This dissertation serves two purposes: it problematizes the claims made by multicultural political theorists and their critics that culture is the salient explanatory variable for immigrant integration and it introduces the voices of women who often figure centrally, but silently, in these debates. Because these multicultural debates are almost exclusively framed in a Western context, this study was conducted in Sweden, which is an example case for a recently-diversifying, high-immigration, high-capacity Western state.

This project is grounded in feminist standpoint theory and intersectionality to argue for the inclusion of minority voices and researcher identities. Based on this theoretical orientation, I conducted 25 unstructured interviews with Swedish women of color and additional interviews with parliamentarians and bureaucrats involved in the integration process. In applying a critical race lens to observations made during fieldwork and to discourse analysis of my interview data, I identify a common narrative of exclusion and discrimination on the basis of race and the presence of Whiteness, or White privilege, in Swedish society. Race, rather than culture, is the common category of belonging on which people experience unequal treatment and discrimination.

I conclude this work with the finding that, although my participants all faced race-based treatment that has led to frustration and setbacks, they consistently assert Swedish identity in the face of discrimination and exclusion and make claims to state resources and social belonging. This agency is also manifest in the way that most of my participants have pursued higher educational opportunities and have acquired gainful employment based on their educations. This finding has led me to conclude that although racism and Whiteness are present in contemporary Sweden and adversely affect social integration, the economic resources provided to immigrants by the welfare state counterbalance these social forces to encourage economic integration, which, over time, will lead to social integration. I conclude with a series of policy recommendations based on a comparison of American and Swedish integration discourses and policies and each country's social and economic contexts.