“How can we understand the role of education?”

A qualitative content analysis of resources, agency, and achievements of the situation of migrant women in Sweden and their political and social empowerment.

Politica l Science: Global Politics and Societal Change

One -Year Master Program

15 Credits. Fall 2019

Supervisor: Dr. Johan Brännmark

Student: Agata Kunka

Abstract Migration has been an extensive topic in Sweden as it has been debated and discussed through various perspectives such as through the political and social participation. Within this scope of research education is one of many important factors that enhance political and social participation within migrant women (Atger, 2009). This research aims to analyze the role of educating migrant women in empowering them to acknowledge their political and social development through the tool of empowerment theory of Naila Kabeer; resources, agency, and achievements (1999). Resources have been examined as economic, human and social ones by the tool of content analysis. Agency refers to the ability of individuals to recognize and act upon choices available to them; dec is io n-making process (Ibid). Achievements include women participation in different organizations, political parties and in the labo r market. This paper analyses education that empowers migrant women through resources, agency and achievements to become a socially and politically active agent in Sweden.

Word count: 16166

Keywords: Education, Migratio n, Women Empowerment, Social and Politica l Participatio n.

2 Table of Content

Abstract ...... 2 1.1 Introduction ...... 5 1.2 Topic Relevance to the Field of Political Science ...... 5 1.3 Aim and Research Question ...... 7 2. Literature Review ...... 8 2.1 Conceptualizing Empowerment from a gender lens ...... 8 2.2 Mapping the role of Education in Empowerment ...... 9 2.3 Women Empowerment, Education and Migration ...... 11 4. Theoretical Framework: Kabeer Empowerment Theory...... 12 4.1 Empowerment Theory and Political Science...... 13 3. Methodology...... 15 3.1 Data and Material...... 16 3.1.1 Semi-structured interviews...... 16 3.1.2 The Role of the Interviewees and the Researcher ...... 17 3.1.3 Ethical Consideration...... 18 3.2 Report: Migrant political participation: a review of policies and integration results in the OSCE region ...... 19 3.4 Delimitations ...... 19 3.5 The Case of Sweden...... 20 3.6 Qualitative Content Analysis and Coding ...... 22 5. Analysis...... 23 5.1 Mapping the Interviews with migrant women in Sweden (28-36)...... 24 5.1.1 Investigating Resources ...... 24 5.1.2 The Discussion of Income...... 24 5.1.2 The Discussion of Skills ...... 26 5.1.3. The Discussion of Civic Education ...... 27 5.2. Agency: Decision-Making...... 29 5.2.1. The Discussion of Decision Making ...... 30 5.2.2. The Discussion of Negotiations...... 30 5.2.3. The Discussion of Resistance ...... 31 5.2.5 The Discussion of Voice ...... 31 5.2.6 The Discussion of Cognitive Process of Reflections ...... 32 5.2.7 The Discussion of Capacity ...... 33 5.3. Achievements ...... 33 5.3.1. Capability...... 34 5.3.2. Polit ica l Participat ion...... 35 5.4. Report Analysis ...... 36 5.4.1 Resources ...... 37 5.4.1.1 Social Capital ...... 37 5.4.1.2. Civic Education, Citizenship Knowledge ...... 38 5.4.1.3. Income...... 39 5.4.2. Achievements ...... 39 5.4.2.1. Polit ica l Participat ion ...... 40 5.4.2.2. Social Participation: Voluntarism ...... 40 5.4.2.3. Capabilities ...... 41

3 5.4.3.Agency ...... 41 5.5. Conclusion of Analysis ...... 42 5.5.1 Resources: Income, Skills, Civic Education and Social Capital ...... 42 5.5.2 Agency and Achievement: Political Participation, Socia l Participat ion, Capabilit ies ...... 43 5.5.3 Discussion ...... 43 6. Conclusion ...... 44 7. Bibliography………………………………………………………………………………46 8.Appendix…………………………………………………………………………………...54

9.Appendix…………………………………………………………………………………...55

4 1.1 Introduction People from countries of the EU, as well as from countries within the European Economic Area (EEA) constitute a large and an important immigrant group in Sweden. The biggest group among the EU and EEA citizens in 2017 were Poles, followed by people from Finland, Germany, Norway, Romania, the UK, Ukraine, Russia, Slovakia and Denmark. The main reason of immigration fo r those people were: labor immigration and immigration of international students (S wedish Migration Agency, 2015). The main problem however according to (Albornoz et al, 2017) is that the skills and the level of education of immigrants acquired in their country of origin is less valued than the ones obtained in the country of destination such as Sweden. This is also underlined under the (OECD, 2015) as it states that the proficiency of immigrants in their native language is of little use in a host country. Thus, language skills reinforce the ability of immigrants to build social networks with the native- born population of Sweden, and search for a qualified job; determining the speed of integration and the success of empowerment – both political and social. Due to the fact that the empowerment of women immigrants in a host country is one of the vital objectives of developing government of a democratic state, the political and social participation of immigrants has been an issue with high significance. This is evident because in 1976 immigrants who had resided in Sweden for more than three years were given the right to vote and be elected in local and regional elections. However, this has not brought the result of participation to vote as was expected. Only 40 percent of those who were entitled to vote took part in election with very low women participation. The necessity to attend to the special needs and interest of the immigrants and their children thus become clear during this time (OECD 2015 and Swedish Migration Agency, 2015). For this reason, some key scholars such as (Verba et al, 1995) and (Campbell, 2006), argued that education influences individuals’ civic skills and cognitive capacity, which in turn increases political participation. Thus, understanding the relationship between education and political participation is one of the most important questions on political economics and political science (Berinsky & Lenz, 2011).

1.2 Topic Relevance to the Field of Political Science The relevance of this topic in the field of Political Studies lies in the understanding of empowerment of migrants in a host country that is one of the vital objectives of the government for a developed democratic state such as Sweden. The World Bank (2016), fo r example, has stated that the notion of empowerment and its implication in real life is one of the key essential elements of poverty reduction, democracy improvement; as well as the

5 primary development assistance goal for democratic states. It is relevant at the individual and collective level, and can be economic, social, or political. The concepts of empowerment, education and equality in political and social spheres of life are in the list of the most widely discussed and argued topics among worldwide activists and scientists (The Millennium Development Goals Rep. ort, 2015). This empowerment of women is a recognized need by the international agencies like UN Women and the UN Global compact Office (2001). These agencies emphasize that women empowerment in all sectors of economic life worldwide is very important in order to build strong economies, create stable and just societies, achieved sustainable international development goals, and to improve the life of women. Thus, Bisnath (2001) says that women empowerment can be achieved through consciousness raising, education and as well political participation. Therefore, understanding the relationship between education and political participation is one of the most important questions within politica l economics and politica l sciences (Berinsky & Lenz, 2011).

Given the aforementioned, this study aims to present and underline that migrant women of Baltic origins have great potential for social and political change in Sweden. This will be achieved through conducting different interviews about the role of education in empowering wo me n to realize their potential. This is relevant to Sweden, because the studies on the immigration of women have a long history in Sweden as a multicultural country (Mukundiyimana, 2013). Scholars have thus gathered much more information about Swedish native population and foreigners living within the country, their contribution and impacts on labor, health care sphere, education, social and political participation (Ibid ). A predominant line of argumentation in the existing academic literature shows that political participation of migrants is based on a multiplicity of elements that contribute to determining the extent to which migrant women may become an active agent by giving them the right tools through education (Atger, 2009). Within political science education for a long time it was consider a potential cure—the ‘‘universal solvent’’ that might alleviate participatory inequalities (Converse 1972, 324 in Kam and Palmer 2008). But is this view correct? Is education not underlined too much or are its effects misinterpreted in political behavior research?

Hence, it should be a main concern for political behavior research to find out how education

6 is related to political participation (Persson 2013, 878). For this reason, it is important to give migrant women political and social empowerment through education in the Swedish society.

1.3 Aim and Research Question Reiterating the above, this paper will focus on migrant women in Sweden as means to empower them to become politically and socially active by answering the following research question:

How can we understand the role of education in empowering migrant women in Sweden to become politically and socially active in their community? (Appendix 9).

Wo me n are the foc us o f this study and education as means to qualitatively measure the extent of their empowerment were chosen as the focus, due to the fact that while democratic countries have achieved the progress towards gender equality and women’s empowerment under the Millennium Development Goals, immigrants, particularly women and girls, continue to suffer from political and social discrimination and violence in many countries worldwide.

In empirical analyses of political participation, education is often used as an exogenous variable to predict participation in politics (Persson 2014). Verba et al (1995) and Campbell (2006), argued that education influences individuals’ civic skills and cognitive capacity, which in turn increases political participation. It is therefore important to investigate the relationship between education and civic and political outcomes in more depth a mo ng migrant women. Verba, Schlozman and Brady (1995) put forward three factors as central explanations for political participation: resources, motivation and recruitment. For this reason, this research aims to analyze the role of education in empowering Ba ltic migrant women which was the biggest migrant group in 2017 and to acknowledge their political and social development through the very relative tool of empowerment theory of Naila Kabeer. This theory was chosen because it focuses on three main elements; resources (life skills), agency, and achievements (1999). Education has a strong positive impact on individuals’ civic skills and cognitive capacity, which in turn increases political participation (Verba et al. 1995, Campbell 2006). Reiterating the above mentioned, Kabeer’s empowerment theory is the perfect tool to analyze empowerment in the context of our study as it not only addresses the gain of resources but also empowerment through a broader perspective of agency and later achievement. In this way this study could add to existing research within political sciences

7 data, analyzed through Kabeer’s three-dimensional conceptual frameworks, which make s it possible to measure the process of empowerment according to such categories.

To better understand what has been discovered in the field of political science, the next chapter will focus on the literature review and theoretical framework of this paper.

2. Literature Review This section will look deeper into the literature found in the field of political science to later use as a basis for the analysis of the given research question. It will be divided chronologically based on Kabeer’s theory of women empowerment as follows. It will first underline and bridge empowerment as means for political and social stability by examining the literature found from the gender lens. It will later map the linkage between education and Kabeer’s three phenomena on empowerment; resources, agency, and achievement. At the end, the paper will merge part one and two and discuss the literature found within the framework of migration and empowerment of women in Sweden.

2.1 Conceptualizing Empowerment from a gender lens Generally, the word empowerment means the process a person undergoes on the way to various changes, whether they are of the personal, professional, social or other meaning. For instance, Stromquist argued that empowerment is a process to change the distribution of power both within the interpersonal relations and in institutions throughout society (1999:14). With the extensive amount of migration, Abhyankar and Iyer distinguished the following elements of women empowerment access to information (as it is considered to be the weapon of the 21st century); inclusion and participation (meaning who and how one could be included in the process of participatory decision making, as well as the role one could play within it); accountability (the ability to rely on the public officials, answerable for the policies, actions and use of state’s funds); local organizational capacity (the ability of people to cooperate to make themselves heard and meaningful within social and political processes) (2001, 9). However, the key scholar who was among the first social scientists to investigate the phenomena of empowerment, namely Kabeer, proposed a very important and fruitful clarification to the sensation of empowerment quoting; “The expansion in people's ability to make strategic life choices in a context where this ability was previously denied to them" (2001:34). Kabeer proposed the understanding of choices compromising the following: resources, which form the conditions under which choices are made; agency, which is at the heart of the process through which choices are made and achievements, which are the

8 outcomes of choices (Ibid). F urther, Rowland (1997:34) outlines that the exploration of empowerment of women should be based on the following levels: personal (that involves the sense of self-esteem and inner capacity); relational (that is the ability to communicate influentially within as society); collective (involvement into political life of country, cooperation within groups of citizens or society in general). He suggests that it is the expansion of freedom of choice and the right of action to some extent, while increasing one’s authority over one’s life and within society.

This is a foc us o f this paper as it will discuss and qualitatively measure the empowerment of migrant women who mainly did not have previous ability to act as agents of social and political change in their country. For this reason, the next section will move further to outline Kabeer’s theory by mapping its relations to empowering migrant women.

2.2 Mapping the role of Education in Empowerment Education is considered to be the process that provides necessary knowledge and skills required for individuals to be fully integrated in the labor market and the economic sphere of a state. Education also makes people able to act according to well-informed decisions contributing to the socialization and stability of modern societies (Campbell, 2006:43). The first thing to understand within this top ic are the links between social well-being and education, especially in the current context of globalization were not only formal knowledge, but current individual’s abilities and skills play a key role in effective and successful participation of people living within a country in their social life (Ibid.) Moving further, research within the context of political and social participation has played a vital role in the field of political science as many scholars has underlined its direct and indirect cause in the integration process of a new community (Person 2011, 2012, Burden 2009, Berinsky and Lenz, 2011, Campbell 2006, Highton, 2009, Kam and Palmer 2008, Mukundiyimana 2013, Nie, Junn and Stehlik-Barry 1996, Dee 2004, Milligan, Moretti and Oreopoulos 2004, Hillygus 2005, Campbell 2006, 2008, 2009, Highton 2009, Sondheimer and Green 2010, Berinsky and Lenz 2011, Person 2008, 2011, 2012).

Verba et al (1995) and Campbell (2006), argued that education affects political participation and civic engagement through the resources people have available to them (including civic skills) and through networks that stimulate political activism. This is of extreme importance to this paper as it links to Kabeer’s theory, specifically the notion of resources as it covers in itself both material capability and social characteristics the main function of which is to

9 enhance the ability to implement the choices. These abilities could be gained through the processes of making social relationships carried out on the various social levels: family, market, community, and nation (Kabeer 1999:439). Furthermo re, Scholars have argued that education, which gives academic ability, can positively affect the civic and political engagement (Persson, 2014, Ten Dam and Volman 2007, Torney-Purta et al. 2001, Henderson and Chatfield 2011; Mayer 2011). It could also develop the cognitive process of reflection and ability to analyze a given situation (Ibid). This per se could also be related to Kabeers theory of women empowerment when it comes to agency as it is believed that education such as university studies and vocational trainings could act as a catalyst to empower women to become decision-makers by realizing the pros and cons of a given s itua tio n. Furthermore, many studies have focused on classroom implementation of citizenship education and its effectiveness in the creation of democratic attitudes (Verba et al. 1978, 1995, Ten Dam and Volman 2007, Torney-Purta et al. 2001).

Some literature also underlines the role of democratic practices of a classroom interaction between students and between students and teacher. This way education is not only the primary matter of factual knowledge, but also the degree to which the population shares the basic democratic attitudes and normative expectations about the system. Hence, the educative school itself functions as a small-scale democratic community (Flanagan & Stout, 2010). This approach is commonly performed by the concept of an open classroom climate, in which students are encouraged to express their own opinions (Campbell 2006; Torney-Purta et al., 2001). For this reason, it is believed that these arguments show that education promotes democratic value through political trust and engagement in political participation, which is a form of achievement as women will be more capable and will hold individual preferences that in turn affect political and social engagement.

Additionally, Albornoz et al. tend to state that the skills and the level of education of immigrants acquired in the country of origin can be less valued than the ones obtained in the country of destination (2017:5). Thus, empowerment, in the general scope, is the process of gaining power over words and actions, decisions and resources, whic h determine the quality of life, on the one hand, and democratic states’ development, on the other hand.

However, other studies show different results, as according to to Mayer (2011) education does not affect voting participation. Kam and Palmer (2008) supports this statement by claiming that higher education does not cause political participation but rather works as a proxy. In

10 add itio n, various s tud ies have complicated the discussion further by arguing that the effect of education is relative rather than absolute. It is argued that the effect of education on political participation, takes credit for factors, which are most often unobserved such as cognitive ability and childhood socialization. In considering these factors it reveals that higher education does not in itself seem to have any causal effect on political participation (Persson 2013, Bers and Chau 2010).

2.3 Women Empowerment, Education and Migration One of the main factors that contribute to political participation of migrants is the structure of political opportunities that provides an inclusion or exclusion mechanism existing in the state’s political system (Martiniello, 2005). Other issues include the length of residence, the circumstances leading to migration, political ideas and values, feeling of belonging to the host country, their temporary or permanent presence, knowledge about the political system and institutions, age, gender and income. Education is regarded as one very important element among many (Atger 2009). According to Solis (2012) education has been considered by political economy and political science literature as one of the most important factors explaining political participation: voter turnout, civic engagement, political knowledge, and democratic attitudes. Due to existing evidence about the importance of education, the majority of surveys focuss on the connection between the education of female immigrants and their participation in social and political life of the country, as well as the reverse effect of their activities within the state on the individual development of each (Mukundiyimana 2013).Therefore, the need to provide gender equality and empowerment of women immigrants has emerged, as it turns out to play a crucial role in building democratic society.

Kabeer (2001:10) was among one of the first scientists who investigated the phenomenon of empowerment as means of resources, agency, and achievement. She proposed a useful definition that describes the notion in general and can be applied across the range of contexts were development assistance is concerned with: "The expansion in people's ability to make strategic life choices in a context where this ability was previously denied to them." Additionally, Rowland (1997:34) described the definition of the phenomenon above, stating that the exploration of empowerment of women should be based on the following levels: personal (that involves the sense of self-esteem and inner capacity); relational (that is the ability to communicate influentially within as society); collective (involvement into political life of country, cooperation within groups of citizens or society in general). He suggests that it

11 is the expansion of freedom of choice and the right of action to some extent, while increasing one’s authority over one’s life and within society.

To summarize the above mentioned, it is evident that Kabeer’s theory acts as a framework for measuring women’s empowerment on multiple levels. However, an interesting point for this paper is the collective level, which will be discussed in the methodology section as means for coding the data and interviews at hand. For this reason, it is believed that if this paper is capable to show that resources + agency = achievements through education, then it is believed that migrant women in Sweden are capable to become socially and politically active in their community and thus be a part of a democratic state, therefore answering the research question.

4. Theoretical Framework: Kabeer Empowerment Theory Empowerment theory in its origin echoes back to a plan of liberating the oppressed through education, which was proclaim by Brazilian humanitarian and educator Freire (1973). The concept of empowerment was developed and understood by scholars in many different notions and used in a variety of disciplines like social work, sociology, educations (Lincoln et al., 2002). Thus, empowerment relates to individual wellbeing and the struggle to create better environment (Perkins and Zimmer man, 1995:569, Tannous 2018).

This understanding of empowerment is presented in a variety of perspectives for example according to Adams (2003) who emphasized that empowerment is defined as ‘the means by which individuals, groups and/or communities become able to take control of their circumstances and achieve their own goals, thereby being able to work towards helping themselves and others to maximize the quality of their lives’.

Dalrymple and Burke (2006) stated that empowerment is an integral part of anti-oppressive practice. Another scholar emphasized that empowerment aims at structural inequalities (Dominelli, 1997). Leung (2005) recognizes three different perspectives of empowerment; individualistic, structural, and postmodernist. The individualistic perspective presents the strength of individuals in social participation as a way to fight their powerlessness. The structural perspective presents power understood as a tool used by oppressors to oppress those who have no voice in society. The last postmodernist perspective of empowerment presented by Leung (2005) aims at addressing unequal power relations between men and women, showing women’s subordination in the family, community and state. Therefore, the feminist approach e mp has izes the original concept of women’s empowerment, that acknowledges

12 inequalities between men and women and the unequal power relations between them (Bisnath 2001).In light of this , empowerment is related to many concepts such as democratization, social work, consciousness, anti-oppressive practice, normalization, postmodernism and social work in new age Adams (2003, pp. 9-13). It shows how important the struggle for social justice is and women’s equality in different aspects of life: economic, social and political. Thus, Bisnath (2001) says that women empowerment can be achieved through consciousness raising, education and as well political participation.

As many scholars stated, empowerment is not a straightforward process (Dalrymple and Burke 2006). However, within this process some of the scholars have criticized those empowerment strategies that focus on the improvement of life situation of women without recognizing unequal power relations that creates such inequality (Leung, 2005). In this they stress that improving capacity like self-confidence and consciousness need to be related with change of structure that oppress women, like patriarchal social and political power structures Rowlands 1998, Saraswati 2005, Jönsson 2010, Mukundiyimana 2013). Some scholars Cakir and Guneri (2011, p. 1045) divided empowerment into three factors of support, first includes self-esteem, positive thinking about the future and control, second includes ‘actual power’ of individual and the last o includes ‘the ability and willingness to harness anger into action and a soc io-political component of empowerment that is evident in both community activism and righteous anger’ (Cakir and Guneri, 2011 p. 1045). In this process there is also acknowledged psychological empowerment, which has its outcome in positive adaptation of immigrants, language proficiency, educational level and political participation.

4.1 Empowerme nt Theory and Politica l Science Within Political Science empowerment process is included in concepts: learning, joining and mobilizing (Weissberg, 1999). Empowerment theory is also used in the analysis of the political participation. There is examination of the representational links, positive attitudes and intellectual capabilities in order to foster and encourage political participation (Banducci, 2004, De-Shalit, 2004). Those scholars emphasized that the first step of empowerment is to increase individual decision-making and let those know about political and social inequalities, that can help them to start to grow their power within their inner systems, the desire to change and join public action (Weissberg 1999, Tannous 2018, Friedmann1992, Parpart et al. 2003). Therefore, power of the individuals’ growth through acquiring the skills: resources, agency and achievement in order to mobilize collective action and share this power with others. Advocacy on behalf of women in a situation of limited resources, were policy makers

13 have to adjudicate between competing resources, takes policy makers out of their familiar conceptual territory of welfare, poverty and efficiency into territory of power and social injustice. For this reason, this paper takes empowerment theory written by Naila Kabeer as its central concept (Kabber 1999). Kabeer defines empowerment as the processes of change, through which those who have been denied the capacity to exercise choice gain this capacity (Kabeer 2012). Kabeer’s model locates empowerment within the context of disempowerment that set the stage for the action of resources, agency and achievements (Kabeer 2001, Swendeman et al. 2019). Furthermore, the notion of empowerment takes different dimensions and has different levels in order to materialize a variety of processes. The most crucial and starting point in empowerment is ‘power’. Power in empowerment will be clarified in order to understand in which way the notion of empowerment will serve as an explanation of empowerment migrant women by the education (Kabeer 1999b).

Power will be explained in its possibility to make choices, in this way the person denied choices is disempowered. Thus, the notion empowerment relates to disempowerment and the process of gaining the ability to make choices by the people who did not have such ability. It is a process of change. By explaining this process of change we can look at people who make a lot o f c ho ices every day and may belong to very powerful pe op le, b ut it is no t empowerment, because they were never disempowered in the previous choices (Kabeer 1999b). Furthermore, power to be explained demands understanding of choice. First of all, choice implies the possibility of alternatives, and the ability to have chosen otherwise. There is a logical link between poverty and disempowerment because an insufficiency of the means to satisfy one’s fundamental needs often rules out the ability to exercise meaningful choices. Some choices have greater significance than others in terms of their consequences for people’s lives. Thus, there beco mes two categories of choices. F ir st a re the strategic life choices, which we do not consider in our everyday life, but they have a fundamental role in our life- to express the way we want to live our lives. An example of the strategic choices are dec is io ns we make about the number of children we want to have, where to live, whom to marry and choice of friends. These strategic choices design other choices, which have les s significance but influence our quality of life.

The ability to exercise strategic choices can be shown in this way:

14 Resources> Agency> Achievements

(Pre/conditions) (Process) (Outcomes)

Hence, resources, agency and achievements represents choices in empowerment model according to Naila Kabeer (1999a).

Resources are defined as the preconditions and catalysts for exercising choice (agency) and relate to material, personal, instrumental and social capacities that people can draw upon to secure their economic livelihood and general wellbeing. Resources are understood as ‘‘structural factors’’ and opportunity structures used in empowerment process. (Kabeer 2001).

Agency refers to the ability of individuals and communities to recognize and act upon choices available to them, which are shaped and constrained by resources and opportunity structures, or structural factors (Kabeer, 1999). Agency can be understood as a process in which resources are mobilized in order to attain achievements.

Achievements relate to goals attained that may, in turn, generate more resources and opportunities for exercising agency (Kabeer, 1999). Achievements are the results of made choices and have psychological, social or economic outcomes (Kabeer, 2001). Achievements are also the link in the positive feedback empowerment cycle in which each successful exercise of agency that results in achievements allows for the accumulation of resources and further enhances agency. A more detailed discussion about empowerment theory will be provided at a later stage and will be reflected more in the next chapter below which is the analysis.

Further to this, the next chapter will describe the methodology used to understand this paper.

3. Methodology As the concept of empowerment can be explored through three closely interrelated dimensions: agency, resources, and achievements, this paper will look at these three dimensions while connecting education to the framework of empowerment. This is because as seen in the literature review, it correlates with empowerment and migration to a very large extent. This chapter introduces the methodology used in the thesis and presents the collection of data gathered. The chosen methodology is a qualitative content analysis. The research aims to analyze the role of education in empowering migrant women for political and social development through the tool of empowerment theory of Naila Kabeer (1990, 12).

15 Furthermore, this chapter will describe the collection of data and its importance as a valid and coherent source in answering the research question. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is ; examine whether the analysis can prove that resources, agency and achievements were met through education, and if migrant women in Sweden are believed to be capable of becoming socially and politically accomplished. Hence, the results of the methodology provide a deeper and clearer comprehension of the setting of the people studied (Taylor et al 2015, 95). 3.1 Data and Material The selection of material and data for this study was based on the literature review and previous research. For this reason, this section will outline the different data chosen and on what basis they were chosen for this study.

3.1.1 Semi-structured intervie ws Semi-structured interviews contain different number of interviews which are used to prepare questions with the aim to gain factual information and unstructured questions which lead to deeper comprehension of people´s experience (Halperin and Heath, 2012:258). According to May (2011:134) a semi-structured interview presents an understanding of how interviewees perform and deploy meaning in social life.

Interviews were chosen instead of questionnaires, as they are of great benefit as they provide an opportunity to build a relationship with the respondent. As people are more interested and ‘flattered’ to be interviewed than if they are asked to fill a questionnaire. Interviews make people feel important, because someone wants to meet and speak with them, therefore they value it more and treat it more seriously (Chambliss & Schutt, 2010:178). Response rates acquired from interviews are also higher than other survey designs (ibid). Standardization of structured interviews, which have a lack of sensitivity to validity in favor of excessive concern, the fluidity and flexibility of methods, such as semi-structured interviews, allow for greater validity and meaningful interviews (Mason 2002, 68).

In this paper, the interviews were conducted face to face in a carefully chosen environment in order to present the best conditions. They were conducted in quiet closed rooms within libraries, were there was a possibility to easily speak and record conversation. Notes were also taken to make sure nothing was missed. All the written notes and recording of interviews were saved. The semi structured interviews in contrast to structured interviews are not as restricted in style, which allows the possibility to generate personal information in relation to the questions (find in Annex). The questions were well focused and at the same time well

16 Interviewee Age Country of Origin Highest Degree achieved from a Profession Swedish University thought-out, in order to engage the interviewees in conversation. The time of each interview was approximately 30 to 45 minutes. The questions were formulated in order to examine the political and social development for migrant women from Baltic Western Countries after their study time in Sweden. The chosen research population was contacted by the researcher directly or via phone. They topic and the aim of the study was explained to them to gather the relevant information for the type of the research within this thesis. Moreover, the assurance of their anonymity was promised. The selected migrant women were chosen according to their relevance to the existing research.

To better understand the rationale behind the actors’ chosen and the role of the researcher, the next section will discuss that.

3.1.2 The Role of the Interviewees and the Researcher The interviewees (speaker) were 6 adult women, who migrated from Baltic Western Countries (Poland, Russian Federation, Romania and Ukraine). They migrated to Sweden and received their higher education. The general purposes of the immigration of the actors were mainly based on economic issues. However, the exact reasons have not been developed within the study. They live permanently in Sweden; work within health, education and other sectors of the labor market. Four of them have family and children. In order to understand their background better Table 1 was created. It illustrates their age, years of study in Sweden, education and present occupation. These criteria were chosen in order to show the relevance of the collected data to this research. This study aims at demonstrating the empowerment by education migrant women, that way the sampling of higher educated migrant women from the selected Baltic countries was made. It is thus believed that these women are a good example of the situation at hand due to the fact that they are well educated and received their degrees from Sweden. Another reason for making these women the focus of this paper is because they were willing to be interviewed given the fact that they confide in the researcher. Further details were represented below in table 1 underlining the level of education of each migrant women, age, and profession.

17 Speaker 1 35 Poland Master degree in Sociology Sociologist

Speaker 2 31 Ukraine Master degree Environmental Biologis t Studies and Sustainability Science

Speaker 3 33 Romania Bachelor degree in International Sales Manager Marketing and Brand Management

Speaker 4 38 Russian Master degree in Environmental Engineer Engineering

Speaker 5 29 Poland Master degree in Health and Care Nurse

Speaker 6 36 Romania Master degree in Economy Economist

Table 1: Overview of interviewee’s background information.

In this qualitative study, were data collection is gathered from semi-structured interviews, the role of the researcher is very important. This methodology includes the need for the interpretation of the data by the researcher, which is involved in intensive experience with the partic ipants. That way it is very important that the researcher has past experiences with the research problem and participants (2014, 188). The researcher can relate to this notion as she is also a migrant of Poland and has been through the educational system in Sweden. This gives the paper more transparency, as she is able to sensitize with the interviewees. However, this causes various ethical and personal variations within the qualitative study of the thesis (Creswell 2014, 187). Since the researcher has experienced that higher education empower migrant women to become political and social agents, particular consideration will be given to assured biases to this study, as every effort will be made to ensure neutrality. F urthermore, these women were chosen based on the snowball technique where interviewees where recruited based on their acquaintances. Thus, the sample builds up and enough data are gathered with the intention to be a useful tool in the findings of this study (Bryman 2008).

To better understand the cho ice s made by the researcher and the limitations of this research, the next sections will provide ethical considerations that will follow the interviews and delimitations.

3.1.3 Ethical Consideration As this paper is conducting and analyzing semi-structured interviews, it is important to take into consideration the ethical perspective. Since the researcher is based in Sweden, the ethical

18 consideration will be based on the Swedish Research Council (Hermerén, 2011). The Swedish Research Council underlines four essential steps for conducting an ethical interview. Those 4 steps are of high importance, as they will be used in this paper for transparency. The first step is consent. The interviewee has the ability to choose if they wish to take part in the research study or not. Hence, the researcher needs to be aware of the capacity to collect knowledge, and make sure that the interviewee is informed about the objective of the research, and make them aware that they can choose to withdraw at any point during the interview. It is of extreme importance that force, pressure, and concealed information is not being used during the full extent of the interview (Hermerén, 2011:18). The second step is to ensure that no harm is being enforced such as stress and embarrassment. For this reason, the researcher should keep in mind not to ask too many personal or sensitive questions. The third step to keep in mind is privacy, as the participant has the right to be fully anonymous. The fourth and last step is deception meaning that the research does not have any right to misrepresent any information (Ibid).

3.2 Report: Migrant politica l participatio n: a review of policies and integration results in the OSCE region Choosing this report, aims at presenting an overview of the academic literature, which addresses the question of how the educational inclusion/exclusion of migrants impacts their political participation (OSCE, 2017). Hence, it is believed that this report acts as a connection between the interviews and the empirical world. The importance of this report is that it provides evidence on the situation of migrant women in Europe in general with examples of the situation in Sweden. It examines closely the state of implementation and practice of the civic and political integration of migrants and identifies the key channels and actors active in this process (OSCE, 2017). One of the key channels identified in this report is education, which acts as a key catalyst for examining the research question at hand. Reiterating the above, the report will act as a connection between the interviews by providing the reader and researcher with an actual image of the situation. As this aims to promote an international approach of migrants in the socio-political life in Sweden and across Europe in general.

However, this research also exhibits delimitation. For this reason, the next section will discuss the boundaries of this study and why certain decisions were made.

3.4 Delimitations According to the literature review, the social or political participation of the migra nt is affected by their educational inclusion or exclusion. Many scholars take for granted the role

19 of education, that facilitates actions understood to fall within this scope (Taylor and Francis 2019). For this reason, this thesis will focus on this notion and will outline the importance of education for migrant women as a tool for empowerment in the community. The reason for choosing just women for this study is because understanding the heterogeneity of migrant women and their experiences is essential as they still have a low presence when it comes to the political and social life of Sweden even though Sweden provides eligible policy. For this reason, it is believed that this paper will focus on giving insight to the empirical situation at hand. Hence, the interviews give the personal details about how and to what extent education empowers migrant women to become political and social agents. Additionally, the Report presents the solid evidence of the role of education in women immigrants’ life in a host country.

However, it is very important to stress that this study considers only a small group of migrant wo me n (6 people) from Russia and Eastern Europe. It should be mentioned that a larger study could detect patterns that are not visible in this data. Moreover, this research does not consider other groups of migrant women in Sweden, such as women from African, As ia n or other countries that may have received less positive benefits from education. Therefore, it is very important to say that we cannot generalize the results to the entire population of migrant women in Sweden because this research is based on a small particular sample group. Another limitation is the background of the researcher as this can influence the results by the presumptions that education empowers migrant women to become politically and socially active in community. However, this study is not trying to answer if education is the cause or a proxy for political participation, but rather to understand the role of education in political empowerment.

3.5 The Case of Sweden Sweden has clear policies that promote gender equality and women’s empowerment and it has put in place powerful institutions for implementing these policies. For instance, gender division of unpaid family work (e.g. parenthood), equal opportunity between men and women with regard to education and labour market (Hudson and Rönnblom 2007). In the UNDP Human development Report (2013) Sweden is ranked seventh in the world in the 2012 Human Development Index. According to this report, Sweden is considered to be one of the greatest gender equality and gender empowered country in terms of legislation. Sweden has

20 ratified the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) on 2nd July 1980. The Swedish Government did a great work to promote women’s enjoyment of human rights. The Swedish Government gender equality policy (Regeringskansliet, 2009) has as the overall objective to ensure that women and men have the same power to shape society and their own lives (Neset 2019).

Furthermore, in 2008, the Swedish government introduced a new integration policy whose main focus was to increase the supply and demand of labo r, improve school quality and equality in school and better conditions for entrepreneurs (Lüken-Klaßen, 2009). According to the Swedish Ministry of Integration and Gender Equality (2009), the goal of immigrant integration policy in Sweden is to achieve equal rights, obligations and opportunities for all, independently of ethnic or cultural background.

However, despite the above-me ntio ned Sweden exhibits some weakness due to its multicultural society as the integration policy has been criticized and was found inefficient in addressing the social inclusion of immigrants as the immigrant population increased throughout the years (Koopmans 2010).

Another important aspect of the Swedish immigrant integration policies on the socio- economic position of immigrants is their degree of welfare-state ‘de-commodification’ (or ‘benefit generosity’), which ‘occurs when a service is rendered as a matter of right, and when a person can maintain a livelihood without reliance on the market’ (Esping-Andersen 1990, pp.21-22, cited in Koopmans 2010). According to Koopmans (2010) typology, the Swedish ‘social- democratic’ type of welfare has the highest levels of de-commodification compared to ‘liberal’ (lowest) and ‘conservative’ (intermediary) welfare types.

For this reason, it is believed that Sweden acts as a catalyst for studying the situation of migrant women in Sweden as it is pictured to be one of the best while it still faces some constrains in its laws and policies. This has been seen to increase in the last couple of years due to extensive migration. For this reason, it is believed that Sweden will be an interesting case, as this paper will examine the situation from the perspective of immigrant women by interviews.

The next section of this paper will explain how the process of coding will take place and what will be used as the coding schema to analyze the data using qualitative content analysis.

21 3.6 Qualitative Content Analysis and Coding The researcher holds the responsibility to showcase the attached political and moral conditions with individual lives as the paper contains semi-structured interviews. Hence, it is important to expose the meaning, purpose, and motive behind the data chosen. For this reason, the paper will utilize content analysis, which is an activity in which the researcher examines objects of social communication (Lamont, 2015:89). For content analysis to be correctly conducted, it is important for the researcher to outline categories of interests as tools to be used. For this reason, the categories chosen in this paper have been designed by the literature review and theoretical framework. Table 2 predefines the three categories that will guide this paper in its analysis. Category 1: Collective resources, category 2: collective agency, and category 3: collective achievement. As such, the table below exhibits codes, which will be used as tools to track the categories to be able to conduct a coherent analysis as they exhibit their own specific discourse. For transparency reasons, the recording unit that will be used in this paper will be based on a single word. This is because it is believed that this unit is suitable for studying the language behind the words used accordingly (Halperin and Heath, 2012:321). Furthermore, the aim of this paper is to indicate patterns of social and political empowerment. Hence, all the transcriptions of the interviews will be studied to full extent.

To be able to conduct a successful content analysis, it is important for the reader to know how it is done. For this reason, the paper will following a coding scheme (Table 2) as it is believed that coding in political science covers a detailed identification of applicable text by applying labels represented by thematic ideas (Halperin and Heath, 2012:323). This is best done using closed coding which is grounded on the theory of this paper as well as the literature review (Ibid). For this reason, the coding process of this research will follow “X specifies Y”. For example, if participants answered that they are now more capable to see themselves as contributing to social and political engagement, then it will be coded as “political engagement” and placed under collective achievement. This will be done manually as the researcher does not want to miss any important features and concept occurrences. The researcher will record and take notes of the semi-structured interviews conducted face to face to later transcribe them. During this time, the researcher will also be reading the report to write down any interesting occurrences that might aid this study. Using different colored pens, the text will be marked and highlighted based on category. Category 1: “collective resources” in red, category 2: “collective agency” in yellow, and category 3: “collective

22 resources” in blue. When the researcher finds something interesting the recording unit will be spot and the code will be written in the margins of the given document/interview transcription.

To sum-up, the analysis of this paper will be based on indicating the paragraphs and words that exhibits characteristics of the categories of interest. Hence, for logical reasons, the analysis will be divided into the three categories and the interviews and report will be compared simultaneously.

- Preconditions - Decision making - Capabilities - School - Negotiations - Functionings - Educational Level - Resistance - Individual - Attainment - Analysis Preferences - Training Programs (Process) - Capacity -Political Engagement conditions) (Outcomes) - - Skills Building - Cognitive Processes - Social Engagement Oportunities of Reflection (Pre - Citizenship Collective Agency - Voice

Collective Resources Knowldge

- Income Collective Achievement - Economic Self- Sufficiency

Table 2: Predefined categories based on closed coding

5. Analys is This chapter analyses the collected data with the aim to show that the three categories established from Kabeer’s empowerment theory: resources, agency, and achievements can be seen in between the lines of the interviews and the report. In order to conduct a cohesive research, content analysis method will be used as a research technique. This method will increase the validity of the research and the semi-structured interviews. The following chapter will be divided into three main sections. The first section aims to discus and analyze the semi- structured interviews that were conducted with migrant women. The second section investigates the report and connects it to the interviews, which are the source of empirical knowledge. At the end of each section a brief conclusion will be provided to later sum-up a detailed finding of the extent to which migrant women may feel empowered because of their higher education and knowledge to become active political and social agents in the Swedish community.

23 5.1 Mapping the Interviews with migrant women in Sweden (28-36) The interviews provide empirical data and present the opinion of the six migrant women. The interviewees will be referred to with numbers; i.e.: S1 = Speaker 1. This section will also be divided based on three categories deducted from Kabeer’s empowerment theory, underlined in table 3 above.

Before moving deeper, it is important to mention that the interviews found a pattern of similar words to explain the role of education in empowerment such as: Capacity building, advocacy, and sustainability. Furthermore, the paper will continue by discussing each category: resources, agency and achievements to present the relationship at the end. It is important to mention that each category will be divided to sub-categories, which underlines the basis of the analysis given the provided information from the interviews.

5.1.1 Investigating Resources Kabeer’s empowerment theory includes three different dimensions: resources, agency and achievements. Resources are presented as preconditions to empowerment and includes material in the economic sense and on the sense of the different social and human resources that create the possibility to make choices. As Kabeer (1999b) mentioned, access to resources cannot be considered as an indicator of direct empowerment. Therefore, migrant women through their education enter into the labor market mor e equipped and knowledgeable, which allows them to gain economic resources. The regular labor wage and the control over the economic resources can be seen as a precondition for their empowerment. This makes them economically independent individuals, capable of supporting themselves, which strengthens their own self-confidence and self-value.

The possibility to gain income and be economically independent makes them strengthen their own value and self-confidence. This is evident in the interviews as women stressed on several key words such as income (S3), skills (S4), civil and citizenship knowledge (S1). For simplicity, the main single unit wordings found in the interviews that were represented in different sentences are outlined below with a thorough explanation.

5.1.2 The Discussion of Income Starting with the analysis of the interviews it was very noticeable that many interviewees have underlined that higher education gave them the possibility to gain income, whic h is related to resources as presented in the literature review. The words mentioned by the majority of interviewees such as: independence, economic self-sufficiency, self-sustainability assumed

24 that most speakers were aware of their new economic possibility and increased political interest and social change through their newly gained independence and knowledge. This is specifically highlighted in S4, as she emphasized:

’’Before I didn’t have stable economy, but since I got educated I received employment and my income allowed me to feel economically secure and to have plans for future. This changed my life and now I am very much interested about politics in Sweden (S4)’’.

As it is presented higher education leads to a work place, which offers economic resources. Those economic resources increase the standards of life. When the basic needs are satisfied and the economic status is increased, then interest about the future and politics become important. The gain of economic resources leads to new interest about tax, which needs to be paid to the state. As a consequence, this increases interest about their political situation in the country, resulting in the individual becoming a more politically minded person. In contrary, loss of income as a consequence of unemployment boosts poverty and other difficult circumsta nce s in life distract from things like politica l participatio n.

In this line the wage income is a very important economic resource within the transformation of migrants’ lives. It not only increases their position within family, but also their opportunity contribution to other sectors of the economy. Thus economic status leads to higher interest in politics in order to maintain the standards of life. It affects interest in politics and the interest within society as well. The people are more interested to engage in the existing community and this leads to political and social participation.

Furthermore, as (S1) stated:

‘‘I think that many migrant women want to gain education in order to develop themselves, and that money is not so important, however most often women want to get education in order to earn money and increase their income possibilities. Income possibilities give more horizontal view on one’s life. For me it changed my political preferences and engagement (S3)’’.

This quote suggests that income possibilities, which offers us many alternatives in life, can influence self-interest and political interest and can therefore be a driver of political behavior. In addition, since our economic resources allow us to volunteer and donate, they may be essential for participation. This way it increases chances in high-income families to have a better position to become active political and social agents within community.

25 As such, the next underlined word found within the interviews was skills, which will be further developed and highlighted below.

5.1.2 The Discussion of Skills Resources include not only material resources in the more conventional economic sense but also various human and social resources, which serve to develop the ability to exercise choices (Kabeer 1999). Furthermore, resources are vital in the process of empowerment for migrant women. Resources in the broader sense of the word are acquired through a multiplicity of social relationships conducted in the various institutio na l domains, which make up a society (such as family, market, community). Such resources may take the form of actual allocations as well as of future claims and expectations. Access to resources is designed in rules and norms, these norms and rules give certain actors authority over others in designing distribution and exchange within society like: heads of the household, the chiefs of firms, the main head of tribes, chiefs in organizations, elites and all in authoritarian position that decide about access to resources. Hence, the rules and norms enable or disable social resources for the individ ua l (Kabeer 1999a). Looking at the role of education and political, social participation another very fundamental factor in this relation exists. Skills are resources that definitively have a high effect in allowing people to become active political and social agent in the society. This is underlined as below:

‘‘I learn how to speak and write to people and how to work in an organizational setting. That way now I can take more easy stand in front of the group of people and be head speaker in organized meeting within my job and community (S4)’’.

Hence, as seen education helps to develop linguistic skills: speaking, writing and reading.

One of the skills for every citizen wanting to communicate well with others and influence them is a good language. Students learn to express themselves to groups of other students in the classroom, at the same time they are encouraged by teachers to present their own perspectives, and defend their arguments. As a consequence they develop norms and habits of political expression, which are essential for conducting public debates with others. These skills are very important to build one’s own trust in political competence and in this same way they are the major factors that foster political and social participation.

This is evident as speaker three says:

26 ‘‘First of all the education helped me to acquire the necessary skills like language skills, organizational skills and civic skills. These were so precious for me, since it removed my barrier and opened up so many other possibilities ’’ (S3).

As we can see the acquired skills can give courage and self-ima ge, which drives political and social participation. Those people learn how to speak to a group of people in different background places and have experience in the ability to transmit their ideas to others. This way they experience greater confidence in playing one’s role as a citizen, and this creates greater commitment to fulfill norms that helps to be a good citizen. As well this place them in a place to desire politica l participatio n.

5.1.3. The Discussion of Civic Education As we have seen education is a gateway to gain the resources like income and skills. However, there are other resources that play a very crucial role in empowering migrant women in Sweden to be politically and socially active. Examples that were given in the interviews were related to the development of their self- awareness of personal positioning and civic knowledge.

Education provides those women with various forms of civic and citizenship knowledge, which can strengthen their self-confidence and self-value. This not only helps migrant women to increase their possibility, but also to strengten power to exercise their own choices (Kabeer 1999b). Furthermore, the awareness of their personal positioning and civic knowledge helps to make reflections, which allows them to create changes. Thus, it is what Sen emphasizes, the expansion of people’s capabilities to have a life they value (Sen in Kabeer1999a). The capability, the possibility to choose the life the migrant women want are prescribed as a freedom. This freedom to design their own goals of life and attain them, can be built by public policy (Kabeer 1999a). As such,

’’I can truly say that the knowledge which I received during my study is my great treasure: it is priceless for me. I not only learn about my professional issues regarding engineering, but as well I acquired civic knowledge related to different aspect of our life, like environmental, political, health or business one. It really made me to understand how complex is a politica l system (S4). ’’

27 Hence, it can be said, that this resource: civic education not only provides awareness about the political system in which people live, but at the same time it leads in more interest capacity to participate and in this way increase participatio n in politica l life. Since it influence attitudes, values and people disposition it leads to voting and voter registration to signing petitions, contacting elected officials. Furthermore, education through civic knowledge teaches people very important democratic values:

’’Studies teach you how to interact with people and provides withgood citizenship knowledge how to cooperate. Usually you meet different typologies and get to work at group projects. It really works for unity between diversity even at social level. We come together and learn how to lisen, communiciate, cooperate or give constructive critics to each other in order to create our projects, everyone voice is important in a classroom (S1)’’.

Civic education plays very important role in political aspect because it promotes democratic values. Student learn that everyone voice is important and everyone has the right to express his opinion. This sheering their own opinion brings the group together and teaches to trust, that this group cooperation will work. This supports democratic values, social and institutional trust and political efficacy. The current economic condition, assessment of governmental competence, and experiences with governmental authority is discussed. In this way people understand importance of democratization and the need to support it, what promotes democratic culture and enhance political and social participation.

‘‘During studies I learn to participate in the group projects. I learn that my voice is important and now I willingly take part in other local meeting in my community (S2)’’.

In this line, as it is emphasized the civic education creates the desirability of participation, which is important determinant for political participation. People who work in-group projects learn to speak their opinion and the importance of their voice. They actively participate and later they are more willing to participate in other groups meeting. Hence, desire for participation develops and it allows them to become active social and political agent within their family, community and society. They become involve in groups and communicate ideas to other citizens, leaders or officials. As well they have competence in cooperating and working with others in groups or organizations in order to establish their goals. This engagement of the individual brings the great probability for the political and social participation, especially when there is experience of high efficacy or the belief that one’s actions are important and can make a difference. This high efficacy makes impact on people,

28 because they believe that their effort will have tangible consequences and they voice or action influence the outcome. In this line those people are more likely to engage in any social activity, which is political participation. So it is completely reasonable to believe that civic education predict political and social participation.

‘‘Education allowed me come to know many different people from all over the world. I think it was the most blooming time to come to know so many people. Through social media I still have contacts with some of them. I can truly say that these contacts help me to find my work. It is great support to have many friends and be able to contact them when I need their help (S4)’’.

As well civic education leads to development of social network. Resources in this broader sense of the word are acquired through a multiplicity of social relationships conducted in the various institutional domains, which make up a society (such as family, market, school, community, work) (Kabeer 1999b).

People with higher level of resources and political interest will also more likely respond to participatory in different groups, organization and contact other people. They may be also motivated to succeed in society and have a need for sociability, which can also have a engaging outcome like: attending the local community meetings, taking part in meeting solving community problems, working in election campaign and contacting a local officials. The development of social network allows to communicate and to be enrich by others, this implies changes on individuals and prepares them for active participation.

To further understand and link Kabeer’s theory, the next section will discuss the wordings and analysis found within agency.

5.2. Agency: Decision-Making While conducting the analysis it was evident that several words could be deduced from the interviews in relation to the table developed in the theory of empowerment. For this reason, the next sub-section will focus on these words and link them to the theory to answer the research question of this paper.

Education leads to acquiring many different resources, in this way empowering migrant women to engage in political and social participation. Education a lso leads to empowerment through agency. Agency: decision-making is very crucial for the empowerment process. Agency conceptualizes as the ability to design one’s goal and act in order to attain them

29 (Kabeer 1999a:21). Agency is about more than an observable action; it also encompasses the meaning, motivation and purpose, which individuals bring to their activity, their sense of agency, or `the power within' (Kabeer 1999b). This process is related to the power to choose goals and try to attain them; it includes action, motivation and meaning. However, it can also carry negative effects, such as violence, persecution and threat of other actor that exercise ‘power over’ (Ibid).

5.2.1. The Discussion of Decision Making Migration of women from their own country to Sweden separates them from family. Enter into Swedish educational system and the responsibility as student increases their agency for dec is io n-making and this is crucial for political and social participation. However, the process of empowerment measured in agency decision-making has different aspects of empowerment and explore various manifestations of agency, which can exist in practice. This section explores the correlations of agency in different context. The first section analyzes negotiation and resistance, next sections include discussion of voice, cognitive process of reflections and voice.

5.2.2. The Discussion of Negotiations Discussion of negotiatio ns were presented by second speaker:

‘‘Before my studies I was much more shy person, the work with students allowed me to be more open and now I feel more encouraged to decide for myself and negotiate my interest with others (S2)’’.

Scholars conceptualize agency in the decision- making, that can have different outcomes of negotiation and bargaining process, deception and manipulation form, subversion and resistance as well as reflections and analysis procedures in individ ua l and formal and informal groups (Kabeer 1999b). As we can see during classroom practices or small group cooperation students engage in dialogue with others and teachers, there is emphasized respect for their opinion. Although there are many different opinion how to deal with problem, there is a way to express oneself in creative critical thinking. Students learn that they can speak openly and everyone can express their opinion in this way the group projects learn students to discus and negotiate their goals. This is important factor that contribute to their empowerment for political and social participation.

30 5.2.3. The Discussion of Resistance Agency’s relation to power can have positive sense and refers to people’s capacity to define their own life choices and to persuade their own goals, despite difficult circumstances like oppression, and opposition from others. Also it may take a negative form of power over in situatio n when an actor or category of actors imposes their goals over other people against their wishes (Kabeer 1999a).

‘’I have realized that now I feel much stronger as a person to persuade my goals and I don’t give up so easy, but I resist (S4).’’

Therefore, income improves household resources, and this strengthens the claim that these resources have the ability to become decision makers is supported (Kabeer 1999a).

Resistance is an important factor to persuade own’s goals and to face opposition. In this line income can be a helpful element, to strengthen negotiating power within the family due to exercised control over income. At the same time this strengthen individual position. This also enable migrant women to facilitate decision about improvement of their wellbeing or the future of the society, in this way it make her negotiate within family and society to secure and maintain life standards.

5.2.5 The Discussio n of Voice Voice is another aspect of decision-making agency. “Voice” to be an aspect of agency, the ability to articulate practical needs and strategic interests, individually and collectively, in the private domain and in the public. But for change to happen, “voice” must go beyond the capacity to speak, it must be heard, listened to, and acted on (Kabeer 1999a). Within education it takes place through actual classroom participation, case studies and debates. It creates the openness in the student, openness to the world. Therefore, education enables students to think. It allows putting oneself in the shoes of another thinking person. As well, it make students see that their thoughts once communicated them to others, become food for thoughts for others. This has a very important aspect in political and social participation, because it creates desirability to be active agents in political and social context in order to create changes.

‘‘Yes, I can really say that education empowered me to decide for myself but as well I am able to initiate change within community where I live. Definitely studies brought me more respect and made me aware of importance of my voice. I always say my opinion, when it comes to business plans and marketing (S5)’’.

31 Students learn to analyze, to evaluate and compare their opinions with others. It teaches them to evaluate micro-level to the meso-level of institutions and social construct. Moreover, the different opinions and perspectives present the complexity of the issue at hand, so in their comprehension they learn that each issue demands different factors to take into consideration. It can be argue that education increase their analytical thinking and consciousness about the different issues.

5.2.6 The Discussion of Cognitive Process of Reflections The findings underline the crucial role of women’s ability to contribute to their own sense of self-worth as well their potential to become decision makers in the household (Kabeer 2003). As Kabeer emphasis it is important to have sense of self-worth and voice in the family, in this way it is makes individ ua l reflect about oneself as agent able to make changes. This cognitive reflection can more easily lead to engagement within community and drive a political participation.

‘‘Before my studies I was much more shy person, the work with students allowed me to be open up and now looking at myself, I can see I have more courage to decide for myself and others (S2)’’

Moreover, as speaker number 6 says:

’’Looking at the changes that happened so far I can say that I look at the surrounding me world differently, I understand things better and can therefore take better decisions concerning me, my family, the environment around us and political and social issues (S6)’’.

Educations should therefore allow them to openly ask questions and also train them to be asked by others. The communication that takes place between the students and the teachers should inspire a search for solutions based on the opinions of all the individuals involved. This teaches the students self-confidence and respect towards others. It teaches them, that their opinion is important and that they can participate in making a change. They are allowed to express their views and by doing it with the presence of others they can help each other achieve mutual goals. Thereby, not only their self-esteem is increased, but the ability to protect one’s ideas and values is developed. Their ability to make decisions is thereby increased. ’’The ability to have a say and participation in decision making process contribute to self-worth ” (Kabeer 2003)’’.

32 5.2.7 The Discussion of Capacity Furthermore, education can provide a number of opportunities to develop personal traits such as the ability to be wrong, learning and making mistakes, all traits that are natural in knowledge production.

‘‘After my education I became much more able to decide by myself. The critical thinking I learn during my studies developed my decision-making. I feel as I became much more able to take a step for changing life around me (S1)’’.

‘‘I get more confidential in what I would like to achieve and what I need to do. The education was a help to develop my decision-making and leadership, which at the work I can develop even more (S4)’’.

With these personal developments individ ua ls will be able to speak openly, both about the positive argument as well as the negative. Students learn to make ideas about people and their decisions as well as policies and institutions. In these kinds of dialogues, the discourse leads to responsibility and makes individuals responsive to groups and communities that hold up these discourses. This is an important factor for participatory membership in both political as well as social contexts. When individuals interact in groups and are responsive to each other it develops relationships within communities, which forms a stronger bond and sense of responsibility between them. These communication skills inspire students to dare to interact with others and have their presence recognized. While studying, skills are taught to students that enable them to make well thought-through decisions about various problems related to politics and governance.

5.3. Achievements The last dimension presents achievements, which are the results of outcomes of resources and agency on a basic level, such as the place for living or possibility for nourishment but not only. It can also be seen as different functioning in the family, community and society that can take variety of forms (Kabeer 1999a).

‘‘Resources and agency together refers to capabilities: in which comes the potential that people have for living the lives they want, of achieving valued ways of ‘being and doing’. In this way ‘functioning’ is refer to all possible ways of ‘being and doing’ which are valued by people in a given context and of ‘functioning achievements’ which means particular ways of

33 being and doing realized by different people (Kabeer 1999, 438)’’.

Moreover, as Sida claims, empowerment is a process of change, which includes freedom to make choices and action. The economic empowerment for women relates to available resources and the skills to use it (Sida in Kabeer, 1999, 439).

As such, the next two sections will provide discussion of sub categories: capabilities and politica l participatio n.

5.3.1. Capability Migrant women left their place of origin and started study in Sweden. After completing their studies many of them got a job, which allows them to participate in labor market and gain economic independence, what is an achievement. It is aligned with the UN’s (2016) resolution that stresses the importance of women's participation in the labor market. This achievement is recognized by international organization, because it is a real tool for empowerment of women.

As migrant women stated:

‘‘The freedom that I don’t have to worry about economic issues allows me to concentrate on the social aspects of my life. I can say that now I have more capacity for social change (S1)’’.

‘‘Participation in the labor market changed my personality and I can say that I feel freedom now in many aspects. This freedom allows me to be more active citizen and in this way I increase my capabilities to influence the environment where I live (S2)’’.

As it is emphasized, this allows for gaining greater capabilities for migrant women to have access to the resources and exercise their choice. It is very fundamental in the process of empowerment. As Sen (1999:116) argues: “The freedom to seek and hold outside jobs can contribute to the reduction of women’s relative – and absolute – deprivation. Freedom in one area seems to help foster freedom in others”.

‘’I achieved many things, the line is long but the best is freedom to no worry for my future as I used to do before my study. Now I don’t worry anymore but instead I try to be happy from everything I have.

During their process of empowerment migrant women gain mastery and control over their lives, and a critical understanding of their political and social aspect of their life. It referrers to

34 interpersonal component that describe how those people may think about their capacity to change politically and socially environment around them. In this process self-perception and self-efficacy is also an achieveme nt. This self-perception and self-efficacy, that their voices are important and that they have contribution to outcome as well that includes domain specific perceived control and motivation to exert control over community. This relates to beliefs that they have a capacity to have effects on social and political system and on the people around. As Kabeer (1999b) claims ’achievements’ in the measurement of empowerment draws attention to the need for further qualifications to our understanding of choice. As far as empowerment is concerned, we are interested in possible inequalities in people's capacity to make choices rather than in differences in the choices they make.

Hence, another achievements are the problem/solving and others skills as well the development of decision-making in engagement in political participation. The development of these skills is a gain of capacity, which are necessary to be empower for effective participation in community decision making, give sense of personal importance and helps to have political efficacy. As one speaker stated:

’’Yes, I was able to learn Swedish language. Language is important part for integration. If you do not understand the language you will not be able to integrate in the society to 100%. Because I have an education and I can combine the theory with reality then I was able to analyze the codes in Swedish society in order to implement them in my behavior and to integrate in Swedish society…At the job I think that I can make some changes and I have capacity to motivate people for change (S6)’’.

5.3.2. Politica l Participatio n ’’Regarding my political participation, thanks to my education and the fact that I understand different things better, I take decisions that are better for environment, because I understood more the problem of pollution. It also relates to political sytuation and what is happening in Sweden actually (S5)’’.

Another achievement may relate to knowledge about the resources needed to attain goals, as well the critical awareness about environment issue in the local community. This knowledge enables to be important and contributing person in decision-making process as active social and political agent.

Taking all these achievements together, the students will be better prepared to affect social

35 and political environments by participating in political arenas and activities. This could be done in activities within political parties, NGOs and service organizations. Looking at the skills taught during voluntary work, it can be said that they can result in social engagement such as spreading information about activities or important issues, willingness to assist others with daily problems. They may foster social and political participation and increase ability to participate in politica l decision-mak ing.

It is difficult to evaluate individual empowerment in decision-making agency. Nevertheless, it can be said that education gives students many different abilities and possibilities to enhance their changes of participating actively in community activities. Moreover, it gives growth to personal empowerment, which allows for influencing others, preparing for leadership position and leads to more active participation in community activities and organizations.

Next section will outline report analysis according to three different dimensions.

5.4. Report Analysis The next section will include analysis of the report: ’’ Migrant political participation: a review of policies and integration results in the OSCE region’’. The empowerment theory by Naila Kabeer explain in previous interviews analysis will be a tool for analysis.

This report was chosen in order to make connection between migrants’ interviews and the empirical world, because it provides evidence on the political and social participation of migrant women in Europe in general with the examples including Sweden. Participation of all members of society, including migrants, in the political decision-making process is crucial to the legitimacy of democratic political systems. This paper examines the state of implementation and practice of the civic and political integration of migrants and identifies the main factors and actors active in this process. As well it promotes systematic monitoring and evaluation of integration practices and aim of understanding relationships between integration policies and the civic and political participation of migrants, taking into consideration a broad range of individual and contextual factors (OSCE 2017). This report provides also important recommendation that improve migrant civic and political participation.

The civic and political participation of migrants is more relevant now than ever, as migrants and their offspring constitute a growing social group in societies across the OSCE area. Only through participation, in one form or another, will provide for their enfranchisement and

36 equality. Hence, understanding if and also how different social groups participate is essential. Besides voting, political and civic participation can be measure through: volunteering, trade union membership, being a party member, migrant organization membership and naturalization. This paper was intended for the use of decision-makers and migration experts, based on existing comparative European research on policy implementation and migrant outcomes (OSCE 2017).

The next section will present the analysis of the resources divided into discussion of social capital, civic education and income.

5.4.1 Resources 5.4.1.1 Social Capital Analysis the role of education in empowering migrant women for political and social participatio n in existing report we can found the very important resource: social capital.

‘‘The multicultural hypothesis on migrant civic participation gained ground through fieldwork on “ethnic social capital.” This research found, that two aspects of social capital—the le ve l o f membership in and networking among migrant associations—relate to a migrant group’s wider level of trust and participation in public life. The more migrants become members of group associations and the more those associations link together in a network, the more trust is created among migrants and the more opportunities to participate in the wider political life in their country of residence. Conversely, migrant groups with low levels of membership in group associations that are poorly networked together tend to have lower political trust and participation rates (OSCE 2017, 15)’’.

‘‘It is apparent that migrants’ political participation rates are strongly influenced by their level of social capital, which is strengthened through membership in both ethnic and mainstream associations (OSCE 2017, 16)’’.

As it is reported the migrant’s political participation are strongly influenced by their level of social capital. Social capital as it was previously explain in interviews analysis is the human resource according to Naila Kabeer (1999) theory of empowerment. Resources can be include not only material resources in the more conventional economic sense, but also the various human and social resources which serve to enhance the ability to exercise choice (Kabeer 1999 may).

37 Migrant having strong social capital are able to have access to many information and possibilities. This is not only the help for political behavior but also strong support of it. It can give the desire for political participation, but as well foster it. Schools are also regarded as privileged settings for social network among the students. There is always a chance to build one’s social network for migrant women in school environment in host country. The school system allows meeting and working many hours with other students. In this way it is a connection of migrant women to a wider range of people. Thus, this may lead to empowerment of migrant women by building strong social capital as outcome resource than merely redistributing social capital, what in turn leads and supports political and social participation.

5.4.1.2. Civic Education, Citizenship Knowledge Looking further into the report we can find the importance of another factor: citizenship knowledge, civic education.

‘‘Granting voting rights at local level has had no negative effect on naturalization rates and, indeed, may help migrants see the benefits of participating in decision-making. Migrants who use their local voting rights may thus have a greater awareness of the full voting rights that come with citizenship (OSCE 2017, 19)’’.

In this line we can see that granting voting rights may help migrant women to see benefits of participating in decision making. At the same time possibility for local voting increase greatly awareness about the full voting rights which is given with citizenship. Thus, citizenship is entitle with political rights and privileges which enables voting participation. The meaningful understanding of citizenship rights leads to political behavior and is fostering migrant women to be active. Civic education in this way is very important to transfer the democratic norms of value and it is another resource given within education system. Civic education facilitate citize ns hip skills like negotiating, reading public information and interest in political debate.

Moreover, education relays on democratic ideas, which contains activity that make student to increase and develop their capacities to interact with others and participate in a group. In this way education is powerful agent to promote democracy and providing tools needed to become political and socially active. As well education leads to civic enculturation that gives a

38 citizenship formation not only in civic skills, that play a very important role as resources in the process of empowerment, but as well enculturation is awaking sense of civic duty in political participation. Moreover, migrant women who receives education in host country are less tempted to be drawn back to their home politics and may receive important knowledge to be critical to political system of their country of origin. This results in greater awareness and understanding of the political system in host country and leads to political and social participation.

5.4.1.3. Income Another important resource according to Naila Kabeer (1999) leading to empowerment of migrant women for political and social participation women is income. It is very important economic resource. As report states:

‘‘Citizenship tests or income/accommodation requirements were criticized by most as discriminatory for new citizens and particularly exclusionary for vulnerable groups (OSCE 2017, 25)’’.

Thus we can see that economic resource like income can have very important role in enhancing or blocking the politica l participatio n.

Moving further, next section will provide analysis of achievements with discussion of politica l participatio n, social participatio n and capabilitie s.

5.4.2. Achievements Indicators that measure the agency are women’s mobility in the public domain, their participation in public action. As well one form of measurement form of agency relates to the dec is io n- making agency. In this way regarding all the factors that constitute functioning achievements like political participation, social participation capabilities it can be argue that this outcomes comes from ability to make choices, as Kabeer claim:

Agency refers to the ability of individuals and communities to recognize and act upon choices available to them, which are shaped and constrained by resources and opportunity structures, or structural factors (Kabeer, 1999). Agency can be understood as a process in which

39 resources are mobilized in order to attain achievements. In this way exploring the existing achievements it can be argue that migrant women are empowered by their decision making agency what can be seen by their achievements. In this line of argumentation comes next section that presents achievements.

Achievements conceptualize of women empowerment in terms of ‘control’, which is define as ability to ‘take decisions, access information, act in their own interest or in the interest who depend on them (Kabeer 1999, 445)’’.

This section will continue analysis according to distinguished achievements: political participation, social participation and capabilities.

5.4.2.1. Politica l Participation According to report these ‘being and doing’ can be seen as participation in different organizations. Achievements resulting in social and political participation can have different form and aspect, for examples:

‘‘Migrant voters tend to vote and join traditional parties (OSCE 2017, 12) as well their participation with ‘‘migrant communities, worked within the party on both mainstream and migrant issues, and served a diverse party base of both migrants and non-migrants (OSCE 2017, 20)’’.

This way activity of the migrant women through political and social participation is a achievement, that allows them to spread political agenda and raises new issues regarding their needs. Those achievements give them sense of belonging to community and moderate impact of a nti-immigration groups. Thus creating climate of trust and reinforcing within those communities.

5.4.2.2. Social Participation: Voluntarism Furthermore, according to report there is other very important form of participation: voluntarism.

‘‘Analysis suggests that migrants may volunteer their help to others as much as natives do, though not always through work with a conventional organization (OSCE 2017, 12)’’.

40 This voluntarism is an argument that migrant women take decisions and become active in civil society. This informal decision may take place in their settlement process within family, social, cultural and professional context. Later they may found their own group, organization to make volunteering work. This taking decision and doing empowers them to become socially active and undertake different activities. The education system, which supported the development of decision-making agency was an invaluable gateway to exercise a range of social resources.

5.4.2.3. Capabilities Education has an impa ct on knowledge and skills in this way it empowers migrant women to become social and political active agent within community like voluntarism agent. Moreover as report claims:

‘‘Studies suggest that those educated in a country are more able to enter public life on their ’’ own (OSCE 2017:12) .

Educated migrant women gain proficiency of language, civic knowledge and different civic skills that enables them to more easily enter into public life than those migrant without education. As well it facilitate their enter and participation into labor market. Moreover, they have gained social network, which rise for them environment fostering their activity within community. In this way it can be argue that education is an unvalued gateway that opens up individuals to different perspective and possibilities in result it leads and foster political and social participation within community. In this line of argumentation comes next section that presents agency.

5.4.3.Agency Indicators that measure the agency are women’s mobility in the public domain, their participation in public action. As well one form of measurement form of agency relates to the dec is io n-making agency. In this way, regarding all the factors that constitute functioning achievements like political participation, social participation capabilities it can be argue, that this outcomes comes from ability to make choices, as Kabeer claim:

41 Agency refers to the ability of individuals and communities to recognize and act upon choices available to them, which are shaped and constrained by resources and opportunity structures, or structural factors (Kabeer, 1999). Agency can be understood as a process in which resources are mobilized in order to attain achievements (ibid). In this way exploring the existing achievements it can be argue, that migrant women are empowered by their decision making-agency, what can be seen by their achievements.

Drawing on this, the next section will further outline conclusion of analysis.

5.5. Conclusion of Analys is The next section of the analysis will describe in which way analysis of the interviews of migrant women and the analysis of the report are in line with each other and present final findings. This will be done through the empowerment theory of Naila Kabeer (1999) as theoretical tool that provided three different dimensions for the analysis: resources, agency and achievements.

5.5.1 Resources: Income, Skills, Civic Education and Social Capital Looking at the two previous sections of analysis we can see that education provides different resources for migrant women that make feel empowered to become active political and social agent in Swedish community. One of the most important resources is income. As Kabeer claims (1999b), accessibility to resources cannot be understood as the empowerment. Migrant women succeeding in their education are able to enter into lthe abor market and this participation allows them to become economically independent. When their basic need are satisfied, and status of life grows, political interest becomes important in order to mainta in the standards of life. As well people who are free from worries about their basic needs are enable to be engaged in social and political engagement.

Another resource provided by education, which is described in interviews with migrant women and in report is civic education. Education plays a crucial role as a provider to migrant women with civic education. Civic education affects migrant women attitudes, values, skills and disposition. It always provides a democratic climate and promotes political participation. In this way civic education is a powerful agent that not only promotes but foster politica l and social participatio n.

Furthermore, there are also other resources like skills and social capital that empower migrant women for political and social participation. Skills have definitively very high impact to

42 foster in engagement and participation. During education time are develop skills that provide good language skills and communications with other. People learn to stand for their argument and represent their own perspective. This increases possibility to gain the norms and habits for political participation. As well the social capital play here its important role. The possibility of knowing many people, gives many alternatives to become socially and politically active agent. However, looking with critical view it can be said that higher education credits on pre- adult factors like

5.5.2 Agency and Achievement: Political Participation, Social Participation, Capabilities The agency and achievements are other dimensions of empowerment of migrant women.

Agency can conceptualize as the ability to design one’s goal and act in order to attain them (Kabeer 1999a:21). As we can see in interviews analysis and report the migrant women decide to take responsibility for themselves and others. They join different organizations and make a volunteering work. Thus taking decision and doing it empowers them to become socially and politically active within community, this participation and engagement is as achievement. Thus, migrant women education promotes democratic value through political trust and engagement in political participation, which is a form of achievement as women will be more capable and will hold individual preferences that in turn affect political and social engagement.

However, looking with critical view it can be said that higher education credits on hidden pre- adult factors like a good preschool, inteligence, genetic patterns, wealth, social network and good environment in family preparing for political participation.

The next section will move deeper to present final findings of the analysis. 5.5.3 Discussion

This section will present the final findings and answer the research question by concluding the above mentioned analysis.

Reiterating the above, the research aims to analyze the role of education for migrant women in empowering them to acknowledge their political and social potential through the tool of empowerment theory of Naila Kabeer; resources, agency, and achievements (1999).

The interviews were linked to the report analyzed and the paper could thus prove that resources, agency, and achievements are essential for the empowerment of migrant women in Sweden. From the perspective of resources, most women expressed that they are more stable

43 economically after receiving the proper education in Sweden. This has led them to a better acknowledgement in their ability to make decisions. Linked to the report, this proved that migrant women who are capable to make decisions on their own experience the need of being more politically involved as they feel like their voice needs to be heard in their community (OSCE, 2017). Looking closer at the resources gained, the interviews showed that they now have better negotiation skills and have they actually have more courage to make their voice heard. As such and linking this to the report, it validates the notion that when migrant women gain more courage and trust they will be more active in their community and thus feel the urge to contribute politically and socially more (OSCE, 2017). Also, as all Baltic women mentioned, they now feel more equal to the Swedish community and hence, they will become more active citizen which is stated in the report as well. Thus, it is evident that education empowers migrant women to involve politically.

6. Conclusion

According to the three categories of Kabeer, the interviews and analysis were made in order to discuss and qualitatively measure the empowerment of migrant women as active political and social agent. The next section will outline the results and conclusion of this research.

Answering the research question; how can we understand the role of education in empowering migrant women in Sweden to become politically and socially active in their community?

•The Discussion of Income Agency •Political Participation

•The Discussion of Skills • Social Participation: •The Discussion of Decision Voluntarism • The Discussion of Civic Making • Capabilities Education •The Discussion of •Social Capital Negotiations •The Discussion of Resistance •The discussion of Voice Resources Achievements

Table 3. Conclusion of interviews with migrant women and report (blue color underlines common findings).

44 Concluding the common findings of the analysis of the interviews and report it can be argued that migrant women are empowered through resources: income, skills, civic education, social capital, as well through agency: decision-making process and achievements: political participation, capabilities.

This result is important in order to further push women to educate themselves in Sweden. Moreover, it presents an understanding of education in the empowerment process and underlines the position of migrant women within society and within political science. As well it may change gender migrant women stereotyping as passive, modest and shy into assertive, brave and ambitious (Kabeer 2003). Moreover, policy makers often see the benefits of educating women in terms of improving family health and welfare, rather than preparing wo me n for a more equal place in the economy and in society (ibid). Thus, this study can have many important impacts.

Our substantive results have a clear normative impact for our understanding of the role of education in politics (Kam and Palmer 2008). The results presented here provide evidence that higher education advancement has a positive and substantively important causal effect on political and social participation through resources, agency and achievements.

Considering all these factors it should be acknowledged that this study has several limitations. First of all the sample of migrant women in Sweden are quite small because includes only six speakers. In this way it could be the case that a larger study could detect patterns that are not visible in this data. Second this study investigate migrant women from Russia and Easter Europe only, without taking into account other groups of migrant women in Sweden such as African or Asian country, which may have received different results of benefits from education.

However, we have to remember that also other factors play important role in political and social participation. The pre-adult predispositions and experiences in the home, in the primary and secondary school actually play a role in spurring participation (Kam and Palmer 2008).

It is very important to keep in mind that others hidden factors from pre-adult like family environment and social network, intelligence (Kam and Palmer 2008) etc. plays also very important role in this empowerment (what is not in the scope of this study).

The aim of this paper, now completed was simply to examine the role of education in empowering migrant women in Sweden to become politically and socially active in their

45 community, on this score the evidence is found to be convincing.

However, further study are recommended to research migrant men, what could give more insight in existing data. As well research on migrant women in Sweden from African, Asian or others countries would provide more insight about migration and integration in Sweden.

This research presented has shed some new light on the understanding of the role of education in political and social empowerment, yet it is not the full picture. Further studies mentioned above would improve our understanding of the existing phenomena of higher education and political and social participation.

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8. Appendix:

How Can We Understand The Role of Education Empower Migrant Women in Sweden in Political Participation and Societal Change?

Interview Questions

1. How long have you been in Sweden? 2. How many years did you study in Sweden? 3. What has changed for you after your studies? 4. Did education empowered you in family life? How? 5. In which way education empowered you in community life? How? 6. In which way education empowered you for social change? 7. In which way education empower you in political life? How? 8. Did your political engagment changed after studies?

54 9. How do you percieve education as a way to unify many different religions and backgrounds? Why? 10. Do you think education helped you to gain skills to lead and make action in community? 11. Do you think after education helped you for political and social participation? How? 12. Did you gained intellectual understanding of power and social change? 13. Do you feel more value, belonging, integretated within swedish society after your education? Why? 14. How education empower you in resources: economic and others? 15. How education empowered you in agency decision-making family, community, society? 16. How education empowered you and it results in achievements? 17. What would you like say more?

9.Appendix

Figure 1.The Participation Piramid (Milbrath 1965 in Bovens and Wille 2010).

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