Challenges of Integration: A Case from Human Rights Perspective.

Abstract: This is a qualitative study on a case concerning the challenges of integration from the immigrant’s experience. This case looks at the issues of social and economic context from the human rights perspective and utilizes the rights approach to address social issues. The setting of the study is in Goteborg, Sweden. The focus of this study is on legal immigrants, long term residents or those who have the legitimacy of status and therefore considered as stakeholders of society in the rights context. In the summer of 2013, this study took place and two sets of interviews were carried out. One was with a professional from an NGO who works with immigrants in their communities. The other interview was for a focus group where all the participants in the study were interviewed in a gathering to air their opinions, express their views and answer questions on integration and the challenges with integration. In the context of social work, the social development perspective is used to make an assessment to understand the social conditions and the situation of those who participated in the study from account of their experiences. The social and economic issues identified from the findings are addressed because of the highlighted implications for human rights such as, the right to work, the right to a decent standard of living, rights not to be discriminated against. The rights based approach (RBA) is applied in the discussion as a strategy and tool to the issues considered as challenges for integration from a human rights perspective in this case.