people in a society communicates. This is further based on prejudice and stereotypes existing in our ways of resonating and thinking of others. From the beginning CAT was based on speech between people and groups. Research by Giles showed proof of dialects leading people closer or further away from each other. Giles main argument was based on dominance between groups in a society. Weaker groups tended to adjust to stronger groups in their ways of speaking which lead to convergence while on the contrary stronger groups tended to uphold their way of speaking with weaker groups. However, later on the theory itself developed and started to include all sorts of communication in social settings (2014:37).

In this research, Dragojevic and Giles’ chapter Language and interpersonal communication will be used to analyze data from the interviews. Language are important when describing group identity because this is the basic criteria to establish belonging and understanding between people. Not only is national language important, but also jargons and regions will communicate different sorts of belongings and social statuses (2014:32).

Verbal and non-verbal communication construct the basic ideas of Dragojevic and Giles’ research. As mentioned language is a verbal feature while non-verbal features may be the way people dress, look, and grimace among others. These characteristics will have effects on relations in social settings (2014:32-33).

Concepts such as in-group and out-group favoritism are based on the in-group bias humans feel and act out. If one’s in-group is threatened by an out-group there might be actions taken such as hate speeches and anger towards the out-group. This could lead to a larger distance between social groups in a society (p.36).

23 However, based on Allport’s research from 1954, increased communication between in-groups and out-groups may harmonize group relations and thus build a functional relation between groups in societies. As suggested by Dragojevic and Giles, new social categories between groups where a shared or a common identity is encouraged might lead to fruitful relationships (2014:41-42).

I have now introduced how interpersonal communication can be used to understand how intergroup relations are formed. I will now introduce my next theoretical research field which is national identification. This is used in combination with social integration and interpersonal communication to understand more about the Indian high-skilled labor migrants’ integration process.

2.3 National identification Several studies have been conducted about how people identify with nations and the psychological aspects involved both at the individual level and group levels. Rodriguez et al (2016) did a study in the U.S. on how children in the ages 10-14 construct and form their identification to both the U.S., i.e. what it is to be an American, and other identifications such as the ethnicity (originated region or place) where traditions and relations still are strong. In fact, one out four children in the U.S. have immigrant backgrounds and thus a mixed or multiple sense of identification is constructed (p.809).

The study, conducted in one school with children from various racial-ethnic background i.e. African-Americans, Asian-Americans, Latin-Americans or European- Americans, concludes that children with an immigrant racial-ethnic background in an early age develop bicultural identities. Furthermore, children from a European- American background, considered a more American normative, spoke less about being American, since they already fitted into this category. On the contrary children with racial-ethnic backgrounds and immigrant parents spoke about America and their own background differently because of their non-normative presence (p.830-831). The study has its limitations, since only one school was used in the study and the school was a private elementary school, where more ‘privileged’ pupils are enrolled which indicates they come from a better socioeconomic background.

In addition to the work from Rodriguez et al (2016), an article about Diasporic identities written by Daniel Naujoks (2010) also discussed multiple identities and how

24 this is important to understand because immigrants or people in general carry different sorts of identifications, and especially transnational studies reveal how immigrants both gain new cultural identifications in the host community as they preserve their originated culture (p.13). Furthermore, Naujoks stresses the importance of understanding and learning more about multiple identifications and the consequences this might have for how people living in nations perceive themselves and others. The author suggests that they may view themselves and others not only as people, but as individuals holding on to one identification (Naujoks, 2010:14-15).

In , a study about national identification and intergroup relations i.e. relations between different social groups, has been conducted by Brylka et al (2015). The study explores how Finnish and Russians relate to each other and what consequences this has for better social development. In coherence with what Naujoks (2010) stresses about multiple identities, Brylka et al (2015) finds out that the Finnish national identification is based on ethnic belonging, i.e. one must be a native or born in the nation to belong to Finland which has the consequence of considering immigrants (e.g. Russians) as out-groups not belonging. The authors suggest a civic approach to national identification where citizenship is emphasized over ethnicity for belonging to the nation (p.676). In relation to Rodriguez et al (2016), it is important to understand the context of where studies takes place. Finland, according to Brylka et al (2015), is a country with a homogenous population and a history of (p.670) while the U.S. is the contrary, a nation based on immigration (Rodriguez et al, 2016:808). Thus, the populations living in these countries will have different connotations and perceptions about what a nation is and who belongs to it.

Another study conducted in Europe by Fleischmann and Phalet (2018) looks at national identification or the lack of it among immigrant youths in Europe (Belgium, , , the Netherlands, and Sweden). The authors conclude that religious discrimination among immigrant youths do lead to less national identification and at the same time the commitment to the Islamic religion (which is stronger among the Muslim youths in the research) leads to a diverge between the minority immigrants in general in the studied countries and in particular the immigrants who profess commitment to Islam (p.56). This study, to some extent, shows the same patterns as Brylka et al (2015) where different perceptions of “who we are” and “where we belong” play an important role in how we identify with the nation we live in and also who we

25 considered being members in the national group. Fleischmann and Phalet’s (2018) study can also be compared with Naujoks (2010) article where multiple identifications are a fact for human beings, but the ties to these may differ depending on the context i.e. where one lives, and to what extent these identifications are permitted or not. For the Muslim youths it is obviously easier to relate to the religious identification because of commitment and discrimination.

A study in about threat against immigrants and national identification conducted by Badea et al (2018) shows, in line with Brylka et al (2015), that if a threat is perceived against immigrants by the population ascribing with a higher national identification, then a more assimilationist approach towards integration will come to reality. On the opposite, those people with lower national identification did not perceive immigrants as a threat to the same degree and hence a multiculturalism perspective on immigration came into play (Badea et al, 2018:6). Also in line with Brylka et al (2015), the perception of belonging to a nation plays a significant part in how people in a nation view threats from immigrants. Those with an ethnic approach tends to see immigrants with cultural diversity as a threat compared to those with a civic approach to national identification where lower levels of prejudice towards immigrants occurs (Badea et al, 2018:6).

I have presented articles and research in the field of national identification, and although some of the articles touches upon the Swedish national identification (Fleischmann and Phalet, 2018), still Indian migrants and especially high-skilled labor migrants are not researched in Sweden. Studies about integration or national identification in countries such as Poland, Finland or France bring important material and insights to this study, but they are also country specific and are to different degrees researching different social groups with different backgrounds, which plays a significant part for adaption in new societies (Berry, 1997:16).

These studies about national identification are also connected to social integration and what we will see, interpersonal communication where interaction between individuals ascribing to certain social groups will lead to outcomes for how these meetings or interactions will end. Before interpersonal communication is presented I will start with introduction to the national identification theories used in this degree project.

26 2.3.1 Ways of describing national identification Naujoks (2010) states: “There is a tendency of immigrants to merge with the mainstream and to assimilate with the mainstream culture. After two or three generations, nothing but the occasional knowledge of a certain ancestry might be left from the original belonging to the country of origin […]” (p.9).

2.3.1.1 Ethnic, national and Civic group formation In order to understand how diaspora groups i.e. “people who have spread or been dispersed from their homeland” (oxford dictionaries) identify with their homeland, Daniel Naujoks (2010) created a model where an individual could ascribe to three different aspects of identification: Diasporic-ethnic, Diasporic-national or Diasporic- civic (p.5). Diasporic-ethnic is here defined as sharing of same background to a certain origin where a pan-community is built up and shared by its members. Diasporic- National is defined as sharing the same national belonging in the home country and Diasporic-civic is the identification with the state institutions and the government in the home country. These three aspects of identification are not exclusive and they can occur simultaneously (p.5-6).

This model gives us the understanding of how a diaspora works and how individuals inside it may identify with a social group. I will now continue with other important concepts to further understand how identification can be understood.

2.3.1.2 Self-categorization and self-identification This is also part of the process in identification where ascription to membership in a group has to do with both belonging to the social group and borders to other social groups. Moreover, one’s ties with the country of origin is important because with time immigrants in the host community start to adapt and forget their history. Thus, the country of origin is many times interested in maintaining ties to diasporic communities for different purposes. Therefore notions and traditions of the country of origin is promoted so individuals easier can self-categorize and self-identify with their background. The diasporic community (based on the diasporic-ethnic identification) thus promotes traditions and culture so that diasporic members maintain their ties to the social group and, in the long-term, ties to the country of origin (Naujoks, 2010:9- 10).

2.3.1.3 Commitment According to Phinney (2004) commitment is built up by evaluation, importance and attachment. Commitment in itself is important when analyzing identification and

27 ascription to a certain group because the level of how we commit will lead to weaker or stronger ties to our social group. Especially ethnic minorities living abroad will start to commit to their belonging in their younger years (as children).

There is a constant ‘evaluation’ going on. For an individual to identify with a group belonging where ‘importance’ plays a key role because the ‘importance’ will tell the individual how important it is to belong the social group and why this matters. ‘Attachment’ to the group is also central to the understanding of group belonging for the individual (Phinney, 2004).

Naujoks (2010) argues that commitment and loyalty towards the diaspora will have consequences for the relation building and identification with the country of origin. A positive attachment to the ethnic group and a commitment to the group will lead to maintenance of group belonging and involvement in diasporic settings (p. 11).

2.3.1.4 Negotiation Stuart Hall (2014) discuss the cultural identity and state that this is always negotiated through history, culture and power. He argues that one’s history is always re- negotiated and not a static essence in humans life. This explains that memory, narratives, myths and fantasies steer the way we understand ourselves and our heritage. Through actions in politics there are constant debates all over the world about our cultural identity and who we are. People are also trapped in between the past and the future where, Hall argues, a constant positioning is done in comparison with others, as such these cultural relations enables us to understand where we are in our cultural identities.

2.3.1.5 Multiple identities Many times there is a tendency to categorize identities bipolar to either this or that, and that an individual only identifies in one way. However, this is not true because individuals ascribe to numerous identities. Research in the field of identification tells us that identifying is not a zero-sum game where only one identity is possible and when the next identity starts, the former one becomes lower or disappear (Hammar, 1985:449). As an alternative, studies inside the transnational sphere looks at this phenomenon by naming it hybrid identities (Naujoks, 2010).

In summary, I have now offered some concepts and theories discussing how an individual ascribe to a certain social group membership.

28 2.4 Framework model for social integration This research will be based on a model combined by three main perspectives (see figure 1), these are: Social integration, National identification and Interpersonal communication. These three perspectives are used to analyze to answer the research questions introduced earlier.

Figure 1, framework model for social integration (Larsson, 2018).

3 Methodology This degree project has its basis in qualitative research where the understanding of a social phenomenon is studied through semi-structured interviews. Since my interest is to find out how participants in this social phenomenon think and reason on a deeper level, this method is appropriate to use (Brinkmann, 2012). I will now first introduce semi-structured interviews and then have a critical discussion about this choice in this degree project. After that I will present the method design, the interviews and the interviewees.

29 3.1 Semi-structured interviewing As a part of obtaining data, interviewing will be one method. Then, the question will be how to best use this method in this scenario? I believe that using the semi-structured way could be a possible smart approach because, as a researcher, I have some bottom- line thoughts and concepts that I want to get answered. Additionally, a preferable way is to use a microphone to record interviews by the interviewee. According to Brinkmann, qualitative researchers usually use the semi-approach to let some spontaneous answers and descriptions come through (2012:2).

Moreover, this approach is wise to use because of the research questions nature, i.e. I want to have deeper answers to behaviors and how the Indians relate to their lives in Sweden, where Brinkmann suggests to use questions like “what” and “how” in order to get deeper into the interviewees thoughts and reasoning around research topics. Otherwise there is a risk of only having a shallow discussion where the interviewee answers without a thorough analysis (2012:3).

A final comment on the interviewing part is the dilemma of obtaining ‘truthful’ information and the risk of getting too close to the interviewees and their actual experiences in Sweden. In accordance with this, Brinkmann suggest that an interview could lead to a quasi-therapeutic moment and that the interviewer should be aware that this could lead to interviewees talking about private happenings that may be regretted later. Hence, it is important to be open about the study and what it aims to find and display. I believe the more open I as a researcher can be about the main questions, then the interview-process can be better performed.

3.2 Critical method discussion In this qualitative research I have been culturally sensitive. Papadopoulos and Lees (2002) advocated for such an approach, otherwise data in multiethnic contexts might become invalid and not able to be used. Furthermore, having cultural knowledge will lead to lower levels of prejudice and stereotypes when performing research. Similarly, by using the emic view (the insider’s view) the research reach higher validity because the community researched will have a higher trust for the study and hence provide better insights to the research (p.261).

Subjectivity is another important factor when performing qualitative research because a researcher cannot be fully objective since human beings always carry own world

30 views. I have tried to be as open as possible to other influences and to understand my own interpretations of what others say or do in relation to my own experiences (Flick, 2009:16).

I am aware of issues with interviewees not answering correctly or in an honest way. By conducting numerous interviews this is one way of finding common patterns and lowering risks of falsity, which also increase levels of reliability where “patterns of thought and behavior” are emphasized (Fetterman, 2008:8). Brinkmann claims interviews could be viewed both as a knowledge producer and knowledge uncover process, which is interesting, because is it really possible to have full access to interviewees psyche? Instead I will use the interviewing technique in the best manner, often in a context where calmness is one fact and a noncompetitive context is a second fact to obtain as truthful information as possible (2008:5).

This degree project cannot be generalized and is restrained by a geographic area, Scania, in the south of Sweden. As such when I mention Sweden in general terms, this study has only obtained data in the area explained, hence generalizations about Indians living in Sweden are difficult to make. The interviewees also have a relative close connection to each other which leads to levels of group homogeneity (described more in 3.3.3) (Alvesson & Sköldberg, 2018).

All the names used during the research where erased in the finalization of the degree project in order to allow privacy, integrity and total confidentiality. Instead the interviewees and people acknowledged in the study will be referred to as interviewee one, two and so on.

3.3 Method design In this research I have decided to interview younger men and women from India. Here follows some arguments for doing this. First, mainly young Indian nationals comes to Sweden from India as high-skilled workers (Myrvold, 2012:8). According to the Swedish Migration Agency, Indians are the second biggest national group outside E.U. (after nationals) seeking for working permits in Sweden (Swedish Migration Agency 2). The 2018 statistics states 2,420 labor migrants applied for a working permit and another 2,088 were family members applying to stay in Sweden (Ibid). In total 29,673 Indian nationals lived in Sweden in 2017 (SCB) and most of the Indian nationals arrive to Sweden due to studies or work (Myrvold, 2012:10). Hence the first steps and

31 emotions upon arrival to the new country are of interest to the study. Second, this group is representative for the stereotypic high-skilled worker going abroad to work in foreign countries (Myrvold, 2012:24). Third, the age groups with highest domination (Indian nationals living in Sweden) are 25-34 years where in total 5,874 men and 5,256 women are registered with the second biggest age group being 35-44 years where 4,474 men and 3,918 women are registered (SCB 3). Thus, since the ages 25-44 years are highest representative among Indian nationals in Sweden, I have chosen to use this age span for this degree project. As a delimitation also mentioned by Myrvold (2012) those Indians being second or third generation migrants are not counted in this statistics, however according to Myrvold, most probably a slightly younger Indian population would be the result if they were (p.8).

3.3.1 Semi-structured interviews I have performed nine long semi-structured interviews where deeper and stronger questions and discussions will gain important core data that will be later analyzed with the help of theories. The study was located in Malmö (six interviews), Lund (one interview) and Helsingborg (two interviews) in Sweden. Furthermore, I conducted the interview mostly in the homes where the interviewees live in order to see and understand under which conditions the interviewees live. The dates for the interviews spans from March 10th 2018 to April 6th 2018.

3.3.2 Delimitations On delimitation is the access to the local language. According to Samovar et al language is one of the most important factors inside a culture and thus of major importance to understand not only what is said but also meanings and shared beliefs and values between the Indians. There will be no interpreter attached to the research who could have translated the local language used by the Indians to English (2012:15).

“If we research immigrant integration, there are good grounds to assume that willingness to participate in scientific studies is higher among better integrated immigrants. This is a problem we have to be aware of, in particular if we attempt to draw causal and generalizable inferences from our data” (Schunck, 2014).

3.3.3 Snowball sampling The way I worked to find interviewees was quite interesting. It all started with the knowledge of the first interviewee. After this interview I asked if he knew another friend who could be interested in participating. Then interviewee number two referred to the third and a thus a chain of interviewees suddenly appeared. This was efficient

32 and could have resulted in many more interviews. This type of method is named snowball sampling and is a good choice when a special group is needed for the research but hard to find (Morgan, 2012:2). Two of the interviews were conducted in coffee places in Malmö, because the interviewees didn’t want to have the interview in their homes, which I had to respect. In these interviews, analyses of the homes were impossible but still, the interviews were of good quality with vital information shared.

According to Morgan (2012) there is a high risk of using snowball sampling because the first participant will most probably refer to another person close to him or her which will lead to a biased set of participants thinking and living in same ways. This could also potentially lead to a certain set of data which will miss out on many other aspects that could be useful for the study (p.2). However, the first interviewee is not familiar with all of the interviewees. He claims he only knows the two other interviewees in the study in close relation while the other are people he have heard about but not met and doesn’t know them closely. The same goes for the other participants, they refer to a closer friend who then change patterns of friendship. By interviewing both males and females and people in different cities, working in different sectors and also working in different companies I have done as much as possible to avoid total homogeneity among participants.

3.3.4 About the interviewees A general notice In the same manner as both Naujoks (2010) and Myrvold (2012) states that doing research with Indian nationals are difficult because of the heterogeneity India as a country possess. Numerous languages and cultures can be found inside India which makes India more like a country built by different regions where religion, culture and socioeconomic conditions are a fact. However, this doesn’t mean a study about Indian nationals is impossible. Instead a thorough background check about the participants can make the study more interesting and patterns from backgrounds in India may in fact enrich a study like this. Another aspect for the Indian interviewees is that they all belong or identify themselves with a Hindu background, which is the majority religion in India (79, 8% of the total population) (Rukmini & Singh, 2015).

First interview The first interview was conducted in Helsingborg on March 10th 2018 with interviewee one (I1) in his apartment and had a duration of 46 minutes. The interviewee lives in second hand with a Swedish host in the central parts of the city and works as a software

33 developer for an international IT consulting firm. The first time he entered Sweden was in 2013 and he is thinking of applying for permanent residency. He is 28 years old and has a background in Indore which is part of central India and located in the state Madhya Pradesh. He comes from a family with a good socioeconomic background where the family owns land in the countryside and both the interviewee and his brother have been educated in University levels.

Second interview The second interview took place in Nydala, Malmö on March 14th 2018 in his condo. He lives together with his wife, also from India, and works a software professional. This interview lasted for 52 minutes. He is named interviewee number two (I2) and is 33 years old. In July 2018 he will receive a permanent residency in Sweden. He came to Sweden for the first time in 2014. Before coming to Sweden he spent four years living in Switzerland where he worked for the same company as in Sweden. He identify himself as a Hindu.

Third interview The third interview was conducted on March 22nd 2018, in Malmö but this time in Södervärn closer to the city center compared to Nydala (see I2). The interviewee is a female (one out of four in the interview series done during this research) and is 28 years old. The duration of the interview took one hour and the interviewee number three (I3) works as an IT project leader mainly in Helsingborg. She has a short term visa in Sweden and her first time in Sweden was in 2015. She is born in the city Mumbai on the Indian west coast where she states a mix of the richest Indians and the poorest Indians lives. She comes from a middle class background and has always wanted to go abroad to experience a different life in different countries. In addition, people living in Mumbai with good socioeconomic backgrounds, are according to I3, interested (and have the means) in going abroad to work and study in countries such as the U.S., U.K. and Australia.

Fourth interview The fourth interview was conducted in Malmö on March 25th 2018 at Espresso House on Södra Förstadsgatan. This interview lasted for one hour and the interviewee is named I4. The interviewee is a male, 35 years old, and works as a management consultant in Malmö. He is here on a short term visa that he says is renewed every financial year. The first time he entered to Sweden for work was early last year in 2017. Before that I4 spent six and half year in the U.K. where he worked. He also did his

34 Master in Business Administration in where he started, as he says himself, to become more internationally oriented because many of the students came from other backgrounds and . As for now, Sweden is not a final destination for I4, he consider to stay or leave depending on the opportunities in Sweden and other countries in the world.

Fifth interview The fifth interview was conducted in close to one hour on March 29th 2018 in central parts of Lund in the interviewee’s apartment, where he normally lives with his wife, but this time she was back in India. The interviewee will be referred to as interviewee five (I5) and he is 29 years old. He was born in Odisha in the eastern parts of India but moved to Bangalore in the southern parts of India for studies and work and has been there for the last five to six years before moving to Sweden. He first came to Sweden in 2014 and is working as computer programmer in Helsingborg. He has a work permit for one year and then it gets renewed in case there is a need. He is also based in the Indian branch of the Company and works abroad where specialists are needed. However, if the opportunity comes, he consider to stay in Sweden and by time become a Swedish citizen. Furthermore, Lund is famous for its University and I5 states that he engages with Indian students enrolled in study programs at the University, which he finds comforting.

Sixth interview The sixth interview was conducted during one hour on April 6th 2018 in the south of Helsingborg, in an area called Söder. The interviewee is female and she is named interviewee six (I6) and is 26 years old. She comes from Bangalore in southern India where she is educated and after the studies she moved to Mumbai where she started to work in an international company. After a while in the company she was offered to move abroad to work and she took the opportunity instead of doing her masters, which was the original plan. She is brought up by strict norms and her parents work as teachers. Before she came to Sweden she had some friends in on the Swedish west coast which made it easier for her to move to Sweden. Before going she considered going to the U.K. which is a common country for Indians to migrate to because of the larger numbers of Indian diaspora living there. However, the chance to see and discover a new country made Sweden the first choice. She came to Sweden for the first time in 2015 and has now a permanent residency. She works with IT, in an international company.

35 Seventh interview The seventh interview took place at Espresso House at Malmö Central station on April 5th 2018 and lasted for one hour. The interviewee is a male and is acknowledged as interviewee seven (I7) and is 40 years old. He originates from Mumbai on the west coast in India. He comes from a middleclass background where he says he was not among the richest people but still ‘pretty settled’. According to I7, there is no tradition to go abroad for studies or work in Mumbai but there is a desire among young students to go abroad for these experiences. Before entering Sweden he worked four years in the U.K. where he says the atmosphere is different because of the larger amounts of expats and immigrants living and working. He works as an IT art director and came to Sweden, for the first time, in 2015. He has a permanent contract with an international firm.

Eight interview The eighth interview was held on April 5th 2018, on the same day as interview seven. This interview is special since it is with two Indians, a couple, a male and a female. Interviewee eight (I8) is the female and interviewee nine (I9) the male. I8 is 33 years old and I9 is 36 years old. They come from the capital region, New Delhi, and are raised in middle class or upper class families according to themselves. The interview was conducted in their condo in Lugnet, Malmö. They are both citizens in Sweden and came in 2011 (I8) and 2008 (I9). Both live in Malmö but works in Lund as patent research specialist (I8) and development strategist (I9). The interview lasted for an hour.

Ninth interview The last interview number nine took place on April 6th 2018 in the interviewee’s apartment in Malmö close to the old concert house in the central parts. Interviewee ten, here I10, is a female and 28 years old. She comes from Mumbai but was born in the eastern parts of India. Her background is from a middle class where her father, as she states, fostered her to be independent and to take care of herself. Her family background doesn’t give privileges for higher studies normally. However, she entered university studies after a time as an entrepreneur sewing clothes - something she probably will go back to if she has the ability. Her plan is to stay in Sweden for a short while and then go back to India to start her old career. Currently she works as an IT- consultant for an international company in Malmö where she has a long-term contract. The first time she came to Sweden was in 2013. The interview lasted for about an hour.

36 4 Analysis In this chapter I will start analyzing the social integration based on the Ager and Strang (2008) framework for social integration. I will go through the different findings and conduct my analysis with the help of work of the scholars earlier introduced (chapter 2). As a second approach in this degree project I will build up the knowledge with interpersonal communication concepts to understand how interpersonal communication have effects on social integration. As the last approach, national identification will be used, to gain deeper knowledge about the interviewees’ national identification in Sweden and what these responses can result in.

4.1 Social integration

Figure 2, Social integration (Larsson, 2018). 4.1.1 Markers and means Employment According to Ager and Strang (2008) and Castles et al (2001) employment is considered one of the most important factors for social integration. People will become economically independent and embrace new people in the host community which is a central ingredient in integration processes (Ager & Strang, 2008:170; Castles et al., 2001:143). It is through their job that most of the interviewees gained knowledge about Sweden and the Swedish system. Through their employment, interviewees get involved in some Swedish traditions, including holiday traditions such as ’s eve or bar/restaurant hang arounds on their spare time. Thus employment is an important door-opener into the Swedish society.

I1 believes integration works well but mention work being the place where interaction and relationship buildings take place: “I haven't had much interaction with the people who live in the small towns here, the people I am working with are professional and

37 good skilled-people, they are also very multicultural they like to integrate a lot with different cultures.” Through their employment, immigrants learn and gets accustomed to local culture and further develop self-reliance and self-esteem in the new community (Ager & Strang, 2008:170-171).

Since Swedes base integration policies on multiculturalism values, capabilities to meet and integrate with other people in Sweden is promoted by having the right to an employment. While the Swedish welfare state is generous to people inside a country on legal premises, critics of this system erode aspirations among immigrants and this leads to segregation instead (Lutz, 2017:10-13). As I1 answers, his aspirations to meet people outside the job area are limited, and he has not been in contact with people from smaller villages outside the job area.

When I10 was asked whether the job area is a good place for meeting new people in Sweden, she answered yes, but explained that Swedish culture can be problematic for Indians and this can result in generalizations about the Indian community because they tend not to hang around in bars: “yes I think we don't like to visit bars so often so that's why you would see that in Indian communities we are very closed but when it comes to outside to work area it would be someone we meet on the train, someone we are frequently meeting.” Employment, thus, becomes important for this group since they don’t visit informal gathering places where conversations may take place between people not familiar to each other. This statement by I10 could be applied to Lutz’s (2017) capability-aspiration framework, where as in multicultural societies, ethnic groups are encouraged to keep their own set of culture and thus only capabilities from the state are enforced to promote further social integration (Lutz, 2017:10-13).

Other platforms outside the job area are sports, where some of the interviewees found opportunities to meet with and gain a deeper friendship with other social groups in society. I2, in particular, stated that:” yeah that's a very good example morning work culture reaching office timings. The second thing is the sports culture you can say doing regular exercises in sports.”

In summary, employment is a key marker for the interviewees. Most of their daily routines are conducted at work, they stay in Sweden because of work and they become citizens (after the legislate process) in Sweden through the work. In accordance with the Ager and Strang framework (2008) the employment situation is a marker and as such identifies where in the social landscape a person exists. Most of the interviewees

38 have good jobs which gives them better opportunities to also find a good housing area or education for themselves or their families. The benefits with having an employment also leads to stronger means to move to better housing areas. As one example, I2 lives in a condo in Malmö where he and his wife feel satisfied with their housing and the housing area. This gives him and his wife the means to meet new people and involvement in the Swedish society. However, lack of engagement outside the work area and the low aspirations to learn the local language and go to education facilities leads to lower levels of social integration. Although employment is an important marker for social integration, it doesn’t lead to automated friendships and connections. In fact many of the interviewees say they have hard times to connect with Swedish people from work and extend this into friendships outside the work area.

Education According to Ager and Strang (2008) education is an important platform to enhance social integration. It’s a place where not only subjects are being learnt but also where opportunities to meet new people arise (p.172). Schunck refers to education as a core in Western assimilation programs. He explains schools and education institutions where friendships and intermarriage takes place between immigrants and the host community is significant for social integration (2014:32).

Education is in addition related to cultural capital, where Bourdieu states that education is the fundament in a culture where the population internalizes the ruling values and behaviors. These values and behaviors are later repeated and used to reproduce the cultural norms. Bourdieu argues that dominant classes in a society will adapt easier to these normative values and behaviors and will be rewarded for doing so (1986).

When it comes to enrolling in Swedish language classes for immigrants, most of the interviewees (if not all) felt a lack of interest in joining these classes, since it’s not mandatory and in all cases not necessary to learn because they speak English at work. I4 felt a barrier due to Swedish policies about a personal identity number (used by the Swedish authorities for identification of individuals in Sweden): “I haven't enrolled in Sfi [], there were few reasons for that, one was you need to have a personal number […] I had to wait one year to get the personal number and by that time I realized that everyone speaks English fluently in in shops and streets and

39 everywhere and I use English as the language for work so I don't see an incentive to learn Swedish.”

More than that, most of the interviewees were a bit embarrassed by their low levels of Swedish, which they pointed out could have led to better socialization with others. Even I8 and I9, who had lived a long time in Sweden (I8, seven years and I9, ten years), clearly pointed out the lack of their attention to Swedish language and in particular not attending Swedish language classes.

In summary, education could be an important catalyst for social integration. Due to long work hours, voluntariness to enter education, and low aspirations or reasons to educate oneself leads to rejection of education possibilities. In the longer terms cultural learning outcomes are missed out, leading to lower levels of cultural understanding which is important in social integration. Since all markers in the Ager and Strang framework (2008) will have effects on each other, education - and the lack of it – leads to less means to be better socially integrated. The education can potentially lead to better connections with other people in the Swedish society which could improve the access to better living standards. It can also lead to better skills and better knowledge that could be used in the Swedish society. In addition, missing out on education leads to several missing components (meeting new people, and increased competence, as well as cultural knowledge) for social integration.

At the same time it is important to point out that all the Indian high-skilled labor migrants do come from backgrounds where they have studied and educated themselves into specialists in their respective working fields. Their education is the ground for their employment and therefore their ability to move to Sweden on working premises. This is relevant since many of the interviewees already feel (and in fact, they have) spent an extensive time in education facilities from their home country or abroad.

4.1.2 Social connections Bourdieu states social capital is important when looking at a society. He looks at the power relationships and the distribution of resources. For newcomers in a society power imbalance will always exist and thus, a ruling dominant class will steer social behaviors. In the continuation, social capital will be gained if a minority group has social resources, something that comes with expansion of the social network one possess. The high-skilled labor migrants in this research all have high levels of

40 academic capital which in turn can transferred to other forms of capital but this will take time (Bourdieu, 1986).

Social bonds In the initial phase of the integration process, social bonds, are considered vital to build connections with people from same background and origin. Ethnic enclaves are viewed positively if they provide members with employment and may be positive for the health as-well (Ager & Strang, 2008:178-179).

In this research most participants viewed the Indian community, hence their own diaspora, as important in Sweden. This is how I1 articulates this view: “yes of course I mean they are there also; they're very important because of the language that we feel more comfortable communicating to each other because that's the first language [Hindi] […]” and I6 echoes this point: “yeah I have a couple of friends that are like a family to me, they are also from India that was a support for me and then yes I joined up with them so now they're like family.” As described before, the relation with people coming from the same background gives the interviewees a sense of belonging to the same identity. Naujoks (2010) state that this is related to the ethnic origin where traditions and languages are building certain characteristics for the Indian community. Many of the interviewees also participate in Indian traditions where dance, food and music plays a significant part, this will also strengthen the Indian community and build membership. Some of the interviewees also said that they have changed their perception of India by engaging in these Indian events in Sweden. According to Naujoks, a diaspora will change in time and create another form of India by being abroad from the home country. The different customs and living conditions in Sweden for the Indian interviewees transform the image of India, an image that they used to have from where they originate (2010:8).

In summary, social bonds are important in the new phase of establishment in the new country. In fact, leaving the ethnic heritage is impossible. Instead the ethnic legacy will play a significant role for many of the migrants around the world and for the interviewees in this study. Their attachment and commitment to their diasporic identity is present and will be discussed further (4.3). However, all of the interviewees also say that they not only build social bonds with people from their own or ethnicity - where people come from or belong is not their only preference when creating social connections as we will see in the next section.

41 Social bridges The interviewees responded differently depending on their housing situation and the time they spent in Sweden. As one example, I5, lived in Lund in a house offered by the company. Although he was not interacting directly with Swedish-born people he mentions other nationalities in the housing area who grew close to him and his wife and these relations are important to them: “yes we have friends nearby he's from Serbia and we have people the landlord also we used to be with them.”, which Ager and Strang (2008) mentions are important for immigrants in their settlement period (Ibid). In addition, I8 says: “we're not making friends with people from our nationality just because they are from that nationality I mean we have friends who are Danish and who are other nationalities like Thai and German, it's not a criteria for making friends.”

Bourdieu’s concept of habitus and different forms of capital can be further emphasized here because newcomers or immigrants don’t have the sense, or what Bourdieu refers to as taste, in the new social field where Indian participants are living. Habitus is constructed in a social environment where the Indians have lived during their socialization process during their childhood. Since Sweden and India differ both socially and in many aspects culturally, the habitus is not trained for the Swedish context. As a pattern in this research, many of the interviewees relates to other immigrants. This could be because of a shared identity as newcomers, and their same levels of social capital leads them to the same kind of social groups (Bourdieu, 1986).

I7, mentions social bridges to be quite hard at times in Sweden: “the culture back in India is like if you are staying in an apartment building most of the people, you actually really know them, like you go to their houses and they will come to your house almost every week that will happen, but here it's quite different that you will not know your neighbor for years so it sucks a little bit but at least we say hi and bye, that's all.” And the culture at work differs; many of the interviewees talks about the Swedish politeness and the inability to get further from small talks to deeper friendships. I7 continues: “[…] we obviously get very familiar we go for lunch together, fika and everything like that, at six o'clock - disconnection.”

I5 says other immigrants are easier to connect with: “I got a new project so I have some friends over there and I came to know that they live somewhere in Malmo Center so we kind of connect well and it's going good for us but apart from that and they are not

42 Swedish but I think Swedish people take a bit more time to open up.” This could be related to sharing same background and experiences.

Another perspective on this is offered by Borevi (2014) where she explain how the civic society is an important arena to meet and connect with others. This is especially promoted by the Swedish government and institutions. Bourdieu’s concept of habitus says that the Indian participants still struggle to adapt to a Swedish variant of habitus where they will make choices for their future based on social and cultural knowledge. However, this takes time and is often connected to childhood and cultural institutions like schools. As long as the habitus is not specified for the Swedish social field there will be a larger social distance between dominant and dominated groups, here the Indian participants are the dominated group (1986).

In summary, social connections are not fully acquired by the participants in this study. This is further related to habitus, social capital and low knowledge about the Swedish civic society as promoter for social connections between social groups to enable a plural society where distance between social groups are supposed to diminish.

4.1.3 Facilitators Culture Mentioned before, culture plays a significant part in people lives. The Swedish and Indian culture has differences, such as values, behaviors, languages and hierarchies. Bourdieu state that minorities have to adjust to the dominant group in order to not to be penalized by the ruling power. Cultural capital is thus controlled by a certain groups’ values and behaviors. According to cultural capital and the power of it, Indian immigrants in Sweden needs to adapt and learn from the dominating Swedish culture, whether at work or in the spare time, since the culture influences all levels of a society (Bourdieu, 1986).

On a deeper level, Bourdieu explains cultural capital in three forms, and my argument here is that Indian interviewees all have embodied cultural capital, which they carry inside themselves. This form has been obtained from education, where they have been taught a certain profession. This doesn’t mean an agent’s increased levels of social status, because to do this, an agent need a lot of time and other forms of capital such as economic or social capital. Instead, I argue, with the help of Bourdieu, that the Indian interviewees are dominated by a dominant social group in Sweden with more possessions of capital. This social group dominates by long time investments in many

43 forms of capital where they have accumulated more cultural, social capital and foremost economic capital over time - in order to dominate (Ibid).

Another way of looking at culture is to see it as in constant move. Previous research on culture saw it as static and traditional which lead to severe consequences, like the spread of prejudices for groups assigned to a certain culture. Today, another perspective of culture has evolved, named intercultural personhood, where culture is in constant change - and with an increasing globalization, mixes of cultures change even faster. But, this doesn’t mean one needs to surrender a certain set of values and behaviors from the originated culture. Instead, this indicates an increasing understanding of others values and beliefs – and more important, an understanding of oneself in relation to others (Samovar et al., 2012). Most of the interviewees admitted vast differences in culture between Sweden and Indian contexts. Yet, adjusting to the Swedish culture is something most interviewees have tried to some extent and would like to emphasize more. These are all signs of an intercultural personhood concept where embracing others sets of values and beliefs leads to understanding and a closing of gaps between people from various backgrounds (Ibid).

Due to lack of Swedish friends and language skills they seem to miss out on Swedish rituals and traditions, but I3, has tried a few and describes her view here: “[…]I can never change myself completely that's for sure but then I have to develop myself in such a way that I am blending in the society for example I have done the midsummer dance, I've been to a julbord I know a lot of things about the cultural things that is important for the Swedish society and I'm so interested to know about everything […].” She says it is important to take part in and understand the new culture to create better relations with other people living in Sweden: “I'm more interested to get into the society and kind of know more and I also think that if I know a bit more about the society or if I'm trying to know more about the society that is also one way to connect to people and try to speak to how they live and what they do and how they celebrate their festivals - so it's pretty exciting.”

In summary, culture is an important part of social integration since it plays a significant role in societies all over the world. The lack of cultural capital, or the lack of the vast cultural capital in Sweden for Indians in this research leaves them outside major cultural environments where culture is reproduced. Nonetheless, a desire for

44 and a will to adapt, which many of the interviewees expressed, show that they are on the way to build up knowledge to engage more in the social society.

Language All the interviewees, repeatedly mentioned language to be the most common and biggest hurdle to reach out and blend themselves with other groups in the Swedish society. Both I5, I6 and I8 explains this well and are willing to learn the language, unfortunately they seem to be stopped due to their work, where English is the common business language.

According to numerous researchers like; Samovar et al (2012) or Ager and Strang (2008), language is closely connected to culture. In order to fully understand a culture one needs to understand the language. A lack or low knowledge of language leads to an invisible hurdle placed between oneself and others. Many of the interviewees admit their level of Swedish is low. Since they speak English at work many of them lack motivation, which according to Samovar et al (2012) is central in the aspiration to learn a new language. Koopmans (2010) suggests the Swedish integration model will likely fail since immigrants only have the capabilities to learn a language but lack the aspiration to do so. Even though employment is shown to be important to learn a local language (Koopmans, 2010), the English level in the Indian interviewees’ workplaces are high enough that mastering Swedish is not necessary. Here lies a “catch-22” where Swedish is central to learning about Swedish culture, but is not learnt since English is used to a large extent.

This is what I5 says: “[…] I'm working in a sector where different world is connected that's why we're okay with English we can go anywhere and talk but if I'll go to hospitals, other government services or anywhere outside my office - Swedish is very important […]” and I6 supports this: “Not necessary but it’s nice to know the language, there is no harm in learning a language because you're living in this country.” I6 points out that aspirations is not connected to learning a language while others stated that if one wants to live in a country for a long time, language should be learnt: “[…]there's not that kind of need to learn Swedish, I have a friend hwo have lived in Sweden for ten years and still don’t speak Swedish. So it’s not like a future thing, yes of course maybe aspiration matters but I don't think in IT field you care much about that.”

While, being well integrated in their work places their social integration in the spare- time seem to be missed out. I5 and I8, really would like to learn more of the language.

45 This is how I8 resonates: “not at work because a language of work is English for both of us and that's partly the reason why we have not picked up Swedish so quickly but I do realize that my colleagues, a lot of them are Swedish and I do realize that they like to interact with each other in Swedish […]”. She continues: “[…] often they [Swedish people] have conversations going on like while sitting while working and then you miss out on those things I think so I really feel like I need to know Swedish for the social integration.”

In summary, language is a key-component in a new culture. In the Indian interviewees’ cases, many of them don’t need Swedish actively at work, which leaves them with low Swedish language skills over all. As mentioned before, the low participation in education and other civic settings and the chances to learn Swedish are not easily found.

4.1.4 Foundation Ager and Strang (2008), describe foundations to be about nationhood; human rights and responsibilities, and the way policies are being written in countries will lead to consequences for people in their social integration. If governments wants to have a fruitful integration process; the ability to express and communicate human rights and country specific policies regarding expectations and responsibilities are essential and could lead to a positive outcome in the society (p.173-177).

Koopmans (2010) concludes that is important to look at integration outcomes in Europe when comparing integration models. Focus on human rights and legislations in welfare countries having policies developed after multiculturalism philosophies, such as Sweden, are important but also tends to look at rights and not responsibilities. Aspirations he suggest, gets eradicated by the capabilities and only leads to further segregation between social groups (p.21-23).

Responsibilities All of the interviewees said they thought it was important not only to know the rights in a society but also felt a need to contribute. Here, many of the interviewees said there was a vast difference between Sweden and India, where in India people didn’t want to pay tax as far as they could due to corruption and slow development. This made the interviewees and their fellow countrymen trying to escape taxes back home –while – in Sweden they all wanted to pay tax and liked the idea of a society where the taxes showed actual results.

46 Both I6 and I10 confirm this pattern in their interviews. I6 states the following: “for me it is like you are paying your taxes and you are contributing something to the country and it is visually seen so in India it is not like that […] in the winters you see the city [in Sweden] is lit up with lights and it's so beautiful and the same goes into spring they start bringing flowers and then you know decorating the streets and all those things so when you see such things you feel that okay it's what you're paying all your taxes; are you contributing something to the country; that it is no loss because you are getting to live in such a beautiful environment.”

This is how I10 resonates: “absolutely, I would say that when you are in India you actually try to save taxes and not pay the taxes, you try to because you know your money is not being used for any good and you don't know where your money is going, it might be in someone's pocket, maybe I'm paying taxes for like ten years and the road has not never been built to railway station for example […] when it comes to Sweden I think a lot of development work is done.”

According to Emilsson et al (2014) one of the biggest reasons for high-skilled labor migrants to work in Sweden is the high standard and the welfare state, which in accordance with answers in this study shows are similar. A reason for this, is that high- skilled labor migrants are not only looking for places where they have the highest salary, rather they look for an environment where the whole system that one lives in is intact. The welfare state is also mentioned as a desirable destination (p.71).

Human rights Borevi (2014) explains the Swedish immigration system based on egalitarianism and that all people living in Sweden should have equal access to all functions in the society just as the native Swedes have. This requires a controlled and regulated immigration legislation where all needs for the immigrants are catered for (p.710). Although, other nations in Europe have changed their immigration laws to be more restrictive, Sweden has still embraced the multicultural perspective, which indicates immigrants lives under same premises as native Swedes (p.720).

When asking I9 about his human rights, he was quite clear about them and gave good examples on how these could be acted out: “I mean for example if you're gay here I mean I manage a team and the gay person she was married to her partner, in India that wouldn't have been a possibility, so for me that was like okay: there are more rights; there's more freedom here; then of course all these maternity policies that is a right or

47 what, but it's also a practice which is much more supportive of a person in Sweden then it would be in India - looks more open, more comforting here.”

In summary, foundations in a society are important for people to enjoy their human rights but also to contribute. Many of the interviewees do pay tax and thus participate in society by executing their responsibilities. However, when asked about elections, political and civic organizations most of them, with few exceptions, didn’t know much and didn’t participate in these domains, which is an important factor for social integration. This can be related to Bourdieu’s theory about habitus (Bourdieu & Nice, 1977) where many of the interviewees still struggle to understand how to orientate in the Swedish social and cultural landscape where they (at some times) don’t know how to vote or what to vote on because the political system in Sweden is different from the Indian. As I9 said, he doesn’t care much about politics in India since there are higher levels of corruption, while in Sweden he feel it is more important because in Sweden the political system actually leads to social change(s) for people. In coherence with Bourdieu (1986), cultural capital takes time to achieve and knowledge about other cultures manners, values and shared beliefs can be difficult to obtain. Since the Indian interviewees haven’t gained that much social and cultural capital in Sweden, the knowledge about human rights and responsibilities are quite minimal.

4.2 Interpersonal communication In this section, interpersonal communication, I will analyze in what way communication may increase or decrease the distances between the Indian interviewees and other social groups in Sweden. This is a major factor to understand since the level of communication between different social groups have the possibility to build bridges and gaps in a society.

This sections has a different structure compared to 4.1 where I used the Ager and Strang framework (2008). I have created headlines defined by my patterns in the interviews and have named them: Change of behavior in order to adapt, Differences in culture, Formal versus informal, Swedish people closed, and Language and culture as barriers to interact. During this section I will consistently use the concepts presented in figure 3.

48

Figure 3, Interpersonal communication (Larsson, 2018). 4.2.1 Change of behavior in order to adapt Have changed Most of the interviewees say they have changed their way of communicating in Sweden and thus confirms the concept of convergence.

Convergence as a concept indicate how groups will change their communicative behavior according to the ruling social group. This is because, in this case the out-group (Indians) wants to be more similar to the in-group (Swedes) and in the long term get social approval. Those changing communicative behavior also do this based on what they anticipate is the right way of communicating. This doesn’t leads to the immediate success, because if changes are over- or underperformed this kind of adjustments might be negatively received (Dragojevic & Giles, 2014:37-39).

Dragojevic and Giles (2014) explain that adjustment to others in interpersonal communication has to do with dominance versus submissiveness, where weaker groups tend to obtain the dominant groups behaviors such as the way one speaks and use non-verbal communication (p.37). I1, says: “the Indian English and the Swedish English it's quite different […] when you are communicating in India you mostly focus on the things going on in India when you're communicating with the people here [in Sweden] you talk about the world […] I will talk more about the overall world level just not only India, you change the subject.” When I ask if there are more concrete examples I1 mentions: “I would say I've changed my English as well and I speak much slower and I mean I cannot explain but the way Swedish people speak English is quite different from Indians and I think I have adapted to a lot of Swedish way of speaking.”

According to Dragojevic and Giles (2014), speech is not the only significant part of communication. All sorts of communication is part of behavior. For a human to feel

49 comfortable, the concept of fit can be used, where we change our ways of communicating, either conscious or unconsciously to fit in the current context (p.34). This is how I9 responds to this: “I think in my case I can say that I have this habit of interjecting quite a bit or I had this habit but since the time I've come here [to Sweden] I let people speak until they are finished […] I do not want to make this because nobody else does that, so I think that is something which I have also picked up.”

Work is a context where I8 says she has adapted the way she communicates because of the differences between India and Sweden: “very much at work. Like I said India it was very hierarchal and here it's like respect for all jobs you know whoever it is and an engineering degree but you know the respect doesn't come from that.”

Dragojevic and Giles also argue people are more aware of their divergent behaviors i.e. where they don’t change or rather create a space between themselves and others, this is because it might be difficult to see one’s own changes to accommodate others in e.g. conversations (2014).

In summary, many of the interviewees have changed behavior in communication during their time in Sweden. They have adapted to the dominant speakers, the Swedes and thus converged with Swedish social groups in order to fit into the context and be approved as recognizable group members.

4.2.2 Differences in culture Need to approach Allport (1954) explains that prejudices between social groups could be lowered if social group members communicate. This leads to better harmonization in societies. Dragojevic and Giles (2014) suggests the same and states that social groups that interact more will begin to share a common group identity where interpersonal communication between in-groups and out-groups could evolve into new social categories. This is central to enable a closer gap between social groups.

Many of the interviewees mention differences in cultures between Sweden and India. This plays out in various sceneries and settings around the society. I3, I2 and I9, mentions their need to approach people in Sweden in order to have a conversation. This is what I3 says: “I mean you have to always take the first step and you have to make that person confident that I'm really willing and I'm kind of a good person.” I9 agrees with: “for me most of the time I am the one who is actually initiating the conversation” I2 says: “swedes are usually very a bit conservative but what I have

50 noticed is it takes time then once they are friends with you they are forever friends with you.”

During this research, many of the interviewees points resonate with the theory presented by Dragojevic and Giles (2014) where they feel a need to communicate and close the gaps to other social groups in Sweden. However, there are difficulties for the Indians to understand the right ways to communicate. The cultural differences between how people communicate in Sweden and India, all comes down to how these societies are different. As Samovar et al (2012) mentions, collectivist cultures usually have closer ties to other members in the communities and often have closer relations, whereas in Sweden coming from an individualistic culture, social groups tend to have larger distances between each other.

In summary, many of the interviewees feel a need to approach Swedish people in interpersonal communications. The reasons for this can be related to cultural differences. If contact with Swedes are difficult to engage. There is a risk of larger gaps or maintenance of the large gaps between the groups which could lead to free flows of prejudice and stereotypes.

4.2.3 Formal versus informal Swedish politeness and formality may be hard to break through and difficult to handle for many of the Indian interviewees. This is how I2 relates to this: “well in Sweden usually it starts a bit formal before it gets informal. In India it's from the word go it's informal […] in Sweden especially if you are from a different culture interacting with the Swedes it starts a bit formal and you don't take things as granted […] the mutual understanding you don't take it as granted.”

I10 likes the Swedish mentality of being a bit formal and polite and says back home in India, people can be rude and less open to different views about how to live: “in India often people try to intrude forcefully into your personal life like when are you getting married when are you doing this when are you doing that?[…] but when it comes to Sweden people respect you and sometimes if you are undergoing some kind of a personal tragedy they also respect you it's not a grocery list [like in India].”

In summary, the Swedish formality, is difficult to some and appreciated for some. The perceptions for the interviewees goes both ways but many of the interviewees have

51 difficulties to understand Swedish formality which leads to an initial gap between the groups.

4.2.4 Swedish people closed Dragojevic and Giles (2014) discuss this by mentioning in-groups and out-groups in a society. In the case of Indians, these migrants might feel a distance and not be able to connect with the out-group, the Swedish population. This distance, could lead to a wider range of prejudices and stereotypes of the out-group. These stereotypes and prejudices can have effects on the interaction and relations between different groups in a society. Furthermore, if barriers are not broken or taken down, negative assumptions about other out-groups could result in dehumanization (p.36-37). The overall perspective from the participants in this study is that they view Swedish people as closed and hard to approach - which is a living stereotype about Swedish people more generally. According to the theory from Dragojevic and Giles, if there were more interaction between the groups, a different view of Swedish people could have been the case, which could lead to more harmonization in the society (2014:34-35).

This could be related to divergence and maintenance, two concepts coined in Communication Accommodation theory (CAT). The in-group in this example, Swedes, are fine with their behavior and it is exactly that behavior that links Swedes to one- another, while the out-group, the Indians, feel this is impolite. These strategies will maintain a distance between the groups and are especially important when examining social group identities (Dragojevic & Giles, 2014:40-41).

A common theme during the interviews are the barriers interviewees feel when trying to communicate with Swedish people. Some of the interviewees mentions pets to be problem while others just mention how Swedish people are closed to themselves and therefore they don’t embrace their surrounding community.

I3, I6 and I7 all mentions how closed Swedish people are and difficulties to enable conversations. I3 says: “I mean people don't open up that much but whereas when it comes to India I think I'm pretty much open and communicate very easily to my friends and colleagues.” and I6 also thinks people don’t open up but find the work to be a place where conversations are fruitful: “I can relate most of the things in my work place because it's the place where you would be spending more time” and when asked where and when outside the work area Swedish people are open she says: “maybe when they are drunk.”

52 I7 talks about how Swedish people are hard to get in contact with and discuss how pets become close friends to Swedish people, which I7 thinks is a bit strange: “if you are alone here and as an immigrant it's very difficult to you know, kind of get friends in the society because I feel people here mostly would prefer to be alone […] they would mostly prefer pets; cats and dogs but I feel that's kind of hide away […] I'm kind of strongly against that because pets do not have choice […] human has a choice, human has feelings, human can talk so you cannot get along with humans? […] but the fact remains that you're staying with a pet for years but not with a human.”

In summary, many of these examples of interviews are connected to the concept of maintenance where groups keep their distances between each other. Many of the interviewees indicates how swedes are closed to themselves, which most probably could be related to the Swedish culture and the way people communicate are not immediately understood by the Indian interviewees. However, if this is a conscious strategy by Swedish social groups is difficult to prove.

4.2.5 Language and culture as barriers to interact Language, is once again a barrier to interact and a reason for low-levels of interpersonal communication between Indians and Swedes. However, scientific findings shows this to be a common issue and have effects on the cultural aspect too, because language and culture (i.e. behaviors and values) a very much connected (Turner, 2010).

Yet, there are possibilities in building upon a common respectful identity framework. Research made on families where different cultures are involved has the ability to create a common identity where different strategies in communication are used in order to make the group dynamic harmonious (Dragojevic & Giles, 2014).

I4 says: “for me to interact with a non-Indian person is easy but for some of the Indians it's difficult and I see that on a daily basis as well like people from India generally they are so; I don't know how do you say; they are shy or they are not very well in communication. When it comes to technical skills they are very good but when it comes to speaking to people or interacting or expressing their views they lack that and that is maybe one of the things or one of the reasons that they are closed in their own, they need the Indian community to interact because ultimately we are all humans so we need to interact with another human […] I think that capability of me to interact speak the language makes easy for me to interact and also I tend to make friends easily.” This is essential when thinking about how humans are behaving. The ability to speak and

53 communicate with others has been the driving force for survival among humans for centuries (Samovar et al., 2012). As I4 advocates, if you don’t know the local language there will be big chances low levels of communication will take place. As mentioned earlier, this might lead to larger distances between social groups in societies (Dragojevic & Giles, 2014).

I5 states the following: “we are not able to start the conversation very often because we don't know much about what is happening […] what is going on, and as we are outsiders we don't know much about Sweden right now so that's why we are not able to be part of the Swedish society […] we are not interested in go and start a discussion in English where they are talking in Swedish.” I5 also continues to explain the difficulties with initiating a conversation: ”so if you want to go and talk with them [Swedes] they are quite okay with it but they will not come to you and always make you feel like you come and trouble or something.”

For I8 the culture is a bit difficult to grasp and therefore also some subjects are difficult to discuss because she doesn’t know what’s good or not good to talk about. Hence, conversations between people from different social groups are small in numbers: “I'm also bit more careful about you know what you say and what you speak because you don't know what you can and what you cannot speak with them [Swedes] you know that those things are still not very clear to us. If it's a person of Indian origin we know exactly what we can talk with them and what we cannot […] but that sometimes takes time [in Sweden].”

In summary, language and culture also plays an important part in the daily interpersonal communication between groups. A clear connection could be made to Bourdieu’s concept of habitus where knowledge about the social and cultural context is missing out among the Indian interviewees. Once again, this outcome shows how distances are maintained between Swedes and Indians.

4.3 National identification This section is constructed in the same way as 4.2 where the patterns from the interviews will be named: Examples of interviewees saying yes to identification with Swedishness, Examples of interviewees saying no to identification with Swedishness and processes to identify with Swedishness. These were the best patterns and hence

54 themes that I could find during this research. I will apply the concepts under each theme to analyze the interviewees’ answers.

Figure 4, National identification (Larsson, 2018). Interviewees in this research have explained mixed attitudes towards nation-ness and in particular Swedishness. Some already feel they are Swedish, while most feel they are half-way or have a long way left to feel Swedish. I have decided to create three categories where Indian interviewees either say; yes; no; or where they are in the process of becoming Swedish. These are all related to identification or ascribing to an ethnic, national or civic group formation. I will use concepts such as commitment, self- categorization and self-identification; and multiple identities to describe and understand the interviewees’ discussions.

Many of the interviewees, have just started to participate in Swedish rituals and traditions where much of the identification process takes place. Looking further in to rituals and practices in Sweden, some of the interviewees have embraced the Swedish working culture. But, the Swedish working culture, is only one building stone in national identification, thus the Indian interviewees still need to learn and experience values and common beliefs central to the Swedish nation where an identification can appear. One important aspect here is that adaption to a new society most often is the case for immigrants all over the world, to a smaller or larger extent (Naujoks, 2010:9).

4.3.1 Examples of interviewees saying yes to identification with Swedishness The answers differ quite frequently on which level they felt Swedish. Most of the interviewees mentioned they were not identifying with being Swedish to a full extent, but I1 said it takes about two years to know Swedish people and culture, which he meant was enough to feel Swedish: “for me I would say it took me two years to know Swedish people in details about the culture here.” I6, however, felt a bit Swedish and

55 agreed with I1 that it takes almost two years: “a bit Swedish […] eighteen months to two years.”

In accordance with Naujoks (2010) the ability to build up identification for numerous identities is applicable to these answers because individuals have the possibility to ascribe to many different identities. In this study this will signify that although the interviewees saying yes to identify with Swedish identity, they still also feel Indian at the same time. According to Hammar (1985) identities are not a zero-sum game where the new identity replaces the old.

This is also central for the concept of commitment where, to my understanding, a commitment can be towards the ethnic community (in this study, the Indian community for the Indian interviewees) and also to the new community, the Swedish. Perhaps, by saying yes to identification with the Swedish identity, the interviewees may begin to commit to Swedish culture, values and behavior while also developing an attachment, which, according to Phinney (2004), leads to weaker or stronger ties to social groups. In this case, attachment to the Indian community in Sweden might be weaker and thus a stronger attachment and commitment towards the Swedish national identification forms a stronger sense of being Swedish. What these two interviewees have in common is in fact Swedish friends where stronger ties to the Swedish community has been accomplished.

Self-categorization and self-identification also have effects on those saying yes to Swedish identification because this is the process when an individual ascribe to a certain social group membership (Naujoks, 2010). These interviewees saying yes to Swedish identification has most probably a deeper connection with what they consider being Swedish. This can be applied to their work or friends, where they engaging with Swedish people, where they actively adjusting to Swedish norms and culture, which in the longer term leads to a self-categorization and self-identification towards what they believe is being Swedish. Thus, borders between what Indianness is and Swedishness is erodes. For these interviewees saying yes to Swedish identification the border between the Indian identity and the Swedish identity is more open. This doesn’t mean they identify less with the Indian diaspora in Sweden. On the opposite, they self- identify more with Swedish customs and culture, compared to the other interviewees participating in this study.

56 Racism and discrimination towards the Indians identifying themselves as Swedes could also be potentially less compared to those saying no. As one example, I1, says he identifies as a Swede and also faces no restrictions with communication with other social groups in Sweden. He also says that the only hurdle is the Swedish language that he can’t speak. This confirm to earlier empirical studies in Poland (Jaskulowski, 2017) and Italy (Stievano et al., 2017) were discrimination and racism did occur but to a smaller extent.

4.3.2 Examples of interviewees saying no to identification with Swedishness Here we see the connection between culture and language, which Samovar et al (2012) describe are deeply connected. Furthermore, language is the formation in which a culture takes place (Samovar et al, 2012). Hence, the lack 0f language skills among the Indian interviewees leads to an exclusion in the Swedish society. Samovar et al (2012) suggest time as an important parameter to gain deeper attachments to new cultures and nations.

This is how I2 responds even if he has spent a few years in Sweden. He says he has been involved too little with Swedes and the Swedish culture: “not yet no, because I haven't embraced the language yet and haven't embraced the society completely yet and haven't had too many social interactions with the Swedes yet so I don't think I have become a citizen yet no.”

This can be applied to the self-categorization and self-identification process where borders are important to understand how a social groups’ identity is formed. This suggest that interviewees saying no to Swedish identification is more attached and committed to their diasporic-ethnic, national and civic diaspora which they have accomplished first in their home countries and then later in Sweden. According to Naujoks (2010) the sense of identifying with the heritage and where one comes from also grows when being abroad. The feeling of being an Indian national can even grow stronger compared to when living in the home country (India) (p.8). The ties to the originated background can grow and the importance of sustaining the home identity becomes vital to an individual for how to ascribe to a certain social group. Mostly of the times a diasporic-ethnic sense of belonging comes into play where traditions and rituals are performed.

Some of the interviewees saying no to a sense of identifying with Swedishness also have hard times communicating with Swedes and thus can’t find the attachment and

57 commitment to the Swedish identification. In that case, with the concept of Diasporic- ethnic identification, the Indian diaspora in Sweden offer a sense of collective belonging abroad. This is promoted by Indian events (many times described in the interviews) where the perception of Indianness comes alive and where Indians living in Sweden can meet and build a symbolic ethnicity (Naujoks, 2010:9).

Another connection that can be made here is the low levels of social connections (4.1.2) and low levels of language and culture (4.1.3). In contradiction to the interviewees saying yes to whether they identify with Swedishness, the interviewees saying no have lower levels of social connections with other social groups in Sweden. This could also be a sign of discrimination where the majority population in Sweden, the dominating social class (according to Bourdieu, 1986) steer how culture and social aspects such as language, education, shared behaviors or values and norms are operated. Since the Indian interviewees don’t fit into dominating Swedish norms, then they might be a victim of structural racism and discrimination. In the former section on interpersonal communication numerous interviewees did feel a sense of divergence between the intergroup relations (Indian versus Swedish) which once again can be connected to the low levels of attachment and commitment (Phinney, 2004) to Swedishness. In the end, this shows that the Indian interviewees see themselves as outsiders in the Swedish identifying process. In the next section this will be discussed further.

4.3.3 Processes to identify with Swedishness There is a transformation in the Indians’ minds about “who am I and where am I going?” A sort of, what Hall (2014) writes, caught in between the past and the future. Here, the Indian interviewees will embrace the new culture and have also embraced the Swedishness to some extent, while at the same time they are still relating to their past; their shared history of being Indians where Diasporic-ethnic, Diasporic-national and Diasporic-civic identification occur (Naujoks, 2010). The voluntary (in this degree project) displacement from the motherland to a new context have led the Indian interviewees not only to gain a new sense of Swedish identity, but the Indians have also started to re-negotiate their past. With the new influx of culture, the Indian cultural identity slowly starts to become a new form of origin, there are no longer a fixed essence of India, and instead the perspective of the motherland have changed (Hall, 2014).

I8 and I9 have lived here for a longer time and resonates to this. They say they have changed national mentality but are more or less trapped between the Indian and the

58 Swedish identity. I8 says: “yeah, I don't think that I'm completely, I haven't adopted, I have adopted many of the practices which makes me feel you know like a little more Swedish in that sense […] I can't be fully Swedish and I'm not thinking in Swedish if I'm not talking in Swedish if I can't you know get the general context of things in Swedish then I can't call myself fully Swedish.” She ends with “I'm integrating a lot of the work practices and things like that so and also the cultural aspects you know the equality and all of that so it is somewhere in the middle I would say.” I9 continues with “in our minds also we have become more like you know of course you have to do a lot of work yourself but then there are lot of comforts and other factors which I'm taking care of yeah work ethics is clear difference you know I see a big difference in for example I can’t see myself going back to again [India].”

I7 also says language is a barrier and social acceptance from other side is needed. He says it’s a two-step process where first: “start speaking in Swedish” is necessary and secondly “acceptance from the other side but I think it will be a long process it is not a small process.” Here the national language is mentioned as one of the biggest symbols for a national identity. In order to acquire national identity one needs to understand the language and the meaning of the culture. I5 agrees to having difficulties with Swedish language, which the subject believes is necessary to begin feeling Swedish and says: “if I want to be a Swedish citizen then I need to first learn Swedish” and then “first you need to understand how people are communicating over here then you can interact with them then you can prepare your reason to like how you want to be so it’s all depend on that.” Here, habitus can be applied where Bourdieu and Nice claim social knowledge will make you understand how to move in the social landscape (1977). I10 also discuss the concept of habitus without knowing it, she says:” if I learned the language I think to some extent it would be good but you are born like you are born so maybe you will have a different idea and I think everyone whether it’s Swedish or it’s in you know; it’s any community they have to accept that idea that you are different and you have your own identity.” More than habitus, her discussion in the interview leads to hybrid identities (or multiple identities) (Naujoks, 2010) where many identities can be ascribed to an individual at any given time. This indicate that the Indian interviewees can be both ascribing to Indianness and Swedishness where a constant identification process is in place unconsciously.

59 The process to gain Swedish identity or Swedishness is described differently by the interviewees. I3 says it’s difficult because she has low social connection to Swedish people: “it is really important which I think that’s one of the barriers that I have right now to feel more Swedish and second I think it would be a bit difficult to really get integrated in the society and feel Swedish because as I said Swedish people are not open or they are not very social to accept newcomers in their group or in their society or in their social group.” According to scholars such as Bourdieu, social capital and a social network is important to accumulate more capital and thus move up in the social strata. However, reasons for the dominating class to accept or welcome outsiders needs to be valid and of interest (1986).

I4 needs more time, has difficulties with language and the different culture: “it's too early as I said it's been just one year and few months so you cannot understand a culture of the country […] the more you adopt the the more you will become Swedish also it's in the language for example my language English has changed a little bit while I have lived here I've started using some words which are never used in U.K. for example.” I5 also says the same but is still positive: “five days we're busy with work then two days we have to do our own work so it's quite hectic […] I don't have any idea like what is going on around me so it depends like if I'll get a chance to involve obviously I'll be.”

In summary, national identification is based on several concepts from where an individual starts to be attached and commits to a certain social group. Among the Indian interviewees in this degree project, most of them have difficulties identifying with the Swedish identity, mostly because of several factors and among them; lack of Swedish language, Swedish culture and lack of social connections that lead the Indian interviewees to an identification processes coherent with Naujok’s (2010) Diasporic- ethnic, Diasporic-national and Diasporic-civic framework for diasporas in the world. This framework suggest that factors such as homeland politics and news (p.6), family back home in India (p.5) and also Indians in Sweden (p.8) play a significant part in the Indian interviewees process to form their Swedish identification. Furthermore, scholars (Naujoks, 2010; Hammar, 1975) suggest that multiple identities are more realistic for migrants.

60 5 Discussion Social integration of immigrants is a complex issue and this degree project is no exception. The three research fields used in isolation from each other cannot answer the research questions but together as integrated parts, they answer the research questions. My model for social integration, where social integration, interpersonal communication and national identification are used together have resulted in a new perspective on how to build analytical frameworks to understand social integration. Since my studies are related to Communication for Development research I have also emphasized communication as a key factor for social integration.

My point of departure is from the qualitative methodology strand where nine semi- structured interviews have been done with ten interviewees in total. These interviews are the bottom-line data contribution to the whole research where theoretical research fields and concepts have been used to find empirical data to answer the research questions and the research aim.

5.1 Answers to the research questions I would like to start with looking at the background of the Indian interviewees. Many of them are born and raised in middle-class families with access to good education and what they refer to as good socioeconomic standards. Since India is a heterogeneous society with many different confessions and cultures one can argue that it is difficult to draw generalizing assumptions about a whole population. In fact this has not been my intent with this study. For me it has been far more interesting to understand how these Indian interviewees in this study in Sweden view their social integration. In addition, many of the Indian interviewees also find Sweden as a plural society with a heterogeneous population which the interviewees mentioned as something familiar with living in Sweden.

RQ 1: In what way are highly-skilled Indian immigrants in Sweden socially integrated?

My analysis indicates numerous outcomes. As one example the low level of Swedish language is a frequent factor recurring throughout this degree project no matter if I use social integration, interpersonal communication or national identification as theoretical research fields. With reference to Bourdieu (1986) the level of social capital is low for the Indian interviewees in general and for those (the majority of the

61 interviewees) without Swedish friends in particular. In coherence with the InterNations survey (2018) where Sweden was ranked last on making friends abroad, this study shows the same pattern.

When looking at the Ager and Strang framework (2008) used for social integration, the employment gives the Indian interviewees a clear possibility to become better socially integrated. Living standards such as living in a better neighborhood, better school, better connected neighbors and overall a higher socioeconomic standard can increase the level social integration. However, the low participation in civic society outside working hours leaves many of the Indian interviewees with colleagues going home after working hours and few places for further integration. One can argue that this is the way the Indian interviewees want to live, but it also makes them less socially integrated since opportunities such as to join Swedish for immigrants (Sfi) are not taken. This also indicates the low levels of habitus (Bourdieu and Nice, 1977) where a cultural understanding is hard to achieve among the Indian interviewees. As an effect of this, the political system and the governance of Sweden as a country is also not well known. Despite this, all of the Indian interviewees expressed an interest in this matter.

Another central discussion was how Swedish people were closed which are signs of divergence in interpersonal communication. This can be connected to either discrimination or racism, where UN CERD (2017) reported issues about this in Sweden. None of the interviewees admitted that this was due to discrimination or racism, but revealing these kind of systematic structural actions can be difficult. Indications in this study points at Swedish people as closed and not interested in engaging with the Indian interviewees in an interpersonal communication perspective. The low levels of daily communication between the Indian social group and other social groups in Sweden suggest a maintained gap in their relation. According to scholars such as Dragojevic and Giles (2014) or Allport (1954) these intergroup relations can lead to increased forms of prejudice and stereotyping between social groups in a social setting.

RQ 2: What aspects in the daily social interaction and communication are important and affect how and in what extent the Indians identify themselves as Swedes?

Apparently the Swedish society seems to give the Indian interviewees a difficult time to approach and being accommodated by Swedes, especially in interpersonal communication. Indications from this study show that these missing out opportunities

62 on interpersonal meetings and deeper friendships can be one of the core issues with identifying with the Swedish culture and nation. The multicultural policies on keeping ethnicity alive (Borevi, 2014) and having freedom to choose identity (e.g. ethnicity, nationality, sexuality) could be part of a fragmented society. As one example the enforcement of keeping ethnicity alive and not putting pressures on immigrants to integrate (e.g. learn the host community’s language or participate in cultural traditions) could lead to enclaves of social groups not interacting (Koopmans, 2010). Many of the findings in this study indicate that more time is needed to gain a better understanding of Swedish culture. This could improve the interpersonal communication habits.

If we connect social integration and interpersonal communication with national identification an interesting finding appears and that is the low levels of identification with Swedishness. Only the interviewees with close ties and attachment to Swedish friends (native Swedes) showed signs of identification while the majority didn’t identify with Swedishness or were in a negotiation process (Hall, 2014) to identify with Swedishness. One conclusion is that when you can’t find a reason or don’t succeed to create attachment and commitment with a social group you maintain your background and ethnicity, which for the interviewees in this study leads to increased involvement with the Indian diaspora in Sweden. Naujoks (2010) states that immigrants abroad increase their ethnic, national or civic identification with the homeland since the border to others are easier to distinguish compared to being home where the national identification is viewed as natural.

If we apply Berry’s (2011) concept of social integration where there needs to be a mutual accommodation between social groups and acceptance of immigrants from the native majority culture I would claim that the Indian interviewees are socially integrated to some degree. However, the question is in what way they are socially integrated, and here the economic status with employment, living in considered good neighborhoods and the middle-class background gives the Indian interviewees a good chance to become better socially integrated in the future. Another issue to this is the mutual accommodation: if the Indian interviewees subjectively feel that they are denied attention and confirmation by the Swedish normative majority, then marginalization or separation may be more appropriate to describe the Indian interviewees’ integration status in Sweden.

63 5.3 Possible explanations and speculation I have now showed how these fields together contribute to an increasing understanding for how integration in social and national contexts can be applied. In this last model (figure 5) I have included migrants’ integration in social and national contexts as a factor in the middle of the model, describing where the three theoretical research fields meet each other.

Figure 5, Migrants integration in social and national contexts (Larsson, 2018).

5.4 Limitations The participants are only ten in this study with various backgrounds, employment situations, life-goals and reasons to participate. Because of their situations and their hospitality I had the chance and the fortune of getting closer to them, which I am thankful for. Yet, there are many important aspects to ask why they let me do this, and probably if life situations were harsher and more difficult, access to the people and the apartments would be limited.

Another limitation is the short time frame, which if it was longer I could have visited more contexts such as the Indian community where I could have included more people to confirm more of the patterns and this could also have led to situations where more findings could have been obtained.

64 The age of the interviewees is also an interesting part, because most of the interviewees are young and haven’t been here for a long time. Therefore, many of them haven’t had the chance to learn the language or participate in cultural rituals and ceremonies.

I have also used snowballing sampling as a method (also mentioned in 3.3.3) to find interviewees. This approach carry issues such as homogeneity among the participants. To my ability I have tried to decrease this issue by using participants not too familiar with each other.

5.5 Implications Two of the interviewees didn’t want to meet in their homes which was my aim for all interviews. Instead we meet in coffee places in Malmö and the noise level and the surrounding stress could have an impact on the interviews.

5.6 Earlier research comparison In coherence with Zrinščak (2012) and Emilsson et al’s (2014) positive perspective of the Swedish welfare state among immigrants, interviewees in this study confirm this and mention this as different and better compared to the Indian context. Koopmans (2010) critique of the multicultural society has findings related to this study: not knowing the local language has consequences for integration (also mentioned by Liu et al (2018); Stievano et al (2017) and Jaskulowski (2017) in former studies), however as Borevi (2014) argues, Sweden as a country has been able to host and integrate many different social groups without deeper segregation in relative comparison to other European countries. This study can relate to this because of employment, good housing areas for most interviewees and processes where negotiations for new identifications take place.

If we look at Gallois et al’s (2018) research about intergroup relations and communication, this study, shows the importance of national identity in situations where interaction takes place between social groups. Keblusek et al (2017) did a research on clothing and group belonging, where factors as self-categorization are mentioned. This could be related to this study, where the Indians do look different compared to other social groups, which distinguish them from the majority population. Another aspect is prejudice and stereotyping between social groups. My discussion can be compared to the research done by Seate and Mastro (2017) where communication has the ability to both increase or decrease gaps between social groups. Seate and

65 Mastro (2017) focused on media, however, some of those components can be applied to my finding where prejudice and stereotyping can be an issue in building bridges between social groups. Although many of the studies are performed in the U.S., they show same patterns in the Swedish context.

Although Rodriguez et al (2016) did a study on children in the U.S., interesting findings where a mix of identification among immigrants occur have to some extent same findings here, where some of the interviewees confirm identification with several social categories. If we compare to the Finnish study by Brylka et al (2015) where ethnic citizenship is preferred in order to be acknowledged by the native majority population, this study shows the opposite where a civic approach is used in Sweden due to the multicultural policies, but it doesn’t necessarily lead to immediate identification among immigrants as my study suggests. Badea et al (2018) argue that multicultural societies where lower levels of national identification occur view immigrants as less threatening compared to societies where high level of national identification occur. In comparison with my study, this is relevant because the Indian high-skilled labor migrants never mentioned themselves as a threat in the Swedish context, they also insisted on how polite and nice Swedes are. This could be a sign of Sweden as nation where low levels of national identification takes place.

Close to this subject derives discrimination between social groups. Fleischmann and Phalet (2018) showed how immigrant youths have difficulties to identify themselves with the host country in Europe. Although I didn’t find direct evidence of discrimination in this study, commitment towards the ethnic identity is strong among the interviewees which could be signs of issues with commitment to identify with the host community.

5.7 Recommendations I would suggest to study the Indian group in three different ways: first one parameter which I didn’t have space for was the gender perspective, where young Indian females go abroad to find careers. I interviewed four of them and found this perspective to be interesting. Second, another suggested research is to find Indians who have lived in Sweden during a longer timespan to understand their levels of integration, interpersonal communication and identification in Sweden. Third, a study could be to look at the social media the Indian community use in Sweden to announce meetings and create relations among the Indian social group. In this way the theories from

66 national identification can be a good starting point in order to understand how the diaspora could be kept alive and what consequences this have for both the Indian community in Sweden but also for the integration between Indians and other social groups in Sweden.

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72 Appendix Interview template Interview Template

Semi-structured interviews with Indian Community, Sweden. Taking place during March, April and May 2018.

Starting questions

 Age:  Place of origin:  Year of arrival to Sweden:  Type of immigration status (e.g. short term VISA/Permanent residency) in Sweden:  Occupation:  Gender:

Integration related questions (based on domains of integration: Ager & Strang, 2008:170)

Markers and means (employment, housing, education, health):

 How is your employment situation?  How is your living conditions, i.e. where do you live and how was it to find the place where you live?  Have you been enrolled in the Swedish education system in any way (also including SFI) and in that case, how was that experience?  How do you find the Swedish healthcare in general and how’s the experience to access it?

Social connection (social bridges, social bonds, and social links):

 Are people from your own national/ethnic background important to you in Sweden?  Do you feel like a ‘family’ with other people with a similar background to yours? Why?  In the area where you live, do you interact with people from other groups in the society on daily basis?

73  Do you find people to be friendly around you in the society?  Do you participate in any social events where people from various social groups also participate?  How do you find government services to be, (in terms of access, time, distance)  How do you have social gatherings within the Indian communities?  Do you have Swedish people invited to your social gatherings?

Facilitators (language and cultural knowledge, safety and stability):

 Do you speak Swedish?  Do you need to speak Swedish and do you find it necessary?  Other languages (English) used?  How is or was the access to SFI (Swedish for immigrants), is this provided or do you have to pay for it?  When visiting government services such as hospitals or libraries, do you find information to be in a language you understand?  Did you feel a need to adjust to Swedish culture, and if you did how was it to adjust to the Swedish culture and norms?  Is Sweden culturally different from India and can you bring up examples of this and how they may be acted out? (E.g. family, friends, habits, traditions, politics, sports)?  It is said that integration is two-folded, meaning both parties need to adjust/comfort the other in order to integrate. Do you find groups in Sweden trying to reach out or bring up interest to learn from your culture?  Do you feel safe in your neighborhood?  Is it difficult to access considered good neighborhoods in Sweden and how is this different compared to the neighborhood situation in India?

Foundation (Rights and Citizenship):

 Do you feel the ability to express basic human rights in Sweden (e.g. right to your religion, language and culture)?  What do you know about your human rights in Sweden?  Do you feel a need to contribute to the Swedish society?  Do you feel protected by the Swedish state?

74  Do you have the rights to vote in elections, and if so, how was it and can you explain further about it?  Are processes to join political parties and organizations different in Sweden compared to India?

Swedishness:

 Have you become a full Swedish citizen?  How would you consider the process to become a citizen in Sweden?  If you feel Swedish, how long time did it take to gain that feeling?  How are your personal thoughts about ‘good integration’ in a society (assimilation versus multiculturalism)?  Do you feel satisfied with your level of integration and if not, what could have been managed better?  What are your aspirations with living and working in Sweden? (Staying, moving etc.)

Interpersonal Communication related questions (based on interpersonal communication and intergroup identity. Dragojevic, M & Giles, H. (2014). Language and interpersonal communication: Their intergroup dynamics in Berger, C. R. (2014). Interpersonal Communication. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.)

 Do you speak/interact with other people outside the Indian community during your spare time (i.e. outside the job area)?  Do you have a need to interact with non-Indians in Sweden in you spare time?  If you do, then where in the society do these interactions occur (e.g. sports, library, schools, in public places, or in private places)  How do you find interaction with other groups in the society (difficult or easy)?  When it comes to interaction, is there any differences here in Sweden compared to India and can you give some examples if that is the case?  Do you find other people outside the Indian community attracted to you or willing to approach you to have conversations?  Are people in Sweden interested in talking to each other despite cultural/national differences?

75  Is the Swedish society, compared to other societies, different when it comes to initiating conversations outside the job area?  If to name one or a few areas where you have had interactions with other non- Indian groups/persons in Sweden, where have these places been and what are the basic criteria to start a conversation?  Sweden is considered an individual society, what can you add to this when it comes to interpersonal communication?  Do you make efforts to enable a shared communication with others in Sweden, and if so, how do you consider it to work?  Have you changed the way you communicate in order to adapt to others in Sweden?

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