Young people, ethnicity and constructing lived citizenship in Sweden

This study concerns participation in the Swedish society among young people from ethnic minorities, the opportunities open to them and the constraints they face. It addresses the issue of how they construct lived citizenship in a medium-sized Swedish town. Drawing on the empirical material from an interview study the aim is to reveal strategies for taking advantages of opportunities and for overcoming constraints in everyday life related to full membership of society. The constraints experienced in everyday life are expressed in terms of restricted social citizenship caused by ethnically minoritizing and discrimination. The main question is: What strategies do ethnically minoritized young women and men develop to construct lived citizenship? Subjective aspects of citizenship are stressed. Additionally the concepts of location, positionality and translocational positionality are used and related to the social categories of ethnicity, gender, age and period of residence in Sweden. I will argue that these aspects intersect when young people in the study construct lived citizenship. The study presented explores how young women and men from ethnic minority backgrounds experience social citizenship in terms of constraints at a structural level and at an inter-personal level due to ethnicity. They create alternative strategies to overcome these obstacles for full social citizenship.