Open this publication in new window or tab >>2020 (English)In: Palgrave International Handbook of Mixed Racial and Ethnic Classification / [ed] Zarine L. Rocha & Peter J. Aspinall, Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020, p. 389-404Chapter in book (Other academic)
Abstract [en]
This article seeks to cast light on the creation of mixed race and mixed ethnicity identities and the conceptualization of being different in Sweden. A characteristic feature of Swedish society is that racial heterogeneity is only measured in terms of mixing with Swedes. What makes ‘mixed race’ a separate category in Sweden is the assumed extent of the integration into Swedish society of those designated in this manner, along with the intermediate position they hold in the social hierarchy between the normative whiteness of Swedes and the constructed blackness of immigrants and their descendants. Such notions as ‘multiracial’ or ‘biracial’, which are accepted in British and American sociology, do not adequately reflect the Swedish realities since they are neither the precise categories around which Swedes of heterogeneous origin build their own identity, nor the categories yet utilized by researchers and institutions. This study shows that mixed identity in Sweden is largely understood as ‘mixed with the majority population’ and therefore well-integrated. This contrasts with the perspective of the ‘ethnic groups’ that are being mixed, which is linked with being ‘Swedified’ (försvenskad) or having attained Swedishness.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020
Keywords
Swedish Government Offices, Immigrant, The Swedish Migration Agency, Foreigner, Foreign born, Born in Sweden, Racial knowledge, Hybridity Third-country nationals, National minorities, invandrare, utlänning, utrikes födda, inrikes födda
National Category
Sociology
Research subject
Baltic and East European studies
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-40221 (URN)10.1007/978-3-030-22874-3_21 (DOI)2-s2.0-85089042560 (Scopus ID)978-3-030-22874-3 (ISBN)978-3-030-22873-6 (ISBN)
Funder
Swedish Research Council, 2016-04759
2020-02-172020-02-172024-02-02Bibliographically approved