Integration from the perspective of young women who came to Sweden as unaccompanied asylum-seeking girls from Afghanistan. An interpretative phenomenological analysis

Abstract

ABSTRACT There is a need for increased knowledge regarding refugee women’s experiences of integration. This study concerns young women who came to Sweden as unaccompanied asylum-seeking (UAS) girls, and how they understand integration and their everyday life. Six young women, age 19–24, who came to Sweden as UAS children in the period 2013–2015 participated in semi-structured interviews, which were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Five themes emerged: Relationships to family members; Being a minority woman; The importance of information; Integrating cultures; and Dreams and agency. Their everyday lives could be difficult, for example since interventions often targeted and were dominated by boys and men. Moreover, the participants sensed that they were in contradictory positions. While striving to integrate Swedish and Afghan customs they described expectations from parents and the Afghan community to live according to Afghan traditions. Despite being in vulnerable positions, they experienced independence and the capacity to change their lives and sought to contribute to equal rights for women. The participants described integration as a process, enhanced by their personal agency and by their social, relational, and material contexts. Based on the results, we discuss how integration can be supported.