This study examines ethnic preferences using data from the television cooking show Come Dine With Me in Sweden. Amateur chefs compete by hosting dinner parties. Contestants rate each others performance and the host with the highest ratings wins a cash prize. The show gives an unorthodox opportunity to study ethnic preferences in a high-stakes game environment. The analysis of the collected data shows that native Swedish contestants rate co-ethnic hosts significantly more favourably than they rate other hosts, demonstrating the existence of co-ethnic preferences. This observation seems to be an outcome of own-group favouritism rather than dislike against other groups. Also, the observed co-ethnic preference is assumed to be subtle or non-conscious based on the nature of the analysed data.
Located in African American women's everyday and historical experiences of oppression and resistance, black feminist epistemology and critical social theory, Patricia Hill Collins raises the intellectual level in all these arenas. Developed through a dynamic interaction with black women's everyday struggles, black feminist thought is important not only for its contribution to critical social theories and methodologies, but also for providing important knowledge for the use of social justice movements. It uses intersectional analysis to shed light on the relationships between the structural, symbolic and everyday aspects of domination and individual and collective struggles in various domains of social life. Collins offers an interpretive framework for understanding the experiences of African American women. However, the significance of black feminist thought reaches far beyond US and black American communities. This article is a reading of Collins's concept of intersectionality, the relationship between oppression and resistance, and the politics of empowerment.
Located in African American women's everyday and historical experiences of oppression and resistance, black feminist epistemology and critical social theory, Patricia Hill Collins raises the intellectual level in all these arenas. Developed through a dynamic interaction with black women's everyday struggles, black feminist thought is important not only for its contribution to critical social theories and methodologies, but also for providing important knowledge for the use of social justice movements. It uses intersectional analysis to shed light on the relationships between the structural, symbolic and everyday aspects of domination and individual and collective struggles in various domains of social life. Collins offers an interpretive framework for understanding the experiences of African American women. However, the significance of black feminist thought reaches far beyond US and black American communities. This article is a reading of Collins’s concept of intersectionality, the relationship between oppression and resistance, and the politics of empowerment.
This article discusses the Swedish government's policy document on a feminist policy to reduce and prevent men's violence against women. Permeated by racial ignorance and politics of difference this document systematically and consistently excludes and ignores racial and ethnic power structures and their consequences in migrant minorities' daily lives and experience. The article raises questions about why some knowledge is silenced or abandoned while some is embraced and encouraged. Within a wider intersectional framework, and through critical race theory and ignorance studies, it investigates the knowledge produced in the government document and the way it reproduces, maintains, and normalizes racial otherness and social exclusion.
This article discusses the Swedish government’s policy document on a feministpolicy to reduce and prevent men’s violence against women. Permeated byracial ignorance and politics of difference this document systematically andconsistently excludes and ignores racial and ethnic power structures and theirconsequences in migrant minorities’ daily lives and experience. The articleraises questions about why some knowledge is silenced or abandoned whilesome is embraced and encouraged. Within a wider intersectional framework,and through critical race theory and ignorance studies, it investigates theknowledge produced in the government document and the way itreproduces, maintains, and normalizes racial otherness and social exclusion.
This paper investigates how children of immigrants from Turkey are integrated into Swedish society. The educational achievements and labour market outcomes of this group are compared with the performance of the offspring of native-born parents. The aim of the study is to explore whether we can observe a tendency towards downward mobility among young people of immigrant background in Sweden and thereby provide reflections on the existing formulation of the segmented assimilation theory. Findings show that descendants of immigrants seem not to be in the process of downward assimilation, that is, social exclusion and therefore formation of a distinct underclass in Sweden. The concept of subordinate inclusion is a more appropriate description of the experiences of children of immigrants.
This paper investigatehh ow children of immigrants fromTurkey are integrated into Swedish society. The educational achievements and labour market outcomes of this group are compared with the performance of the offspring of native.born parents. The aim of the study is to explore whether we can observe a tendency towards 'downwards mobility' among young people of immigrant background in Sweden and thereby provide reflections on the existing fomulationof the 'segmented assimilation' theory.Findings show that descendants of immigrants seem not to be in the process of downward assimilation, that is social exclusion and therefore formation of a distinct' underclassin Sweden. The concept of 'subordinate inclusion' is a more appropriate description of the experiences of children of immigrants.
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Using quantitative and qualitative methods, this study investigates inequalities in occupational status and wages between native-born and foreign-born employees in elderly care institutions in Sweden. It finds that employees from Africa, Asia and Latin America - the "Global South" - are disadvantaged in both respects. Combinatory explanations of the inequalities are needed. The shorter work experience of foreign-born workers in the care sector plus the lesser value given to educational credentials obtained outside Sweden are among the factors related to human capital theory. Access to less-valuable resources in the workplace social networks of foreign-born employees is related to social capital theory. The processes that result in exclusion from powerful social networks, in turn, are found to be affected by discrimination in the workplace.
Using quantitative and qualitative methods, this study investigates inequalities in occupational status and wages between native-born and foreign-born employees in elderly care institutions in Sweden. It finds that employees from Africa, Asia and Latin America – the “Global South” – are disadvantaged in both respects. Combinatory explanations of the inequalities are needed. The shorter work experience of foreign-born workers in the care sector plus the lesser value given to educational credentials obtained outside Sweden are among the factors related to human capital theory. Access to less-valuable resources in the workplace social networks of foreign-born employees is related to social capital theory. The processes that result in exclusion from powerful social networks, in turn, are found to be affected by discrimination in the workplace.
Not only Swedish studies, but also several international studies, claim an increase in anti-Semitic attitudes in recent decades. As prejudice is acquired in the early years of socialization, and/or is innate and fairly stable over the life cycle, examining adolescents’ attitudes is vitally important. Hence, by controlling for individual demographic and socio-economic background factors, we study two interrelated questions: Has anti-Semitism among Swedish secondary school-age youths changed between 2003 and 2009? Are changes equal across groups, with a specific focus on religious groups? Using two unique cross-section surveys of secondary school-age students in Sweden for the years 2003 and 2009, we try to address the above questions. Our analysis shows, in contrast to the views of the general public and other related studies, that anti-Semitism has decreased slightly during the examined period. Moreover, the study finds a variation in anti-Semitism by religious affiliation: it has increased among Muslim youth, but remains stable in other groups.
With the use of multiple regression technique, the principal objective of this study is to clarify and examine young people's attitudes towards Muslims, and the relationships between these attitudes and a large number of background factors. We use a representative sample of 9,498 non-Muslim youths between 15 and 19 years of age. The main results show that, when controlling for several background variables simultaneously, the country of birth, socio-economic background and school/programme factors all have an effect on the attitude towards Muslims. Moreover, socio-psychological factors, the relationship to friends and the perceptions of gender role patterns are found to be important. In addition, local factors like high levels of unemployment, high proportions of immigrants in a local environment also have an effect. No differences in the attitudes of boys and girls were found. Further, the study establishes a correlation between negative attitudes and right-wing populist seats in local government.
Using the social capital literature as a base, we explore the impact of interaction with others on voter participation with particular emphasis on exploring the differences between Canadian-born majority and minority residents. We use the 2002 wave of the Equality Security Community survey to explore the relationship between voting and personal characteristics, work characteristics, social capital attributes and ethnic characteristics. We find that the odds of voting are largely a product of socio-demographic and social capital attributes. The impact of immigration and ethnicity is largely overridden. This suggests that it is not the minority attribute that impacts voting. Rather it is age, level of schooling and level of civic engagement which affects the probability of voting, both federal and provincial.
This article approaches two shortcomings in previous research on religiosity and prejudice: (1) the lack of cross-country comparative studies; and (2) a failure to consider any moderating effects of religious contexts. We examine whether the relationship between religiosity and anti-immigration attitudes varies depending on religious contexts in Europe, and we find two things. First, strongly religious people are on average less likely to oppose immigration than non-religious people. Second, different religious contexts moderate the religiosity–attitude relationship in that religious people in Protestant countries and in countries with a low proportion of majority adherents are more tolerant than religious people in Catholic countries and in religiously homogenous countries. State policies also matter in that religious people are more negative where the government favours the majority religion. This calls into question the taken-for-granted understanding of religiosity and out-group attitudes found in the USA.
Research has shown that individuals in Sweden with foreign-sounding surnames who take on more Swedish-sounding or neutral surnames have a positive earnings progression compared to individuals who keep their foreign-sounding names. This article explores the strategies underlying these surname changes. I draw on forty-five interviews from a population of individuals with Middle Eastern backgrounds who changed surnames during the 1990s. Drawing on stigma and destigmatization theory, I argue that immigrant name change, a strategy typically associated with cultural assimilation, is a destigmatization strategy aiming for pragmatic assimilation. Through passing (as either Swedish or non-Middle Eastern), immigrants may keep the benefits of maintaining ethnic identity in their private life and the benefits of more easy public interactions outside the ethnic group. This study also illustrates how the institutional enabling of name change both creates and enables pragmatic assimilation.
Given the increasingly polarized debates in many modern democracies over migration and integration, the behaviour of members of parliament (MPs) with a migrant background has important implications for patterns of representation. Drawing on role congruity theory, we hypothesize that MPs with a migrant background deliver more legislative speeches in debates that are of interest for citizens with a migrant background. The findings, which are based on speeches delivered in the German Bundestag between 2009 and 2013, indicate that MPs of immigrant origin, in particular those MPs who have a "visible" migrant background, deliver significantly more speeches in debates focusing on civil rights. We also find that migrant MPs who are elected via the party list, as opposed to MPs who are directly elected in a district, are more likely to speak in debates on citizen and minority rights, suggesting that the parliamentary party leadership strategically selects migrant MPs as speakers in certain parliamentary debates.
Survey data on people’s reported attitudes towards ethnic minorities are sometimes used as a proxy for ethnic discrimination. However, there is weak empirical evidence of a link between reported attitudes and discrimination. In this article, we use survey data on people’s attitudes towards ethnic minorities combined with a direct measure of ethnic discrimination from a field experiment in the Swedish housing market to re-examine this policy-relevant issue. We find clear evidence of a link between reported attitudes towards ethnic minorities and the extent of ethnic discrimination: in regions where attitudes are more negative, there is more discrimination, and vice versa. Thus, in contrast to most prior studies, our results suggest that reported attitudes may be a useful predictor of ethnic discrimination.
In an endeavour to understand connections between immigration policy and contemporary colonialism on Indigenous territory, this study investigates how state-led immigrant integration policies and practices reproduce colonialism in Swedish Sapmi. It explores the applicability of scholarship on settler colonialism on Sweden and develops the notion of banal colonialism by combining scholarship on settler and everyday colonialism with banal nationalism. Drawing from state documents regulating immigrant integration and semi-structured interviews conducted with integration workers in Swedish Sapmi, the study shows that immigrant integration policy largely silences the colonial past and present of Sweden. While the implementation of national-level policies on Indigenous land reproduces majority-centred narratives, also practices challenging the colonial order are identified. The study shows how the notion of banal colonialism captures mundane colonial practices, but also brings attention to instances where immigrant integration policy has the potential of challenging settler colonialism.
The lives of transnational groups and individuals are marked by a spatial and imaginary split: a phenomenon wherein identity, belonging and representation have become increasingly elusive concepts, and the realm of the ‘cultural’ vastly important. And, the theoretical compasses of cosmopolitanism and transnationalism are particularly relevant and illuminating in considering social space, mediated communication and belonging in relation to urban diasporic communities and gendered subjectivities. The aim of this paper is to address expressions of identity and belonging at the intersection of online communicative practice and offline spatial formations, with a focus on the specificities of gendered constructions of sociality and subjectivity in the diaspora
The lives of transnational groups and individuals are marked by a spatial and imaginary split: a phenomenon wherein identity, belonging and representation have become increasingly elusive concepts, and the realm of the ‘cultural’ vastly important. And, the theoretical compasses of cosmopolitanism and transnationalism are particularly relevant and illuminating in considering social space, mediated communication and belonging in relation to urban diasporic communities and gendered subjectivities. The aim of this paper is to address expressions of identity and belonging at the intersection of online communicative practice and offline spatial formations, with a focus on the specificities of gendered constructions of sociality and subjectivity in the diaspora.
The relationship between police and ethnic minorities has been the subject ofincreasing interest in many Western societies in recent years. We examine firstgeneration immigrants’ trust in the police in Europe from a comparative andlongitudinal perspective. Based on roughly 20,000 immigrants observed in 22countries over 13 years in the European Social Survey, results show thatinitially high levels of trust in the police among immigrants tend to erodewith the length of their stay in the host country. We show that twosimultaneous processes drive this pattern: a fading reference effect(downward assimilation) and an increasing discrimination effect. Crossnational comparisons show that, on average, immigrants in countries withmore police trust the police less. However, there is no effect of police sizewithin countries, mostly because police numbers hardly change over time.We discuss implications for future research and policy development based onour findings.
This paper highlights the embeddedness of xenophobia in institutions through a theoretical but empirically under-researched concept of structural violence. Drawing on in-depth qualitative interview data with refugee women in Gauteng, South Africa, we explore the empirical utility of the concept of structural violence in shaping refugee women's everyday experiences of xenophobia through three analytical themes: (a) unequal access to resources (b) constrained agency and (c) dehumanization. While keeping an empirical grip on experiential narratives on xenophobia, we draw attention to three public institutions that enhance the vulnerability of those already vulnerable: The Department of Home Affairs, The South African Police Service and Public Hospitals. Our paper elucidates how refugee women experience xenophobia and how they manage their "everyday" in these circumstances- an aspect that remains underdeveloped in existing research.
This paper highlights the embeddedness of xenophobia in institutions through a theoretical but empirically under-researched concept of structural violence. Drawing on in-depth qualitative interview data with refugee women in Gauteng, South Africa, we explore the empirical utility of the concept of structural violence in shaping refugee women’s everyday experiences of xenophobia through three analytical themes: (a) unequal access to resources (b) constrained agency and (c) dehumanization. While keeping an empirical grip on experiential narratives on xenophobia, we draw attention to three public institutions that enhance the vulnerability of those already vulnerable: The Department of Home Affairs, The South African Police Service and Public Hospitals. Our paper elucidates how refugee women experience xenophobia and how they manage their “everyday” in these circumstances- an aspect that remains underdeveloped in existing research.
In this article, we challenge the prevailing assumption about the impact of higher education on attitudes toward racial and ethnic minorities by examining whether educational effects are monolithic or manifold instead. Using data from the General Social Survey (1972-2021), we use a variety of measures of education (years, levels, sectors, and majors) to unpack the relationship between higher education and intergroup attitudes, specifically anti-immigration attitudes among native-born Americans and anti-Black attitudes among non-African Americans. Results show that some higher education graduates hold out-group attitudes that are not much different from those without any higher education. Narrowing our focus to respondents only with higher education, we find significant variation in out-group attitudes across educational sectors and academic majors. These results have implications for how we understand previous scholarship on prejudice and higher education, which may have overestimated the impact higher education has, in general, on prejudice.
Negative attitudes and explicit racism against Muslims are increasingly visible in public discourse throughout Europe. Right-wing populist parties have strengthened their positions by focusing on the ‘Islamic threat’ to the West. Concurrently, the Internet has facilitated a space where racist attitudes towards Muslims are easily disseminated into the public debate, fuelling animosity against European Muslims. This paper explores part of the online Islamophobic network and scrutinizes the discursive strategies deployed by three ‘prominent’ online actors. By combining social network analysis and critical discourse analysis, the study shows that Islamophobic web pages constitute a dynamic network with ties to different political and geographical milieus. They create a seemingly mainstream political position by framing racist standpoints as a defence of Western values and freedom of speech. The study also shows that Islamophobic discourse is strengthened by xenophobic currents within mass media, and by the legitimization of intellectuals and political actors.
This paper addresses the risk of research exposing people with an immigrant background in criminal court cases to Internet-based racist persecution, due to mismanagement of general ethical guidelines. The principle of informed consent, ideally serving to protect people under study from harm may, in fact, cause them more harm due to the interest among certain Internet-based networks of spreading identifiable, degrading information. Arguments are based on ethically challenging experiences from two ethnographic research projects carried out in Swedish district court environments, focused on immigrant court cases. Ethical advice provided by ethical review boards and established research guidelines, were based on an unawareness of the potentially destructive rendezvous in media attractive immigrant court cases between ‘ethically informed’ research, crime journalism, freedom of information legislation and ‘Internet vigilantes’ on a quest to persecute court participants and their families in the global digital arena.
This article examines the concept of ethnic return migration in the permanent settlement of Iranian Armenians in the Republic of Armenia. Scholarship on ethnic return migration (or diasporic “homecoming”) almost exclusively focuses on mobility to or from affluent Western multicultural democracies in North America, Europe and Oceania. This article therefore provides a new opportunity to test the generalizability of existing models on return migration. Iranian Armenians fit within what the scholarship refers to as ethnic or diasporic return migrant – that is, migrations motivated, largely, by affective orientation to ethnicity and perceived home country. However, these migrations are not primarily motivated by ethnic or national longing for an ancestral homeland, but rather a variety of economic and political reasons sit behind these migrants’ decisions to choose Armenia instead of moving to a Western country or remaining in Iran.
Is popular antagonism towards Muslim veils in Europe rooted in an exclusionary ‘enlightenment liberalism’? By examining different conceptions of liberalism and readings of veiling in a Dutch survey from 2014, we present the first study that investigates this question empirically. We thus bring together two hitherto largely unconnected literatures. The first is the work on immigration and ethnicity, which has shown the centrality of enlightenment liberalism in anti-Muslim media and policy discourses. The second is the literature on anti-Muslim attitudes in public opinion, which explains support for veil bans as the result of perceiving veils as threatening the respondent's own, supposedly liberal, values – but has failed to distinguish between different conceptions of liberalism and thus reached inconclusive results. This, we show, can be remedied by distinguishing between ‘enlightenment liberals’, who hold negative attitudes, and ‘reformation liberals’, who hold positive attitudes towards Muslim veils.
Book review: Debating multiculturalism in the Nordic welfare states, edited by Peter Kivisto and Östen Wahlbeck,
This article concentrates on problems of native peoples in the context of technical change moulded by institutionalized racism. External specialists are often imparted to developing countries in order to introduce advanced technology as well as to organize and run the administration. Native workers are presumed to gain know-how from work experience and take over management and professional jobs gradually as they learn from the foreign professionals. However, this strategy may suffer from conflicts between the foreign professionals and natives due to different cultures and ethnic backgrounds. Learning processes are undermined by these conflicts creating mistrust and lack of confidence. These conflicts often develop into institutionalized racism involving organized forms of exclusion such as overvaluation of formal education as opposed to native knowledge. The result is permanent reproduction of the need for imported specialized labour and 'destructive forgetting' of local culture.
In twenty chapters this book demonstrates how images enable, prevent, or distort knowledge of migration. Editors Krista Lynes, Tyler Morgenstern, and Ian Alan Paul explain that the expression “moving images” refers to four interwoven themes: (1) the ability of visual technologies to capture movement; (2) the iconography of the images, or their representation of migratory movement and mobility; (3) the movement in an of the image itself as it circulates through monitoring infrastructures, data bases, social media, tv, and other networks, each with its own method of selecting and cropping images of migration; and (4) the power of images to elicit human passions, or to move the viewer, often with profound political consequences. By combining these four interpretive dimensions, the anthology demonstrates that over the past decade images have been operationalized in a process that have made human mobility across the EU’s southern borders appear as a full-blown crisis. Moving Images exemplifies the great and growing relevance of visual migration studies.