TALKING ABOUT EXCLUSION AND RACISM-CHALLENGES IN THE INTERVIEW SITUATION AND ANALYSIS

Paper 1: Ulrika Wernesjö TALKING ABOUT EXCLUSION AND RACISM CHALLENGES IN THE INTERVIEW SITUATION AND ANALYSIS Ulrika Wernesjö, PhD Candidate Department of Sociology Uppsala University My doctoral thesis project concerns experiences of everyday life in Swedish society among unaccompanied young persons who have arrived in Sweden as asylum-seekers and who are now residing in Sweden. The focus of concern for this research project is on their perspectives on their own life and position in Swedish society. In order to explore this emphasis is put on belonging – and particularly on demarcations of belonging in relation to notions of ‘Swedishness’ and social divisions such as ‘race’/ethnicity, gender, age, nationality and age. By investigating belonging, my ambition is to also explore processes of inclusion and exclusion that shape and restrict this group of children and young people in their everyday lives. In my research I am also interested in the interaction between the participants and myself and what happens in the interview situation. The empirical material consists of 19 interviews with 13 young people, five of them where interviewed on more than one occasion. In recent years attention has been brought on unaccompanied asylum seeking children and the organization of housing and care during the asylum seeking process. In this debate, there is a propensity to construct asylum seeking and refugee children, and particularly unaccompanied children, on the hand, as victims in need of care, or, on the other hand, as a ‘bogus’ and a threat to the nation-state (see also Stretmo 2010, Ní Laoire et al 2011). Moreover, since 2010 there is an extreme right party, Sverigedemokraterna, represented in the Swedish parliament and there is an ongoing heated public debate concerning immigration and integration. With this context in mind, it is of relevance to explore the research participants own perspectives on these matters and whether they themselves, or people they know, have experienced racism or discrimination in their everyday lives. However, it has been a challenge to raise these topics in the interview situation. Nevertheless, I argue that the difficulties of talking about experiences of exclusion, discrimination and racism are – in themselves – of interest and that they could be understood in a number of ways. Even though some of the participants express that ”Swedish” peers are reluctant to interact with them and connects that with racism, most of the participants hold that they have not encountered racism or discrimination in Sweden. Rather, Sweden and (”Swedes”) is described in positive terms and an overarching theme in the interviews is the young people's expressions of gratitude. This opens up questions regarding the ways in which this gratitude could be understood and how this is linked to the difficulties to (also) talk about negative experience in the same nation-state that you are grateful towards. According to British sociologist Les Back (2007) the ’grid of immigration’ sets up (unequal) relationships of debt and gratitude between the refugee and the host country, where the former is forced to express gratitude towards the latter. With Back's words “the script is already written” (p.42), which makes it difficult to not express gratitude. Back makes an illuminating point, however, these expressions could also be understood in relation to past and present experiences and to how these experiences are understood by the young people themselves. For example, when one of the research participants describes it difficult to get to know, and talk to, “Swedish” peers, I ask why that is. He says that “they might be afraid, I don't know”. This interpretation could be understood as favourable – that young “Swedes” are “just shy”. It may be that he does not interpret this as an expression of racism, or it may not fit the script of gratitude and of a Sweden that guarantees human rights. Moreover, what the young people do – or do not say – and how they say it, has to be contextualized and related to the (power) relation between the researcher and participant. My position as an adult, white Swedish-born researcher differs, particularly in terms of age, “race”, education, life situations, from the position the young people in focus for this project occupy in Swedish society. Hence, it could be argued that my position is more privileged due to processes of racialization (see Frankenberg 1993, Lundström 2007) and age (Christensen and James, editors, 2000). This may have impact on the interaction with the participants in that they see me as someone who is not able to understand their experiences. In my encounters with the research participants I have tried to reduce the unequal power relations in various ways, for instance I have tried to present myself (i.e. in how I dress, talk and interact) in a way that decreases power differences due to age and educational level. However, as Les Back (1996) puts it in his sociological study on young people in London, it is “foolish to think that our relationships were completely free from the effects of racism” (p.24). I have often reflected upon my relation – and 'outsider' position – to the participants during the research process, and it has at times made me uneasy, particularly in the interview situations. For example, in some of the interviews it has been difficult for me to raise questions regarding experiences of exclusion, discrimination and racism. In my doctoral thesis my ambition is to interrogate questions of belonging and non-belonging among young unaccompanied men and women in Sweden from their own perspective. I suggest that the questions that I have raised in this abstract are relevant for understanding processes of (non-) belonging, and need to be elaborated and discussed further. However, this has to be done in a way that is sensitive to the complexities of these issues.