ABSTRACT
The shifts in policy from universal approaches for immigrants to demands for more flexible, individually tailored and market-based policies in pursuit of integration reflect wider developments including the rise of neoliberal doctrine. The continued insistence on an integration policy demonstrates the investment states have made in a bounded social unit under their control despite being challenged by the many processes gathered under the rubric of globalisation, and the greater salience of regions and cities in the EU. In 1994, Sweden's immigrant policy was reviewed by a parliamentary committee concerned with the integration of newcomers into Swedish society. How refugees are received by Swedish municipal bureaucracies and services reflects dominant strands of Swedish social service policy and practice. Social services in Sweden are governed by the 1982 Social Services Act, which defines the responsibilities and role of the individual in relation to society and the obligations and responsibilities of the latter.
