Title of the thesis:
Re/ Presentations of Migrant Integration Discourses in Northern Norway
Topic trial lecture:
The relations and potential frictions between integration discourses and gender (equality) discourses in Norway
Time for trial lecture: 10:15 – 11:15
Time for public defence: 12:15 – 15:30
Place: Bodø, A13 Elias Blix
Chair of defence: Dean Elisabeth Ljunggren
Assessment committee
- Professor Mikkel Rytter, Aarhus University
- Professor Guro Korsnes Kristensen, NTNU
- Professor Janne Breimo, Nord University
Supervisors:
- Main supervisor: Professor Yan Zhao, Nord University
- Co-supervisor: Professor Marit Aure, UiT The Arctic University of Norway
The thesis is available for viewing by contacting Anneli M. Watterud.
About the thesis:
The concept integration has been criticized for its many limitations, often in relation to the construction and reification of the nation-state, national boundaries, and national identities. Yet, integration remains a key concept in public discourses. Starting with the assumption that local and national discourses do not always align, this dissertation questions how integration is re/presented in public discourses in the northern Norwegian County of Nordland. Through an analysis of discourses approach to study policy documents, newspaper articles, and interviews with leaders of migrant organizations, I explore what messages and effects integration discourses may convey in the context of a peripheral region.
Read together, the three articles that comprise this dissertation demonstrate that integration discourses contain many layers of messages and effects. Among other potential messages and effects, I argue integration discourses may frame expectations for residents to be moral and loyal and may migratize policy issues to portray them as relevant only or primarily for migrants. However, integration discourses are not impermeable but may be contested. This can be seen in how leaders of migrant organizations use integration discourses when applying for financing, but also employ integration discourses to contest widespread understandings by, for example, addressing the stratification of resources to learn Norwegian, unequal expectations regarding participation, and the importance of feeling at home and being seen. Collectively, my findings demonstrate the productive role of integration discourses and how they may be appropriated in other processes, for example, to attract and retain residents in an area experiencing depopulation or to justify welfare retrenchment. In conclusion, I argue for the pluralization of integration discourses in rethinking and reimagining what integration is and can be.
