Sweden is often constructed as a place absent of race, due to formal abolishment and popular rejection of the concept. Despite this positioning, the presence of a racial regime in Sweden has been studied and documented. This thesis investigates negotiations of race and identity among 1.5- and second-generation immigrants who identify as persons of color, to determine how they make sense of race in a colorblind society and how understandings of race come to affect identity and perceptions of self. In utilization of an interpretive phenomenological approach, 10 semi-structured interviews, with integrated photo-elicitation methods, were conducted and analyzed. Theoretical understandings of the stranger, social and symbolic boundaries, and phenomenological perspectives on whiteness and non-whiteness helped to illuminate three central themes in the data: the Swedish racial regime, immigrant identities, and colorblindness. Results make clear that negotiations of race and identity were co-constitutive processes among this demographic, as race was imbued onto respondents and internalized. Respondents expressed a racially aware view of the self and persistent confrontations with the orientations of Swedish society towards and around whiteness. Ultimately, respondents came to recognize Swedishness as only attainable upon meeting the principal criteria of whiteness. This led respondents to reject colorblind discourses, though colorblindness played a role in negotiations of identity and understandings of how to discuss race in Sweden.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:su-230595 |
| Date | January 2024 |
| Creators | Husted, Xochitl Ellery |
| Publisher | Stockholms universitet, Sociologiska institutionen |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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