“…The findings also link up to an insistence on the part of many integration researchers that integration should be studied in its local context, and not only as a national matter (Hadj Abdou, 2019; Sætermo et al., 2021). The findings in our analysis echo some of the insights from this research, in that in its local settings, integration is typically approached pragmatically and in relation to aims of revitalization and development, as opposed to national narratives in which integration is often presented as ‘a problem to be solved’ (Brekke & Mohn, 2018; Gullikstad & Kristensen, 2021). Local narratives of integration, such as those studied here, make integration a ‘local thing’ by drawing on and reproducing notions of rural place qualities that favour and facilitate integration, in ways that tap into the local population's notions of the place.…”