Oleg Shaltaev SPORT AND SOFT POWER: The Case of Sport as a Tool of Immigrant Integration in Sweden Faculty of Management and Business MDP in Leadership for Change Cross-Border International Relations Master‘s Thesis Spring 2019 Tampere University Faculty of Management and Business MDP in Leadership for Change SHALTAEV OLEG: Sport and Soft Power: the Case of Sport as a Tool of Immigrant Integration in Sweden Master‘s Thesis, 83 pages + 3 pages of Appendix Spring 2019 E-mail:
[email protected] This research examines whether and how the idea of Sweden as a multicultural society and the image of sport as a tool of integration have been used to increase the power of attraction of Sweden in international relations. Do sportspeople with an immigrant background constitute a form of Swedish soft power? There are different initiatives in Sweden aiming to facilitate integration of newly arrived immigrants and refugees into the Swedish society, and sport, reportedly, is becoming a relevant social platform for integration as it breaks down ethnic barriers. These initiatives are also attracting international attention, which is the focus of this research. There is previous research about sport as soft power tool but not much studies concern integrative sports projects or sportspeople constituting a form of soft power. The research on sport as a form of Sweden‘s soft power is also limited. Methodologically, this thesis relies on qualitative content analysis of primary data. In order to get a comprehensive knowledge about the image given about Sweden through sport integration projects and perceptions of outstanding Swedish sportspeople of immigrant background this study used the method of triangulation in data collection.