Valuing Gender Equality: Ideas, Practices and Actors in Everyday Integration Work : Integration and the Value of Gender Equality in Germany, Hungary, Poland and Sweden

Following the refugee reception crisis of 2015, migration and integration have continuously beenplaced in the media and political spotlight in Europe. Part of the attention has been on how new residentsin the European Union might best be enabled to take part in society, and how to mediate potentialconflicts between the newly arrived immigrants and the autochthonous population. Some of theseconflicts have been framed as value conflicts, and particular attention has been paid to issues of gender equality and gender relations. Gender equality as a value is one of the core founding values of the European Union and as such incorporated into the legislations of almost all member states.This report investigates how the value of gender equality is understood and conveyed in integrationwork in Europe. In this context, we approach gender equality not as a fixed concept, but through theideas, practices and actors involved in the value transmission processes related to integration work.Integration work includes a multitude of actions and actors differing across national contexts. Theseinclude state organised civic education courses, language courses, facilitating meeting points, NGO andvolunteering work, bridge builders and many more. This report explores which role values play in everyday integration work in Germany, Hungary, Poland and Sweden, especially after the increase in stateand non‐state initiatives to integrate newcomers.Gender equality allows for a variety of interpretations depending on local, regional, and national context.Important to consider is that the four countries considered in this report have very different experienceswith migration and integration, and, while they have all incorporated to gender equality intheir national legislation), the social practices and norms pertaining to gender equality look very different.The ideas, the practices, and the actors of gender equality evolve over time and throughout differentnational and local contexts. Norms and values continuously transform within and beyond ...