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NATURE’S ROLE IN SOCIAL INTEGRATION

The value of Björkö in the integration into Swedish culture

Dekhla, I.; Janovskis, V. & Jenkins Sánchez, G.

Title: Nature’s role in social integration – The value of Björkö

Authors: Isabelle Dekhla, Viktoria Janovskis & Gregory Jenkins Sánchez

Project supervisor: Per Sundberg

Course coordinator: Andreas Skriver Hansen

Department: Biological and environmental sciences

Academic year: 2016/2017

Abstract Sustainable development is based on the balance between the three pillars of sustainability:

economy, environment and society. Integration is an essential part in order to achieve

sustainable development. The first step toward integration is through finding a common

ground. Nature is an important part of the swedish culture (friluftsliv) and could therefore act

as this common ground where mutual exchange of knowledge can be gained, contributing to a

feeling of inclusiveness. Björkö is an island with special nature characteristics that lies close to

Gothenburg. The island therefore represents a good setting for this objective. Through

questionnaires and a guided tour with SFI students we aimed to gain knowledge about

immigrants’ perception of nature and analyse whether nature can be used as a way to try to

attain integration and a sense of inclusiveness. The SFI students perceived nature in a similar

way as swedes indicating that it could represent the common ground needed for integration.

We argue that nature should be included in the authorities processes for a sustainable

integration that contributes to a better sense of inclusion.

Structure

0. Concept list.....................................................................................................................................1

1. Introduction....................................................................................................................................2

2. Project framework.........................................................................................................................3

2.1. Target group analysis.......................................................................................................3

2.2. Swedish for immigrants...................................................................................................3

2.3. Past projects.......................................................................................................................4

3. Why integration for sustainable development?...................................................................5

3.1. Integration and the Environmental and social pillars...................................................5

3.2. Integration and the economic pillar.................................................................................5

3.3. Action..................................................................................................................................5

3.4. Access for sustainability....................................................................................................6

4. Methodology ..................................................................................................................................7

4.1. SFI student’s questionnaires.............................................................................................7

4.2. Guided tour........................................................................................................................8

5. Results..............................................................................................................................................9

5.1. Questionnaires for SFI students.......................................................................................9

5.2. Evaluation for guided tour.............................................................................................10

5.3. Accessibility through public transportation.................................................................11

5.4. Opinions of locals.............................................................................................................11

5.5. Actions of Local Authorities and other actors..............................................................12

6. Discussion.....................................................................................................................................13

6.1. The social and environmental pillars............................................................................13

6.2. The economic pillar.........................................................................................................14

6.3. Accessibility......................................................................................................................14

7. Conclusions..................................................................................................................................16

7.1. Limitations and delimitations........................................................................................16

7.2. Suggestions for future work...........................................................................................16

8. Acknowledgements.....................................................................................................................18

9. References.....................................................................................................................................19

10. Appendix............................................................................................................................22

10.1. Appendix I – Student questionnaires............................................................................22

10.2. Appendix II – Questionnaires answers.........................................................................25

10.3. Appendix III – Tour evaluation sheet............................................................................31

10.4. Appendix IV – Tour evaluation answers......................................................................32

10.5. Appendix V – Bus travel routes......................................................................................35

Nature’s role in social integration Sustainable development: A case study

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0. Concept list

Integration

Integration refers to the process a person goes through when adapting to a new culture

(Nationalencyklopedin). In this text, integration is referred to the concepts which Gothenburg

city demonstrates; everyone should feel at home and be able to participate in society.

Gothenburg city provides helpful tools such as Swedish For Immigrants (SFI) and the

possibility to learn more about the Swedish society (Göteborgs stad). We will therefore use the

word integration as described by Gothenburg city while adding the process of inclusion, where

nature may be a possible platform for a common ground. Hence, we understand integration as

a win-win process for mutual exchange of knowledge.

Swedes

Refers to Swedish citizens that are born in Sweden and/or are integrated and feel included in

Swedish society.

Immigrants

Immigrants refers to people that has moved into one country from another country

(Nationalencyklopedin). In this text, we refer to those immigrants that are still participating in

SFI and are still in the process what Gothenburg city refers to as integration.


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1. Introduction

Sustainable development is a term that first saw light after the publication of Our common future, also known as the Brundtland’s commission report in 1987 (WCED). But it was not until the RIO 92 Earth Summit conference that the concept started to draw more attention (Redcliff, M. 2005). Since then, it has evolved and been interpreted in many studies and by actors in diverse ways depending on the objective.

Sustainable development was originally described as the “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (WCED, 1987), and it is based on the balance between the three pillars of sustainability: economy, environment and society.

Though the concept establishes equal significance for each pillar, it is usually the environmental and the economics’ pillars that receive most of the attention and are more widely understood. A reason for this might be the vagueness of the concept of the social pillar itself, making it hard to define the it in a comprehensive way (Dempsey, N., 2011; Murphy, K. 2012).

Even with this disadvantage, social sustainability is still of foremost importance. The social pillar contains four eminent concepts in itself: Equity, awareness for sustainability, participation and social cohesion (Murphy, K., 2012) where the concept of social cohesion is something we put weight into in this project.

We aim to find the way to use natural environments to attain social cohesion through the integration of immigrants in Gothenburg. The first step in achieving integration is through the finding of common ground between both parties, and it’s here where nature may provide a solution.

The enjoyment of nature has been shared by all cultures throughout history. This

enjoyment may provide the common interest that we need to start a conversation, and

start the process to accomplish the final goal of sustainability, not only socially, but

also environmentally and economically.


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2. Project framework

Spending time in nature is an important part of Swedish culture. Therefore, this interest in nature, may provide a possibility for those who look to integrate into to Swedish society (Anonymous). Sweden does on top of that contain a wide range of environments to meet these nature desires.

The county, Västra Götaland, is characterised for having many small islands and archipelagos alongside its coast. Göteborg has two famous archipelagos which are popular for visitors and resident. The southern archipelago, Södra skärgården, is part of the municipality of Gothenburg, and the northern archipelago, is part of the Öckerö municipality.

Björkö is an island in the northern archipelago that, while being one of the bigger ones in the Gothenburg region, also is one of the more underpopulated ones. Until the end of the 90s, the island was home to a military base that took up a sizable portion of the island’s surface for its activities. For this reason, most of the northern half of the island has remained mostly unexploited and naturalised (Göteborgs stad). Additionally, the activities carried out created several areas with unique features in the island which prompted the appearance of distinctive flora and fauna. This gives a Björkö a characteristic that most islands lack.

This characteristic allows Björkö a unique opportunity to show what kind of environment these islands can offer and provide the setting for a variety of natural activities. For these reasons, Björkö can be the perfect setting to establish an environmental education project with the aim of providing immigrants with the knowledge and cultural significance of nature in Sweden.

2.1. Target group analysis

In 2016 immigrants represented 25% of the total population in Gothenburg municipality. The same year, 6% of the population in Öckerö municipality were immigrants (Statistiska Centralbyrån). The target group of this study were immigrants in Biskopsgården since it is a part of Gothenburg that is near the northern archipelago and an area where a large part of the population are immigrants (Göteborgs stad). To achieve this, the students of the SFI were contacted to serve as a sample of this population.

2.2. Swedish For Immigrants – SFI

SFI is an education form that aims to give adults basic knowledge in the Swedish language. All people that live in Sweden and lack knowledge of the language, have the right to attend SFI if they are 16 years old or over. It is the municipality’s responsibility to make sure that everybody that lives in the municipality gets the education they are entitled to (Svenska skolverket).

The SFI education consist of three steps, where step one is for those with no, to little previous education and step three is for those who have a large educational background. Every step consists of two courses. Step one includes the courses A and B, step two the courses B and C and step three the courses C and D. The courses are


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adapted to every student’s needs, giving them tools to actively participate in society. Furthermore, immigrants that lack basic ability to write and read will be able to acquire this at SFI (Svenska skolverket).

2.3. Past projects

Gothenburg’s environmental administration, in collaboration with the Natural History Museum, have carried out projects with the intent of putting immigrants in contact with nature as a way for creating a pathway to integration. Vägen till naturen (Path to nature), was a project developed by Yusra Moshtat and Anders Nilsson that intended to use nature as an integrated part of SFI tutoring which also included a basic course in natural science (GöteborgsFria 2007). The project consisted of an exhibition by the Natural History Museum were a variety of natural environments were shown. Conversations were held about how people experienced nature in their own culture and in Sweden. Additionally, several walks and tours were carried out in some of the city's green areas, like the botanical gardens (GöteborgsFria 2007; Vårt Göteborg 2010). At this time, we have not found any results of the project or any sign that it is ongoing.

Välkommen ut i naturen (Welcome out in nature) was another project which aimed to

take immigrants out to Kosters nationalpark contained in the municipalities of

Strömstad and Tanum. They made an action plan on how to make the park more

accessible for these immigrants. They, like us, met with students from SFI and

undergraduate students to analyse their interest for being in nature and finalized with

a guided tour for the students in the national park (Anonymous).


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3. Why integration for sustainable development?

When referring to sustainable development as defined by the three pillars: economic, social and environmental; integration is not only important in attaining a healthy social pillar through social cohesion, it has beneficial effects on all three pillars.

3.1. Integration and the Social- and Environment pillar

Social cohesion can be described as the social interactions within communities, with the support and order this may provide (Dempsey, N., 2011). It has been linked to the promotion of happiness/well-being; minimizing social strife; reducing crime; promoting interpersonal trust; and combating suicide, bullying, and antisocial behaviour (OECD, 2009; Murphy, K. 2012). Therefore, the integration of marginalised or segregated communities is of utmost importance.

Finding a common ground is essential in integration. In the Swedish society, where friluftsliv is regarded as being highly important. Swedes have a sense of understanding of how to act in nature, both in terms of our legal obligations and in terms of what we can do. This is known as Allemansrätten (the right of public access). Including nature in integration processes could give immigrants and swedes the common ground needed to present a wall-breaker against prejudices, where nature could work as a meeting-spot.

With nature as a base we can also incorporate environmental awareness. According to Sandell and Öhman (2010), the connection between friluftsliv and allemansrätten can “widen the scope of environmental and sustainability education”. By having integration as a base, we can include nature conservation and raise awareness and empathy for nature by inviting people out in nature.

3.2. Integration and the Economic pillar

Integration is, and should be, seen as an investment rather than a cost. In the OECD (2014) report on is migration good for the economy? they discuss the importance of integration through three aspects; labour markets; the public purpose; and for economic growth. The OECD report aims to notify the importance of the countries to actively engage in the integration process to fully gain the positive outcomes of immigration.

3.3. Action

Integration does not occur on its own, there is a need for action by the country receiving the migrants. Beery (2013) investigated the relationship between environmental connectedness and Friluftsliv and he found a positive correlation between the two. He describes the theoretical concept of sustainable development but also highlights the importance of action. Such an act may be excursions in nature as integral part of education. He furthermore claims that the “Swedish cultural expression of a relationship to nature is unique” (Beery 2013) whilst Henderson (2001) describes friluftsliv as “outdoor recreation with its heart within the land and linked to a tradition of being and learning with the land” which both indicates the importance of the


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human-nature relationship in Swedish culture. Therefore, excursions and guidance in nature should be an integral part of integrational processes.

3.4. Access for Sustainability

Beery (2013) states that “access to nature in urban areas represents an important application

of the intersect of Environmental Connectedness and sustainability”. In Sweden, there is a

close access to nature, however this access does not reach immigrants that arrive to

Sweden (Anonymous).

When arriving to a different place with no knowledge of where to go and how to act,

one may be left out of an important part of Swedish culture. When individuals believe

they are part of nature, they act sustainable as mentioned above, as part of the human-

nature relationship (Schultz 2002).


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4. Methodology

4.1. Contacting stakeholders

The stakeholders we contacted were: (1) Öckerö Municipality, (2) Göteborgs Folkhögskola in Biskopsgården, (3) Locals at Björkö, (4) Göteborg & Co.

We contacted Öckerö municipality and Göteborg & Co by email with questions about marketing on the islands, public transport and actions on integration.

At first, we approached the locals in person, asking questions about their view on the diversity of Björkö’s visitors. However, after realising the complexity of the question, we instead chose to contact individuals already involved in integration processes on the island. The questions we asked were regarding the locals view on integration and nature to achieve this.

We contacted Göteborgs Folkhögskola in Biskopsgården to be able to hand out questionnaires to their SFI students.

4.2. Questionnaires for SFI students

We created a questionnaire (appendix I) to gather information about: (1) relationship with swedish nature, (2) attitude to recreation in the archipelago, (3) knowledge about the northern archipelago, (4) obstacles to visit the northern archipelago, and (5) activities/ways to increase interest in Björkö.

The questionnaire was created in English then translated to Swedish and handed out in four groups of SFI-students at Göteborgs Folkhögskola in Biskopsgården. A total of 54 students in SFI level B, C and D answered the questionnaire. The students varied in age and came from all parts of the world.

We were present and able to answer uncertainties about the questions in one C level group and one D level group. In the other two groups, the teacher handed out the questionnaires in our absence.

We had three picture questions. For one of these the students had to choose between the pictures while in the other two they had the possibility to choose all the pictures they found appealing. The pictures were handed out separately to the questionnaires. For all questions where the students chose multiple answers, the answers were counted independently of each other.


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4.3. Guided tour

After being guided around Björkö by nature guides from the Naturskyddsföreningen, reading about what Björkö must offer and how to adapt the content of the tour to the participants we created a finalised plan for the tour. An invite was sent to the head of Göteborgs Folkhögskola in Biskopsgården and the students that wanted to go on the tour could sign up. However, we set the number of ten students as the maximum number of participants we could handle.

The object of the guided tour was to show the students how to get to Björkö, show them some examples of typical nature that exists in the archipelago and to evaluate if activities like these could be a way for immigrants to become more integrated.

Excursion

Ten SFI-students participated in the tour that took place on the northern part of Björkö (Fig. 9). We picked up the students at the tram station close to their school at 13.00 and travelled together to the northern part of Björkö by public transport.

While on Björkö, we took the students through wooded areas, beach meadows, old military grounds and up to a viewpoint where they could have a look around the surroundings. The students saw different birds, flowers and a common porpoise during tour. Including the coffee break at the view point the tour took about 1.5 hours to complete.

Evaluation

We created an evaluation sheet (appendix IV) to see if the guided tour on Björkö influenced the SFI-student’s perception of nature and if they believe that this type of activity is a way for them to become more integrated in Swedish society.

The evaluation sheet was emailed to the head of Göteborgs Folkhögskola in Biskopsgården and the participants answered it online with help from a teacher at their school.

Figure 1. Map over the northern part of Björkö (Barret et al. 2016, 34). The blue dashed line is the suggested trail by Naturskyddsföreningen. On the guided tour the students followed the blue path at first and then turned right after [3] and followed the grey path back to the “P”.


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5. Results

5.1. Questionnaire for SFI-students

Most of the students spent time in nature at least once a month. However, a large majority of the students wished they could spend more time in nature (Fig. 2 & 3).

While coastal areas were not the most preferable nature type to spend time in, 26% of the students found them appealing and nearly no one seemed to have any negative feeling towards the sea (Fig. 4 & 5).

However, over half of the students had never visited any of the islands around Gothenburg, even though the interest in visiting existed (Fig 6 & 7). Looking at Björkö, the biggest obstacles for the students to visit seemed to be that they did not know how to get there by public transportation and that they had no knowledge of the island’s existence before the questionnaire (Fig. 8).

33%

56%

11%

How often do you spend time in nature?

Once a week ormore

Once per monthor more

Rarely

Figure 2. How often the SFI-students spend time in nature. 33% spend time in nature once a week or more (blue), 56% spend time in nature once a month or more (orange and 11% spend time in nature less than once a month (grey).

81%

17%

2%

Would you like to spend more time in nature?

Yes

No

N.A.

Figure 3. How many of the students wish they could spend more time in nature. 81% wants to spend more time in nature (blue), 17% feel that they spend enough time in nature as it is and 2% of the students did not answer the question.

Figure 5. The students’ feelings regarding the sea. 29% enjoy spending time by the coast (blue), 28% enjoy swimming (orange), 21% enjoy fishing (grey), 15% get relaxed by it (light blue) and 7% find it dangerous (yellow).

29%

28%

21%

7%

15%

What is your relation to the sea?

I Enjoy spendingtime at the coastI enjoy swimming

I enjoy fishing

It seemsdangerous to meIt relaxes me

21%

26%37%

16%

Which environments would you prefer to visit?

Forests

Islands/ Coastalareas

Urban parks

Wildlife

Figure 4. Environments the students would like to spend time in. 37% likes urban parks (grey), 26% likes coastal areas (orange), 21% likes the forest (blue) and 16% like the wildlife (yellow). The student had the possibility to choose all the alternatives.


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Almost all the SFI-students thought that by spending time in nature they would meet more swedes and get more integrated in society (Fig 9).

5.2. Evaluation of guided tour

Out of the ten participants on the tour, five answered the evaluation sheet.

All the students had a very positive experience visiting Björkö. Two participants said that it was highly likely that they would return to Björkö sometime in the future. The other three said that they might return.

Regarding the public transportation to Björkö, two students thought that it was very easy, two said it was easy and one thought it was somewhat easy to get to the island by bus and ferry.

45%

55%

Have you visited any of the islands?

Yes

No

Figure 6. The students’ visitation patterns to the islands around Gothenburg. 54% had never visited any of the islands (orange) while 46% of the students had visited some of the islands.

80%

5%15%

Would you be interested in visiting in the future?

Yes

No

N.A.

Figure 7. Interest in visiting any of the islands in Gothenburg’s archipelago. 94% were interested in visiting some of the islands in the future (blue) and 6% had no interested in visiting any of the islands (orange).

36%

40%

17%

2%

3%2%

What are your main obstacles for visiting?

PublictransportationKnowledge ofexistencePrivatetransportationCost

Other

N.A.

Figure 8. Obstacles the students feel are reasons for them not to visit Björkö. 40% hand no knowledge of the islands existence (orange), 36% have problems with public transport (blue), 17% Have problems with private transport (grey), 2% believe it’s too costly (yellow), 3% had other reasons (light blue) and 2 %did not answer the question (green)

91%

7%

2%

Do you find adopting cultural practices as a good way to achieve integration?

Yes

No

N.A.

Figure 9. The students’ feeling regarding nature experiences as a way for them to get more integrated in society. 92% were positive to this being a way to get more integrated while 8% felt that this would not help them to become part of the society.


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Three of the students claimed that they had learned something new during the tour and all said that they were interested in learning more about Swedish nature. Three of the students believed that by doing so they would feel more at home in Sweden.

Three of the students believed that activities like this tour would make it easier for them to get in contact with swedes while one felt that this would not help them at all to get more integrated in society. The remaining student was unsure if activities like this are the way to go if they wanted to become more integrated.

5.3. Accessibility through public transportation

Öckerö municipality did not believe that it is difficult to access Björkö (Lernhag, personal communication). However, we found that using public transport to get to nature on Björkö from Biskopsgården was difficult for two main reasons. Firstly, you must know the name of the ferry stop (Gröneviks Färjeläge) to be able to find out how to get there through Västtrafik’s travel planner. This is a name most tourists or non-islanders probably do not know.

Secondly, the accessibility to reach the island is limited outside of the start or end of work hours. During the start- and end of work hours, busses go to and from Volvo making it possible to take an easier and quicker route between Björkö and Biskopsgården (Appendix V: Fig 10 & 11).

Furthermore, once you have arrived at Björkö you must get from the ferry stop to nature. To do so you need to walk approximately 40 minutes or take a bus). This bus only goes on weekdays and so accessibility is therefore limited if you want to use public transport on the weekends. (Appendix V: Fig. 12).

5.4. Opinions of Locals

The people of Björkö seem to be hesitant to change anything that makes the island lose its “island-feeling”. This includes everything from building a bridge that connects Björkö with the mainland, to changes that make the island more attractive to different ethnic groups than those who usually visits the island (anonymous locals, personal communication; Alexanderson, personal communication).

In 2015 a group of young refugee boys came to stay at Björkö. At first, the news of this was met, by some, with scepticism about how the boys would fit into their society (Alexanderson, personal communication). This further implies that there is a reluctance to adapt, which might compel newcomers to assimilate rather than being included in the community.

However, looking at ecotourism and activities like our tour, the hesitance of the locals seems to be mostly based on the belief that attracting different ethnic groups would mean the number of visitors would increase (anonymous locals, personal communication). We found that the overall opinion is that anyone is welcome, and even encouraged, to enjoy the beauty that is Björkö. Additionally, there are a lot of people on the island that are willing to share this with both swedes and immigrants (Anonymous locals, personal communication; Alexanderson, personal communication).


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The fact that many people got engaged in making sure that the immigrant boys on Björkö got a good start shows that Björkö is a community that is open and welcoming to people from diverse cultures (Alexanderson, personal communication).

5.5. Actions of Local Authorities and other actors

When it comes to taking care of the immigrants that live in the northern archipelago, Öckerö municipality have established an organ that is responsible for helping them get integrated into society. This is done by making sure that they get the education they need and a job as soon as possible (Lernhag, personal communication).

Gothenburg’s rescue mission plays a big part in the integration of the immigrant boys that live on the islands. They make sure that the boys have contact and support from locals by assigning them a support family that they meet on a regular basis. Öckerö’s High School has started a language café to help these boys feel more at home and the churches have tried to get them involved in different activities (Alexanderson, personal communication).

However, nothing specific is done when it comes to marketing the islands to attract more immigrants. The municipality together with Göteborg & Co decides how the marketing of the northern archipelago should look and the content is currently written in Swedish and targeting visitors of Gothenburg (Berg, personal communication).

Göteborg & Co have had some projects to market the northern archipelago to all people and some specifically for immigrants, to promote visits to the islands. For example, they have held guided tours together with Gothenburg’s centre for integration, where the aim was to raise awareness of the possibilities that exist in the archipelago.


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6. Discussion

Going back to the question in section 3 “Why integration for sustainability?”, integration is, first and foremost, a way to enrich perceptions of nature and culture as well as to contradict preconceptions. Our pilot study can be used as a tool for future work for incorporating nature in integration. If continuing such work, weight should be placed on generating a win-win result, seeing nature as a place for mutual exchange of knowledge.

6.1. The Social and Environmental pillars

Nature can be important for people for both practicing sports and used as a meeting spot, it can also be important for its spiritual significance and beauty. In both cases, nature can function as a wall breaker against prejudice. The establishment of common ground and interests can lead from societal exclusion to inclusion.

An action plan to make Kosterhavets national park available to immigrants acknowledges that some Scandinavians visit nature to find peace and quiet, and not to meet other people. The action plan further acknowledges that immigrants may wish to do more loud activities such as ball games, barbeque and bigger family meetings, which may aggravate swedes (Anonymous). Additionally, Buijs’s (2009) research showed that the perception of nature between immigrants and Dutch people differs. The potential differences between immigrants and swedes listed above could be the reason for the students’ belief that they would not meet swedes in nature.

However, we perceived that what swedes want to do and what the students wanted to do, is similar. Since the second biggest reason for the students to spend time in nature was to get away from everyday life it indicates that they also base a big part of their relationship with nature on escapism and the need for serenity. This also means that meeting swedes might not be high on the agenda. If this is true, having ‘nature as meeting spot’ would not be the best approach for integration.

Some of the students, however, believed that they would meet more swedes if they spend time in nature. This belief could be based on the possibility that the knowledge about nature and the practice of spending time in nature could generate a mutual interest between swedes and immigrants. Therefore, if referring to integration as a sense of belonging where nature represents a common ground, then all activities in nature could be a good approach.

Simple and accessible nature-based outdoor recreation, such as walking in running, were the main activities that the students of SFI wanted to do in nature. These types of activities in nature have proved to be correlated to environmental connectedness even though the exercise per se has nothing to do with nature itself (Beery 2012, 109). However, by practicing them in nature brings a higher value to the exercise, for example in terms of beneficial effects on health (Anonymous).

We analysed that the students of SFI valued nature in a sustainable manner and gave it a high spiritual importance since their answers did not give the impression of viewing nature as mainly functional and only for humans’ benefit. After our tour, the


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students claimed that they had a better understanding for the reasons nature is important to swedes and their willingness to learn more about the Swedish nature was predominant and similar to before the tour. As mentioned earlier cited by Beery (2013,112), access to nature is a crucial factor in the connection between environmental connectedness and sustainability which applies to the results of our study.

6.2. Economic pillar

Öckerö municipality is aware of their problem with a growing elderly population and wants to create opportunities for families and young people to move to the islands. However, nothing seems to be done to attract a more ethnically diverse group (Lernhag, personal communication). Missing out on reaching this part of the population could mean that the municipality is missing out on a considerable number of potential inhabitants that fit their description of what the municipality needs to grow in a sustainable manner.

Our target group in this project might, however, fit the frame of potential ecotourists better than potential inhabitants of the islands (where the latter neither is part of the aim of our project). Through introducing the northern archipelago to this group of people that clearly have an interest in this type of nature, it may contribute to future flow of diverse groups to the island. Since integration is essential for growth and welfare (Svenskt näringsliv), cross municipal borders integration should also be acknowledged in the process.

6.3. Accessibility

The main obstacle found in integrating immigrants is that they are not presented to nature as recreational areas nor to their ‘outdoor access rights’ (Anonymous). One student said during the tour that she had hardly ever been outside Biskopsgården before further implying that the knowledge about this could be limited.

Looking at the northern archipelago, Björkö in particular, over half of the students had not visited any of the islands around Gothenburg before. This was not due to a lack of interest for the islands, but rather the lack of knowledge about their existence.

It is Göteborg & Co together with Öckerö municipality and other concerned actors, that oversee making folders to market the northern archipelago (Lernhag, personal communication; Berg, personal communication). The information in the folders is currently written mainly in Swedish and English. A suggestion would be to make folders that not only target tourists, but also immigrants and permanent residents of Gothenburg. This could be done by, for example, writing the folders in “easy swedish” or making them available in more languages and in different areas of town.

We established that navigating through Västtrafik’s travel planner is hard and that it takes longer time than it should to get to Björkö. This contributes to the low accessibility of the island. Many of the students expressed a wish to spend more time in nature, which may indicate that the amount of free-time they have is limited. The trip with all the changes of vehicles and the long travel time could mean that Björkö is not an optimal choice for them when just wanting a quick escape.


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The buses to and from Volvo during start and end work hours makes it possible to shorten the travel time. However, if the visitor is traveling for recreational purposes or for vacation, then these hours may not be optional.

Some of the participants of the tour were unsure if they would return to Björkö again. We went during noon which means a longer route and this might affect them to not wanting to go back. Therefore, lack of knowledge about the island and how to get there might not be the only obstacles for continuous visits to the island, but rather the public transportation.

Since our results showed that the SFI students were eager to access nature, continuous

projects such as vägen till naturen and välkommen ut i naturen should be at hand. It will

therefore provide the knowledge about their access rights, of basics in natural science

as well as inspiration of what to do in nature and where to go.


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7. Conclusions

Our results were that the interest in nature and friluftsliv was high among the participants and that they were eager to know more and spend more time in nature. We believe that sustainable use of nature and nature connectedness goes hand in hand and that traditional practices of being and learning with the land (nature) is an important part of personal and societal development. Despite nature being used for mostly recreational purposes, it can still be a common platform to exchange knowledge and values. Nature should be incorporated in the SFI education for sustainable integration, which additionally contributes to a better sense of inclusiveness.

Through a transdisciplinary project, despite small, this pilot project was an act to lay out a path for future project.

7.1. Limits and Delimitations

Throughout the study we came across some limits that might influence the outcome of this study. However, we view this study as a pilot project which can be used as inspiration for future projects.

Interviews were ruled out in the earlier stage of the project due to the language barrier. We used questionnaires with multiple choice- questions since it was our best alternative to gather the information needed. However, using questionnaires to analyse views of nature and integration is difficult since the concepts are complex.

Even the questionnaires were found to be a bit too hard for some of the SFI students to understand. Us having swedish as mother-tongue made it hard to know which words were hard to understand for persons that have a different mother-tongue. Due to this language uncertainty, some students might have got influenced by co-student’s answers. Furthermore, some of the students might have answered the question despite not fully understanding the meaning of it.

The number of participants on the tour were not randomly selected, they volunteered due to their interest for the excursion. The combination of few participants on the tour, fewer answers on the evaluation, and that the participants chose to join due to their own interest, may have caused the results to be biased. The results from the evaluation should, therefore, not be treated as objective data. However, despite this fact, the overall notion of nature was positive for all SFI students, which could be considered a positive outcome for this study and for the future work with incorporating nature into integration processes.

We chose to delimit ourselves to SFI students in Biskopsgården due to the following factors, the population living in Biskopsgården do not fit with the former patterns of visitors going to Björkö; the area is located within Gothenburg, but close to the northern archipelago; and they had an SFI school. Björkö was chosen for reasons given throughout the text.

7.2. Suggestions for future work in incorporating nature in integration

Göteborg & Co to print folders with “easy Swedish” as suggested in section 7.3.


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If there is no possibility for an interpreter to be present when doing interviews, then using pictures is a good option (which was used inspired by the study vägen till naturen). Questionnaires with text might be considered only handed to classes on a higher level of SFI. However, excursions out in nature is a possibility for all levels of SFI.

The students showed high interest for outdoor activities. This could be something that the locals on Björkö can take advantage of by arranging tours, fishing trips and other activities. Projects could be made for the purpose to attract immigrants and for locals to show them what they appreciate about their island. This sort of activities would give the immigrants an opportunity to meet swedes in nature and would allow an exchange of cultural values not necessarily connected to nature.

Due to Björkö's inaccessibility by public transportation, we suggest one of the

following two solutions; changing the name of the ferry stop to Björkö Färjeläge, or

making it easier to navigate on the travel planner by making sure that Gröneviks

Färjeläge comes up as a suggestion if searching for Björkö (Lernhag already took this

suggestion in mind for their up-coming meeting with Västtrafik)


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8. Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Ulla & Kenneth, Emma, Arne, Annica and Göteborgs

Folkhögskola in Biskopsgården for their cooperation in answering questions and

sharing their knowledge. Furthermore, we would like to thank Per Sundberg for his

great advice and supervision, and Angeliki Kotsilimpa for her contribution to this

study. Last, but definitely not least, we would like to thank all the students that

participated both in the questionnaire and on the tour. Without them this project

would not have been possible to finish.


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9. References

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• Robinson, John. 2004. Squaring the circle? Some thoughts on the idea of sustainable development. Ecological Economics 48:369-384.

• Redclift, M., 2005. Sustainable development (1987–2005): an oxymoron comes of age. Sustainable development, 13(4): 212-227.

• Sandell, K. and Öhman, J. 2010. Educational potentials of encounters with nature: reflections from a Swedish outdoor perspective. Environmental Education Research 16(1): 113-132. DOI: 10.1080/13504620903504065.

• Schultz, W. 2002. Inclusion with nature: The psychology of human-nature relations. In Psychology of sustainable development, ed. P. Schmuck and W. Schultz. 61–75. Boston, MA: Kluwer.

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• Statistikdatabas för Göteborgs Stad. 2017. Födda i Sverige och i utlandet 2008–2016. http://statistikdatabas.goteborg.se/sq/f923f5e6-3fda-42af-a800-feabcd03da26, (Retrieved 2017-05-18).

• Svenskt Näringsliv. Ökad Integration Ökar Tillväxten. https://www.svensktnaringsliv.se/fragor/integration/ (Retrieved 2017-05-30).

• Swedish National Agency for Education, 2015. Kommunal vuxenutbildning i svenska för invandrare. https://www.skolverket.se/skolformer/vuxenutbildning/kommunal-vuxenutbildning/utbildning-i-svenska-for-invandrare/utbildning-i-svenska-for-invandrare-1.197968 , (Retrieved 2017-05-24).

• Söderström, T. 2007. Se naturen med andra ögon. Göteborgs Fria. May 17. http://www.goteborgsfria.se/artikel/19351 (Retrieved 2017-05-30).

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• WCED (World Commission on Environment and Development). 1987. Our Common Future. Oxford University Press. Oxford. http://www.un-documents.net/wced-ocf.htm (Retrieved 2017-05-30).

• Barrett, T., Rösiö, L. and Johanesson T. 2016. Öckerö kommun & Naturcentrum AB. Naturguide Öckerö kommun. https://www.ockero.se/download/18.48727f18159d824cc4d46306/14859632602

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10. Appendix

10.1. Appendix I: Questionnaire for SFI students

1) Have you recently spent time in nature?

o Yes

o No

2) What was the purpose of your visit to these spaces?

o Enjoy the scenery and landscape

o A way of escaping every day’s routine and find peacefulness

o Take part in an outdoor activity

o Other: ______________________________________________________________

3) Looking at the images, what type of nature do you prefer to visit?

Other: _____________________________________________________________________

4) How often do you spend time in nature?

o Once a week, or more

o Once a month, or more

o Rarely

5) Would you wish to spend more time in nature?

o Yes

o No

6) Do you think it’s important to care for nature?

o Yes

o No

If yes, choose one of the following reasons why you think it is important

o Nature supports life on Earth

o Nature is beautiful

Zoo

Island or a coastal area


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o People feel good when out in nature

o Other: _______________________________________________________________

7) What is your attitude towards nature?

o I respect nature and I want others to do the same

o It doesn’t matter if nature is destroyed

o I try to respect nature, but I'm not sure what I should do or not do in nature

o Nature is a source of materials/food

8) What is your relation to the sea?

o I enjoy spending time by the coast

o I enjoy swimming

o I see it as access to food/fishing

o I think the sea is dangerous

o I feel relaxed by the sea

o I don’t feel anything special about the sea

9) Have you visited any of the Archipelago's islands?

o Yes

o No

If yes, which? _______________________________________________________________

10) What was the reason for your visit?

o Beautiful landscape

o To explore the wilderness

o To get out of the city

o Other: _______________________________________________________________

11) How was your experience on the island?

o Very good

o Good

o Not so good

o Not as expected

12) If haven’t visited any island yet, would you like to go soon?

o Yes

o No

13) What would be the main obstacles that prevent you from visiting Björkö?

o Don’t know how to get there with public transportation

o I didn’t know the islands existed

o I don’t know if I can take my car

o The cost of taking me there

o Other: _______________________________________________________________


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14) Looking at the images, which type of island environments would you prefer?

15) Looking at the images: when going to an island, would you enjoy taking part of any

of the following activities?

Other: _____________________________________________________________________

16) Many people in Sweden, consider outdoor activities as an important part of their

culture. By adopting the same attitude, do you think it will help you integrate more

easily to Swedish society?

o Yes

o No

Kayaking Climbing

Snorkeling or swimming Fishing


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10.2. Appendix II: Answers for questionnaires

79%

21%

Q1: Have you recently spent time in nature?

Yes

No

29%

31%

37%

3%

Q2: What was the purpose of your visit?

Enjoy the landscape/ countryside

Escape routine and find peace

Participate an outdoor activity

Other

21%

26%37%

16%

Q3: Which environments would you prefer to visit?

Forests

Islands/ Coastal areas

Urban parks

Wildlife


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33%

56%

11%

Q4: How often do you spend time in nature?

Once a week or more

Once per month or more

Rarely

81%

17%

2%

Q5: Would you like to spend more time in nature?

Yes

No

N.A.

4%

96%

Q6.1: Do you consider it important to care for nature?

Yes

No


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41%

20%

39%

Q6.2: Why do you believe it is important to protect nature?

Nature supports life on Earth

Nature is beautiful

People feel good when out in nature

54%

20%

10%

16%

Q7: What is your attitude towards nature?

I respect nature

I'm behaving as I like

Not sure how to behave

I see nature as a source ofmaterial/food

29%

28%

21%

7%

15%

Q8: What is your relation to the sea?

Enjoy spending time at the coast

Enjoy swimming

I enjoy fishing

It seems dangerous to me

It relaxes me


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46%

54%

Q9: Have you visited any of the islands?

Yes

No

56%

11%

28%

5%

Q10: What is the reason for your visit to the islands?

Beautiful landscape

Wilderness

Getting away from the city

Other

41%

53%

3% 3%

Q11: What was your experience on the islands?

Very good

Good

Not so good

Not as expected


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94%

6%

Q12: Would you be interested in visiting in the future?

Yes

No

37%

41%

17%

2% 3%

Q13: What are your main obstacles for visiting?

Public transportation

Knowlidge

Private transportation

Cost

Other

25%

75%

Q14: What kind of island environment do you prefer?

Coastal town

Coastal nature


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23%

18%

20%

39%

Q15: What activity would you like to perform on the island?

Kayaking

Climbing

Swim/Snorkel

Fishing

91%

7%

2%

Do you find adopting cultural practices as a good way to achieve integration?

Yes

No

N.A.


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10.3. Appendix III: Tour Evaluation questionnaire

1) On a scale of 1 to 5, How much did you enjoy your visit?

o 1 o 2 o 3 o 4 o 5

2) On a scale of 1 to 5, What do you think about the transportation to Björkö?

o 1 o 2 o 3 o 4 o 5

3) Did you learn something today?

o Yes

o No

o Maybe

4) On a scale of 1 to 5, How likely is t for you to return to Björkö?

o 1 o 2 o 3 o 4 o 5

5) Do you think you may start visiting Björkö more regularly now?

o Yes

o No

o Maybe

6) Do you understand now why Swedes think nature is important?

o Yes

o No

o Maybe

7) Do you think activities like these can help you meet more swedish people?

o Yes

o No

o Maybe

8) Would you like to learn more about Swedish nature? For example, animals and flowers.

o Yes

o No

o Maybe

9) Do you believe if you learn more about swedish nature it will make you feel more at

home in Sweden?

o Yes

o No

o Maybe


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10.4. Appendix IV: Tour evaluation answers

0 0 0 0

5

1 2 3 4 5

How much did you enjoy your visit?

0 0

1

2 2

1 2 3 4 5

What do you think about the transportation to Björkö?

3

0

2

Did you learn something today?

Yes

No

Maybe


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0 0

3

0

2

1 2 3 4 5

How likely is it for you to return to Björkö?

3

0

2

Do you think you will start visiting Björkö more regulary now?

Yes

No

Maybe

5

00

Do you understand now why Swedes think nature is important?

Yes

No

Maybe


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31

1

Do you think activities like this trip can help you meet more Swedish people?

Yes

No

Maybe

5

00

Do you want to learn more about Swedish nature? For example, animals and flowers

Yes

No

Maybe

3

0

2

If you learn more about Swedish nature, do you think it will make you feel more at home in Sweden?

Yes

No

Maybe


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10.5. Appendix V: Bus travel routes

Figure 10. Vårväderstorget to Gröneviks Färjeläge by noon.

Figure 11. Vårväderstorget to Gröneviks Färjeläge by end of work hours


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Figure 12. Gröneviks Färjeläge to Posten, Björkö hours

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