Structured encounters and immigrant experiences of integration in Sweden

Abstract

ABSTRACT The present paper investigates immigrants’ perceptions of the integration process, centering their perceptions of organizations and the built environment. To do so, we use the concepts formal structured encounters, or planned organizational activities intended to foster access to social connections and integration facilitators, and informal structured encounters, or unplanned, organic social connections and access to facilitators fostered by the physical arrangement of space. Drawing from in-depth interviews and ethnographic data gathered at two Swedish research sites, we examine how immigrants who participated in formal and informal structured encounters perceive these encounters affecting their integration experiences. We then compare how immigrants who have and have not participated in formal and informal structured encounters perceive the integration process overall. We find that immigrants who participated in formal structured encounters were able to access language and cultural learning as well as opportunities for social connections. Informal structured encounters rarely occurred. We also find that those who participated and did not participate in formal structured encounters perceived and experienced the integration process similarly: as never-ending and burdensome, with processual challenges and discrimination functioning as formidable hurdles. We conclude the paper by discussing the implications of our findings for future research and immigration policy.