Mentoring for Integration: "If I can do it, so can you". A study on Nightingale Malmö

Abstract: Students from Malmö University (mentors) and school pupils from 8 to 12 years old(mentees) participate each year in the Nightingale Malmö mentoring programme. UsingBourdieu’s sociological perspective, this thesis aims at examining how Nightingalementoring may strengthen the mentors’ and mentees’ social and cultural capitals. Plus, withthe concepts of social and system integration, this thesis aims at examining how mentoringcan integrate both mentors and mentees. To this end, the empirical data from eight mentors’interviews and their monthly reports has been combined with observations and conversationswith Nightingale staff members. The results show that mentoring has facilitated mentors’integration into the labour market to a significant degree. Mentoring enhances a form ofsocial integration for mentees and system integration for mentors. Concerning social capital,eight out of eight mentees’ self-confidence (display of social capital) appears to haveincreased through mentoring. Mentors’ and mentees’ cultural capitals — linguistic capital,know-how, and knowledge — have been exchanged and strengthened.