Integration is a growing phenomenon in the Swedish society do to the increasing immigrant population in the country over the past five years. To examine successful integration one has to identify the different aspects within the phenomena and the political structure within the society. The study has referred to Jose Alberto Diaz multidimensional integration theory and multiculturalism which is the integration model Sweden has adopted into their integration policies.
The purpose of the study is to examine how immigrants have managed to integrate successfully into Swedish society from the migrant's perspective.
1. What are key factors for successful integration?
2. How has the Swedish society affected the immigrant's integration?
3. What is required of immigrants to integrate into society?
This is a qualitative semi structured interview based study with twelve respondents from Africa and Asia and they have all lived in Sweden for more than ten years.
The results of the study and the analysis indicate that Diaz multidimensional integration theory agrees with the participants' views on the various aspects of integration. Multiculturalism has had a major impact on how the immigrants in the study have managed to integrate into society. There are certain aspects that the theories and previous research does not address such as language, individual values and characteristics, and the influence of religion on the integration process. The study conducted has found that these aspects have influenced the immigrant’s integration process. These findings are an asset to the Social science research community and can be used as a base and inspiration source for future integration research. This study concluded that integration is a multidimensional process, constantly evolving and in order to succeed in this process one must evolve with it.