The purpose of this article is to examine the experiences of two generations among the Kurdish diaspora in Sweden: those who migrated as adults and those who were born and/or raised in Sweden. The focus will be on issues of identity, home(land) and politics of belonging with regard to generational and temporal aspects. We will argue that there are significant differences among the older and younger generations with regard to their experiences that demand different theoretical and analytical conceptualisations.
This edited volume interrogates the intersection between viral pandemics, transnational migration and the politics of belonging in South Africa during COVID-19. The chapters draw on theoretical conceptions such as biopolitics, necropolitics, xenophobio/afrophobia and autochthonous citizenship to understand how South Africa has responded to the devastating effects of COVID-19 and the implications for the lives and livelihoods of African migrants. The book is written against the backdrop of deepening socioeconomic and political problems in South Africa, which have been exacerbated by the pandemic, exclusionary response strategies employed by the government and populist discourses about the dangers of hosting an increasing population of African migrants. Drawing on the experiences of migrants from Cameroon, DRC, Nigeria, Somalia and Zimbabwe, this book explores the challenges of these diaspora communities during lockdowns, their survival strategies and the effects on their social existence during and post the pandemic. From these case studies, we are reminded about the paradoxes of belonging and how COVID-19 continues to reveal different forms of global inequalities. They also remind us about the burdens of displacement and emplacement and how they are repeatedly politicised in South Africa, as the government grapples with endemic socioeconomic and political problems. The conclusion of the book examines the implications of COVID-19 for migration across the African continent and particularly for South Africa, as we witness new waves of xenophobic/afrophobic vigilantism driven by Operation Dudula.
The topic of this article is the Commons, an integrated school and public library network in an urban multi-ethnic neighbourhood in southern Sweden. In 2011, the Commons network was awarded a national prize as the best school library in Sweden for its outstanding collaboration with the teachers and its exemplary work in stimulating learning. The study explores ways this library – school partnership contributes to the development of literacy and democratic competencies, allowing children to become active members of their local community.
In Sweden, tutoring in the mother tongue is a special support measure primarily intended for newly arrived students to facilitate their transition into the Swedish school system. Tutoring is premised on the collaboration between the class teacher, responsible for subject-related expertise, and the tutor, who contributes with knowledge of the student’s mother tongue and previous context of studies. In this case study of class teachers’ and mother tongue tutors’ conditions for collaboration at a multi-ethnic primary school, six mother tongue tutors and six class teachers were asked about the purpose of their work, how it was organised, and what could be done to improve working conditions. Interviews with head teachers, and data on work organisation from observations, document study, and participation in meetings for a period of one and a half years supplemented the teacher interviews. The analysis focuses on whether tutors and teachers belong to the same or different Communities of Practice, based on shared concerns and opportunities for collaboration, as well as looking at the relative positioning of languages and teaching roles. Findings suggest that the degree of collaboration between tutors and teachers was not sufficient to allow tutoring to function in the way it is envisaged by national steering documents. Tutoring was instead based on the tutors’ own knowledge of the subjects they taught. Recruitment of suitable tutors was difficult. However, conditions for collaboration and more effective tutoring in the schools could be improved with relatively simple support structures at the level of the municipality.
The presentation is based on a review of the litterature on newcomer education in Sweden, including a discussion of the most recent policy changes and observations on their effects. Specific impacts of policy concerning study guidance in mathematics are illustrated with examples from classroom observations and teacher interviews.
To promote attainment and inclusion, Sweden offers tuition in migrant pupils’ mother tongues as a regular school subject. However, the formulation of learning aims is problematic, and resources allocated to the subject do not correspond to ambitions expressed in steering documents. This case study presents an analysis of the organization of Mother Tongue Studies at a highly diverse urban primary school, based on interviews with teachers and head teachers. The practical organization of Mother Tongue Tuition affects how mother tongue teachers and pupils are perceived, but also potentially provides opportunities for empowerment and educational development. Results indicate that in the investigated case, such opportunities are not exploited, placing mother tongue teachers in a state of continuous structural stress, while limiting the forms their teaching relationships can take. Additionally, scheduling the school subject Mother Tongue Studies at the ‘edgelands' of the school day contributed to further marginalizing languages taught as mother tongue and minimized interaction with class teachers.
Libraries are critical learning spaces and may play a significant role in intercultural education initiatives, particularly in Sweden where the national curriculum ascribes central functions to libraries for learning activities. Unfortunately, the ways in which teachers and librarians may collaborate to leverage mutual resources is not fully understood. This article uses Pirjo Lahdenperä’s model of intercultural education development to consider the case of a small school library in a highly diverse urban neighbourhood. Although public libraries in Scandinavia can support intercultural educational values by addressing individual needs and complementing curriculum-based teaching, the development of new teaching practices requires additional guidance as well as institutional support.
The presentation is based on a series of interviews with school leaders working with refugee children in Lebanon, both within the Lebanese schools and in various NGOs. Questions focused the social, pedagogical and economic dimensions of their work, as well as their strategies for organising training and functioning structures.
In Lebanon, there are different groups of refugee and migrant pupils in need of education, at primary and secondary levels. These include Palestinians born in Lebanon, or recently arrived as refugees, Syrian refugees, refugees from other countries, and children of migrant workers. The residence and work status of their parents varies. The Syrian refugees constitute a very large group, but the exact numbers are uncertain.
The uncertain and precarious situation of the refugees, lack of resources and poor living conditions are major dimensions of the work of school leaders in these contexts, both for those working within the Lebanese schools, and for those who have leadership functions within the NGOs.
Beyond conventional relief efforts, gaining a more detailed picture of constraints, resources and risks encountered by refugees as well as of the meaning differing circumstances have for the concerned individuals may serve as a basis for developing more organised and collective responses to ensure social security in conditions of forced displacement and migration.Syrian refugees live very diverse situations, depending on access to social, financial and educational capital, as well as on their religion. Nevertheless, findings suggest that macro-scales policies have driven a large proportion of the interviewed Syrians into informality, and into situations of great personal insecurity. Particularly in Lebanon, policies primarily aim to restrict movement, control the refugees, and avoid permanent settlement by restrictive regulations concerning work. The Syrian community that was studied in Egypt appeared to be in a somewhat better situation. Despite restrictions on movement, lack of services, poor quality of education and poverty, Syrians had started small businesses, and functioned openly as a community. Also here, however, longer term perspectives were lacking.
Recent changes in the Swedish Education Act aim at reducing time spent in reception classes, so that newly arrived pupils (at least partly) enter mainstream classes on arrival. A consequence is that educating newcomers has become the responsibility of all school staff. Expectations on the contribution of mother tongue teachers have increased, as well as presupposing extensive collaboration between bilingual support staff or mother tongue teachers and teachers of other school subjects.
The presentation focuses on the social practices in schools concerning mother tongue teachers and their potential participation in school development and collaboration with other staff, paying particular attention to the places where meetings occur. Three mother tongue teachers were followed a total of 15 days in a period of six months, to observe the opportunities for collaboration and communication in their working days. Two of these teachers also worked with study guidance.
Results suggest that among the significant aspects were: the place of interaction, the language, higher status of mother tongue at the school, a positive attitude in teachers involved, and interaction with an entire class and with other staff. Places of meeting were frequently corridors, the staff rooms, or other places that were not normally designated for regular teaching or planning activities. The places of interaction thus tended to underline the marginal position of the mother tongue teachers with respect to participation in school development.
This conceptual paper addresses the relationships between higher education policies for refugees and the wider issues of social justice, transition to sustainability, peacebuilding and post-conflict recovery in the Middle East. The paper draws on an overview of current options for refugees to access higher education, as well as research on long term impacts in post conflict contexts. Perspectives adopted in the paper involve theorizing the ways higher education shapes socio-technical systems in the Middle East, and the effects this can have for economic recovery and autonomy. Today, the world is facing the greatest refugee and displacement crisis since the Second World War. The immediate causes of the crisis seem to be armed conflicts and radicalisation of societies. At closer inspection, we can see that this crisis reflects a repeated failure of the international economic and political system in addressing certain major challenges, including social justice and adequate education. While international politics has failed to support stability or prevent political conflicts, growing neoliberalism and ineffective development strategies have instead contributed to social injustice and economic instability at national and international levels. Higher education plays a key role in stabilisation, modernization and de-radicalisation of societies, but has to date only received limited attention in development assistance strategies or in the context of humanitarian aid for refugees. Young refugees and displaced academics are therefore insufficiently equipped to work as catalysts for peacebuilding in their own or host countries. Moreover, they are under severe economic and social pressure to earn money for their family’s survival. Given these circumstances, opening up opportunities for higher education for young refugees (O'Keeffe and Pásztor 2017) not only give them the hope to improve their socioeconomic situation, but will also change their personal status as a “refugee”. Crucially, a well-educated generation is a fundamental condition for successful reconstruction, social recovery and sustainable development in the post conflict future (Emtairah et al. 2016). Attention must be devoted to the form and content of higher education, however, to address challenges, create capacity needed in recovery efforts, and avoid future dependencies (cf. Dryden-Peterson 2016).
The refugee crisis is also a crisis in education. While attention is frequently directed toward primary and secondary school levels, higher education is a strategic issue for refugees, both as individuals and for long term processes of post-conflict recovery and peacebuilding. Education prospects and content are drivers of onwards migration, but also affect economic structures on return. Higher education has the potential to support sustainable socio-economic development, but impacts will depend on which strategies are adopted and which types of capacity are prioritised. The article examines the issue of access to higher education for Syrian refugees, describing the situation in Lebanon in particular. Foreign interests can fuel sectarianism as well as creating economic structural dependencies. Both existing and possible future options supported by the international community are considered here, and discussed with respect to how they might affect opportunities for democratic and autonomous societal developments.
The Syria 2040 workshops were initiated in 2016 by the International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics and the Centre for Middle Eastern Studies, Lund University, and ran for one and a half years, using scenario methodology. Syrians with diverse backgrounds and political standpoints, living in Sweden and other European countries, collectively reflected on possible scenarios for future developments in Syria. Since the debate in situations of conflict tends to be structured around the immediate conflict (and those who “win” or lose through this), it can be especially constructive to reflect on a longer time perspective. Also, many discussion fora are directed by particular interest groups or are financed by international actors with their own interests in the outcome. The workshops were intended as a space where more open discussions could take place across dividing lines, considering ways forward. This presentation focuses on reflections from one of these workshops, which dealt with possible roles for the Syrian diaspora and civil society. Although various factions and diverging agendas of the diaspora might sustain and aggravate tensions it was concluded that the diaspora can play a constructive role provided that it learns how to play a more active part and find suitable structures.
Introduction: Italy is one of the most aged countries in the world, with a longstanding tradition of family care of the dependent elderly. Inrecent times, however, Italy has been witnessing in-depth social and cultural changes, which have been negatively impacting on informal care provision. In addition, the public long-term care (LTC) system highly relies on cash-for-care schemes for supporting older people, whereas “formal” care services are characterised by weak coverage and intensity. This situation has led to a remarkable increase in theprivate employment of migrant care workers (MCWs), whose number increased by four times in the last two decades.
Method: An overview of MCWs phenomenon in Italy is provided through the analysis of empirical data retrieved by available official sources at national level, as well as by results from own surveys conducted in recent years on large samples of MCWs.
Results: The following opportunities and challenges concerning MCWs’ employment in the LTC sector were identified: improve MCW’s capacity to deliver quality care; reduce therisk of elder abuse and neglect and of meeting MCWs’ own care needs; increase their social integration in destination countries and reduce “care drain” in sending countries; and how to improve stakeholders’ involvement for a better exchange of good practices and more effective policy measures.
Conclusion: In these years, privately employed MCWs have contributed to change the traditional Italian “family care model” into a new “migrant-in-the-family care model”. However, the issue concerning the sustainability of this model within the Italian LTC system in the future is still open.
This study concerns young people who have experienced war, taken shelter in Sweden, and been placed in institutions. The purpose of the study is to identify and analyze power relations that contribute to the shaping of young people’s identities and repertoires of action via stigmatizations and social comparisons with different reference groups. The study’s empirical material includes qualitatively oriented interviews with six young people from Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan who have experienced war followed by placement in institutional care in Sweden. Analytical findings with the following themes are presented: (1) power relations and war, (2) power relations and escape from war, and (3) power relations and post war. The study demonstrates that narratives about war, escaping war, and postwar life in Sweden construct and reconstruct an image of a series of interactive rituals that are both influenced by and influence the power dynamic between the actors. This relationship in turn creates and recreates an interplay among the stigmatizing experiences of the youths, their social comparisons, and definitions of inequality.
This study concerns young people who have experienced war, taken shelter in Sweden, and been placed in institutions. The purpose of the study is to identify and analyze power relations that contribute to the shaping of young people’s identities and repertoires of action via stigmatizations and social comparisons with different reference groups. The study’s empirical material includes qualitatively oriented interviews with six young people from Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan who have experienced war followed by placement in institutional care in Sweden. Analytical findings with the following themes are presented: (1) power relations and war, (2) power relations and escape from war, and (3) power relations and post war. The narratives on war and flight recounted by unaccompanied refugee minors describe the exercise of power in practice, in which wartime interactions (based on the exercise of power) are compared and related to peaceful interactions (in which there is no exercise of power). In this context, the interactive creation of contrasts and comparisons in relation to other actors reveals various categories of actor: victim, perpetrator, and hero.
The present study discusses the political integration of immigrants in local government in the muncipality of Växjö from 1971 to 1991 in the form of representation. The main data source consists of lists of people holding local commissions of trust in the various boards and committés appointed by the municipality council, as well as in the council itself. These data are then compared to population statistics from Statistics Sweden. Main findings of the study are that immigrants are insufficiently represented in relation to their proportion of the population. It is suggested that this is a result of structural discrimination and possibly insufficient socialisation.
The purpose of this research is to create opportunities to promote social inclusion through Nature-Based Integration (NBI), aiming to understand the social construction of nature from a sociocultural perspective. Social constructivist theories have been employed in the field of migrant integration, however, a social constructivist standpoint has not yet been applied in the emerging sub-field of NBI. In contrast to applications of social cohesion theory in NBI, this thesis argues that applying the social constructivist theory highlights important differences that assist NBI projects by applying the knowledge of socio-cultural understandings of nature. This thesis thus provides a critique of the application of social cohesion to NBI initiatives, instead offering a case for social constructivism as an alternate framework. The analysis is based on a case study conducted within Kronoberg County in Sweden, utilizing interviews and observations to acquire insights into migrant and Swedish perspectives and experiences in natural environments. Understanding how nature can help with integration is beneficial for fostering inclusive and peaceful societies. This study investigated how experiences with the environment help migrants and Swedish citizens build social relationships, cultural understanding, and collective identity. Qualitative data from informal interviews give insight into individuals' perspectives, and observations provide knowledge of the community's common experiences. This study delves into connotations associated with natural areas, illustrating how nature is socially constructed from different positions. Adopting a comparative method, the study reveals possible shared and opposing meanings assigned to nature-based experiences. The analysis provides a case for applying social constructivism in NBI projects, as this offers a platform for migrant and Swedish communities to collaborate and exchange knowledge on the role of nature in their social lives.
This paper aims at pointing out the need for a more equitable, internationally driven approach to solve elder care staff shortages, on the background of the implications deriving from the widespread phenomenon of employing migrant care workers in the Italian elder care sector. The paper describes at first how this form of care provision has become so popular in this country to face the long term care needs characterising its ageing population. Main reasons are identified, on the one hand, in the decreasing availability of informal care, due to the increasing female participation in the labor market, a longer working life and a reduction in the support provided by social networks. On the “formal” side, a major role has been played also by the lack of appropriate long term care services, such as residential and public home care, as well as by a chronic shortage of nursing staff and a shorter length of hospital stays. The traditionally “cash-oriented” profile of the Italian welfare system – more based on cash-for-care measures rather than in-kind services – has ended up with perpetuating familistic tendencies stimulating the employment of foreign migrant care workers, often on a live-in, undeclared basis. The paper’s conclusions focus on the analysis of the main opportunities and challenges raised by this phenomenon, trying to catch all involved parties’ perspectives: the older care recipients’ families; the migrant care workers; the receiving and the sending societies. This approach allows to identify core advantages of this solution in the possibility to increase ageing in place opportunities (thus reducing institutionalisation rates) and to provide a more personalised home care at reasonable costs. On the other hand, drawbacks can occur in terms of low quality of care, risk of widespread undeclared labour conditions, possible exploitation of foreign migrants and abuse of older people, as well as “brain and care drain” effects in sending countries. A more neutral, internationally driven governance is therefore suggested in order to minimize these risks and promote equitable solutions to solve care provision shortages in some countries without “plundering the future” of other nations.
When analysed as network places for the mobility of subjects and objects, many descriptions refer to airports as placeless and meaningless spaces carrying no singular identity to themselves and to their users. This imagery does not necessarily fit with those people whose experiences are intrinsically linked to mobility as a recurrent early life style and as a part of their subjective identity. Drawing on affect theory this paper portrays an alternative picture of airports as meaningful places through the narratives made by a particular community of onward/multiple migrants, adult “Third Culture Kids”, associated with the experiences and memories of transiting in airports. By doing it, this article aims to add another dimension to mobilities that regards people’s affections and experiences ascribed to places of mobility.
The war in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992–1995) is the historic background of this paper, as produced in the documents presented during international and national trials concerning war crimes committed during this period. A literature review forms the analytical basis and contains various empirical and theoretical studies from the fields of philosophy, war sociology, and social epistemology. The aim of this paper is to analyse the normative orientations and social values that affect (1) the feelings of moral and social understanding (or non-understanding) after the genocide and the joint criminal enterprise in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the context of legitimizing transitional capitalism, (2) the actions of individuals, organizations, and states as well as the entire social community in the post-war society, and (3) the process of reconciliation and trust in post-war society. The analysis makes evident the usual tendency in a post-war society to deify one’s own ethnic (religious) group, while the consequence of such false self-infatuation with “our” collective is that the “other” that is not ours becomes undesirable. It must be, as evidence of patriotism and unconditional emotional loyalty to “our holy issue”, wiped out for good. Ethnic cleansings, joint criminal enterprises, and genocides thus become a normal means of ethnopolitical—i.e. biopolitical—“management of differences”. At the same time, ethnocorruption and ethnobanditry can erroneously be qualified as the least transparent and, for social and criminological research, the most difficult phenomena (or manifestations) of social pathology. The difficulty lies in the fact that ethnocorruption and ethnobanditry are in many respects related and intertwined with the simultaneous institutional and organizational processes of regulating (or not regulating) the economic and political globalization and transfer of ownership during the transition from socialist self-management to a new type of economy.
The aim of this study is to examine how transnationalism is expressed among second-generation immigrants in Sweden with Bosnian background. This is done through showcasing ties and relationships they have to the country of origin. Furthermore, the study examines how second-generation immigrants with Bosnian backgrounds negotiate their social identities. The study is based on qualitative semi-structured interviews with a participation of six second-generation immigrants in Sweden with Bosnian background, to achieve the study´s purpose and answer the research questions. The participants are between the ages of 21-24. The data was further structured with a thematic analysis method and analyzed through following theories: transnationalism explained by Glick Schiller, Basch and Blanc-Szanton and social identity explained by Jenkins. Additionally, the theory of stigmatization, explained by Goffman, was used to analyze the materials. The study is compared and understood through previous research on the subject. This leads to position this study in the current state of research, of migration and identity construction. The result of the shows that second-generation immigrants in Sweden with Bosnian background maintain ties with the country of origin and develop identities and social relations in two national contexts. They travel to Bosnia- Hercegovina regularly and communicate routinely with family and relatives. They maintain ties mainly through their parents. Their social identity negotiates in conjunction with several social groups, such as ethnic Swedish people, Bosnian people in Sweden and other second-generation immigrants with different backgrounds. The study shows that through their transnational identity they feel a sense of group belonging and affilations to both national contexts. They experienced deviation from the Swedish majority society and stigmatization only when their etnic origin and religion where commented on
The success of social science research and collaboration projects which seek to gain involvement from a particular group of participants are highly reliant upon the quality of social relationships between all stakeholders and actors involved. This means that the quality of these relationships is reliant upon trust and obligations that are inherent within. Trust is a multifaceted process of sensemaking which is developed over time and is created and reproduced though social interactions at both an interpersonal and institutional level. It is argued that the most significant relationship within a project that seeks the engagement of immigrant communities is that between the project team and the gatekeeper. However, empirical examples show that projects focusing on specific kinds of development (like green development) may overshadow the project’s social context in terms of who it is really for. Moreover, such projects may also inadvertently cater to actors already established on the local market (rather than focusing on the neediest) or even breed stereotypes about immigrants (such as that “all” immigrants are farmers, and hence green development is suitable for them). Unsurprisingly, unreflective approaches to themed integration projects are likely to raise suspicion and, probably undeservingly, spawn negative media attention. This presentation focuses on the backside of implementing a themed integration process in a setting marred by low levels of trust in municipal authorities, past difficulties of implementation and general reluctance of key actors. By making use of reflexive autoethnographic methodology, this presentation opens up to both the possibilities and challenges of an integration project aiming to create new jobs within green development. It also includes a number of recommendations for successful implementation.
This paper investigates the discriminatory situation of Romas in contemporary Europe with the use of Zygmunt Bauman’s analytical framework he developed on the situation of Jews and the Holocaust. Characteristics of the Modern Society have, according to Bauman, created opportunities for cornerstones of discrimination to occur and together with facilitators they can hold the discrimination alive and make it long lasting. In the case Bauman examined, it all ended in genocide. With the aim to investigate how Bauman’s analytical framework would explain why Roma discrimination could continue and by using a qualitative method of text substance analysis of foremost academic articles, the situation of the Romas are presented in a code according to the concepts in a scheme of Bauman’s analytical framework. There is no genocide going on today against Romas, but when looking through the glasses of Bauman and implementing his analytical framework on the Roma situation, only one stone is missing for it to happen. This paper concludes that there are no reasons to deny that a new Holocaust can happen in the modern society of Europe, but this time with another minority group as victims. Racism seems to be there, the only missing element is a stronger belief in racial hierarchy. This paper also offers an analytical scheme for future studies on other groups that have been suffering of long lasting discrimination, to further emphasize how Bauman’s framework would be able to become generalized on discrimination.
The article investigates incomes and especially state pensions 2008 among elderly immigrants who arrived in Sweden before 1970. At age 70 and above, the level of state old-age pension for immigrant men was nearly the same and for immigrant women somewhat higher than for natives with similar characteristics. At age 65-66 the state pension was lower for immigrants than for their native counterparts. The differences in pensions for immigrants of different ages are probably due to changed rules in the Swedish state old-age pension system from 2003. The new rules have hit different age groups in different ways. The gaps are partially levelled out when other incomes are included. The extent to which levelling occurs varies greatly between different immigrant groups. For immigrants who have arrived during the last decades, the future state old-age pension outcomes are expected to be worse.
Dr Eliassi's presentation explored how statelessness is experienced and narrated by members of the Kurdish diasporas in Sweden and the UK. Concerning the broader debates on statelessness that have focused mainly on the acquisition of nationality/citizenship as a solution to the political and existential vulnerability of stateless individuals and collectivities, Eliassi's presentation illustrated that while the acquisition of citizenship is important, it has also its limits in understanding the everyday life of people who consider themselves to be stateless in the world of nation-states. In Sweden the majority of Kurds have Swedish citizenship but claim to be stateless. The notion of statelessness is used to motivate transnational political mobilization and to maintain a politicised identity.10 In this context, citizenship can become a device of inclusion as well as of exclusion as the notion of ‘We are all citizens’ can maintain political inequality. In fact, the liberal citizenship tradition cannot fully accommodate the political grievances of stateless people like the Kurds because, as long as the sovereign identities are not decentred in Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey, Kurds by large will continue to perceive themselves as an endangered nation. Dr Demir, the discussant, highlighted that in the world of nation states, the issue is not that of statelessness but of master identity: the task has to be to de-master the dominant master identity as we all live in multi-national states and the idea of ‘Nation States’ is a discourse, a claim that does not exist in reality.
Migration has been a transformative experience for many Kurdish migrants who have fled Turkey and attempted to shake off their imposed Turkish identity and/or alter their pattern of identification with the Turkish state. Against this background and based on qualitative inquiry and interviews with thirty Kurdish migrants in Sweden and the United Kingdom, this chapter will investigate politics of belonging among the Kurds of Turkey, engage with the ways they have experienced Turkish assimilation policies, and assign meanings to these experiences in diasporic contexts. Moreover, this chapter will explore the politics and limits of resistance that attempt to subvert Turkish assimilation discourses and reclaim Kurdishness in the context of political violence and denial in Turkey.
On May 11, The Iranian Consulate released a statement about Iran's perspective regarding its relationship with the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. This statement was issued in the Kurdish city of Slemani (Sulaimania) and constructs an image of the Kurds that is permeated by misrecognition, distortion and humiliation, writes Barzoo Eliassi.
This interview with Professor Craig Calhoun expands on issues of nationalism and cosmopolitanism in relation to the question of statelessness. Since the 1990s, Calhoun has worked on nationalism, ethnicity and cosmopolitanism. For Calhoun, nations still matter despite post-national and cosmopolitan elaboration and repudiation of so-called parochial and provincialised identities like nation or national identity and citizenship. In this interview, Calhoun dis-cusses the material, political and cultural situations of the Kurds in the Middle East and the role of Kurdish nationalism in the context of statelessness. Calhoun finds class-based understanding of inequalities between the Kurds and their dominant others in the Middle East as problematic and incomplete since the cultural, political and material inequalities are intimately interlinked in rendering the Kurds to a subordinated position in the states they inhabit. The interview also engages with diasporic identities and examines how countries of residence can impinge on the identity formation of diasporas and how they obstruct or facilitate migrants translating their citizenship status into the right to have rights (Arendt). An important issue that Calhoun discusses is that there are both asymmetrical power relations between dominated (Kurdish) and dominating nationalisms (Turkish, Iraqi, Iranian and Syrian) and within the same nationalisms.
This paper is engaged with the politics of belonging among Kurdish youth. It aims to discuss how Kurdish identity and subjectivity can be understood following Antonio Gramsci within practices of hegemony and the ways the subalternity of Kurds as a stateless people are produced in everyday life. I will use narrative accounts of young Kurdish men and women to discuss experiences of denial by dominant subjects and the jettisoned position they occupy as a stateless nation in the world of unequal nation-states and hierarchical citizenship.
This aim of this article is to critically examine how the concept of culture is used in Sweden to explain the “failure” or the difficulties that Muslim immigrant families are experiencing with regards to their integration into the dominant society. Whereas, the Swedish society is often represented as ‘modern’, ‘progressive’, and ‘democratic’, immigrants with Muslim backgrounds are predominately described as ‘traditional’, ‘authoritarian’ and ‘pre-modern’. There is a widely held idea within Swedish social work research that immigrant families and the white mainstream Swedish society are situated within two different value systems with different world-views regarding family and gender relations. Due to this entrenched binary opposition, Orientalism becomes constitutive to social work research and practices.
Ethnic discrimination and vilification of Muslims in Europe show that European democracy is declining while racism and repressive policies are taking root and becoming the natural order of mainstream politics in many European countries.