Agnieszka Bron

From an immigrant to a citizen: language as a hindrance or a key to citizenship

The starting point for this paper is a question that has provoked a recent parliamentary election debate in Sweden: whether fluency in Swedish should be regarded as a requirement when applying for Swedish citizenship. Two main issues have been discussed: the different levels and meanings of citizenship, and language acquisition by adult immigrants as a hindrance or a key to citizenship based on recent research and scholarship.1 The Swedish policy of integration, being trapped between demos and ethnos, between universality and diversity, has profound consequences for forming Swedish language policy for immigrants. Yet learning a new language is connected with learning a new culture and society. For immigrants the new language is not only a means of survival, but an important step in reconstructing identities. It seems quite natural that a good command of the language is a key to becoming a full and active citizen, i.e. to acquire a citizenship. Comprehension of the language and knowledge of culture of the (new) country helps one to be aware of ones rights and duties and exercise them, to be involved in society and to participate actively in it. The new language and culture can enrich ones identity and make it more complex.

Biographical Interviewing: The Case of Non-Traditional Students in Higher Education

This case of biographical interviewing is part of a biographical research approach. A biographical approach concerns peoples stories and experience of everyday life and has a twofold purpose: to g ...

Feeling like a fish in water or like a fish out of water? A female academic career and experience in North Europe

The aim of this paper is to present an autobiographical account on the prospects and process of academic career in Nordic countries, and specifically in Sweden. The method used is biographical, or ...

Editorial: Learning and teaching in higher education - discovering possibilities and perspectives

Editorial: Learning and teaching in higher education - discovering possibilities and perspectives