Turkish immigrants in Sweden: Are they integrated?

Abstract

Many in Europe believe that large numbers of Turkish immigrants have failed to integrate into their host communities. How is this situation in Sweden? We found that most of the Turkish immigrants felt themselves to be Turkish and Sweden was accepted as a foreign country. Turkish-originated media was followed frequently and strong ties with relatives in Turkey were maintained. Marriage and friendship with native Swedes were not well accepted. We concluded that despite the multicultural aspects of Swedish integration policies, Turkish immigrants in Sweden were not well integrated and they prefer to live within the boundaries of their segregated, closed, small communities. © 2009 by the Center for Migration Studies of New York. All rights reserved.