Abstract
Since the 1970s, the government in Sweden has developed many activities aimed at facilitating immigrants' integration processes and their sense of belonging; one such activity that emerged in the 2010s is civic orientation. This activity is characterized by a high degree of standardization of both processes and content. The intention is for local activities and participants to adjust to general levels and standards. But even though standards can be seen as a solution for a set of problems, one must consider that standards do not perform any tasks by themselves; their functions depend on organizational routines, resources available, and staff members' use of the standards. Therefore, one must consider how integration workers handle standards and how they bridge standards of routines and procedures with participants, immigrants, responses, and needs. The interest in this study concerns how such a dilemma intervenes at the local level and what it means for professional knowledge and autonomy. This study takes place at an integration unit in Sweden where integration workers meet in workshops to interpret standards and find ways to adapt them to local needs. The results show how cultural and pedagogical awareness form the basis for professional knowledge and how this also creates a space for action but also how standards form a structure through which expectations and demands are understood and form arguments and interaction patterns.
Highlights
Over the last few decades, there have been many debates and several studies that focused on immigrants’ integration into societies
The aim of this study is to scrutinize how integration workers bridge the gap between general standards and local needs, which implies an interest in standardized processes and content structures—in other words, this study concerns how integration is carried out and how the information of the standards is understood
The aim of this study is to scrutinize the ways in which such standardization intervenes in how integration workers understand the information of the standards to bridge the gap between standards and local needs
Summary
Over the last few decades, there have been many debates and several studies that focused on immigrants’ integration into societies. The aim of this study is to scrutinize how integration workers bridge the gap between general standards and local needs, which implies an interest in standardized processes and content structures—in other words, this study concerns how integration is carried out and how the information of the standards is understood. The aim of this study is to scrutinize the ways in which such standardization intervenes in how integration workers understand the information of the standards to bridge the gap between standards and local needs. To these ends, observations took place at monthly workshops for integration workers at an integration unit in Sweden
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