FACULTY OF CULTURE AND SOCIETY | Seminar
Migration seminar: Integrators: Contradictions in Practice

Thursday 23 April, 13:15 - 15:00
Niagara, 9th floor, Nordenskiöldsgatan 1, or zoom 23
Apr

Welcome to the Migration Seminar!

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Ellen Jacobsson, Doctoral student, Centre for Studies in Practical Knowledge, Södertörn University

Abstract

What does it mean to integrate someone – and into what exactly are they expected to integrate? The thesis presented at this seminar investigates contemporary practices focused on facilitating the integration of those who, for various reasons, are perceived as standing “outside” society. These practices represent a societal response to a perceived need for integration. It aims to explore how integration as a social process of change is professionally facilitated, as well as how its facilitators – analytically referred to as “integrators” – reason. Such an investigation aims to help us understand the ideas shaping our contemporary understanding of society and its members. Drawing on dialogues with ‘integrators’ reveals that integration is more than a policy; it is a complex, lived, and often contradictory practice. Here, the work of integrators in Sweden and Hungary is examined. The analysis shows that integrators operate within three main, inherently contradictory demands that challenge both integration policies and established research paradigms, suggesting a more complex interplay of values, ideals, and epistemologies than is often acknowledged. Framed through Chantal Mouffe’s account of the democratic paradox, and drawing on Gadamer, Arendt, Schütz, and Ahmed, the thesis demonstrates how integrators enact a paradoxical role: upholding ideals of unconditional inclusion while realising conditional belonging. Integrators must, in effect, persuade individuals to desire becoming what they are expected to be, navigating between coercive adaptation and idealised mutual recognition.

Attendance

This is a hybrid seminar, you are welcome to connect via Zoom or join us at MIM seminar room, floor 9, Niagara, Nordenskiöldsgatan 1. To attend on campus, please gather by the reception area at 13.05.