Ett hem i rörelse : diasporisk mobilisering i den svenska gemenskapens periferi

• Denna artikel lyfter fram problemet med exkludering ochdiskriminering och deras inverkan på relationer mellanmajoritetssamhället och migranter och diskuterar identitetsskapande,gränsdragningar, identifikationer ochgemenskapsbildande inom denna kontext. Artikeln utgårfrån den kurdiska diasporans erfarenheter i Sverige ochbygger på individuella intervjuer.

• The aim of the article is to highlight the impact of discrimination and exclusion on identity and belonging among diaspora communities. It proceeds from the Kurdish diasporic experiences in Sweden and is based on individual interviews. The article discusses how and why respondents face exclusion and discrimination in their daily life, how they experience that, how they react, and why they react in a certain way. The analytical framework is the theory of diaspora which I define as transnational social movement for alternative home and community formations. This definition implies not only experiences of homelessness, loss and marginality but also collective action, and formation of collective identities around the projects of home and community. This transnational perspective goes beyond the discourses about assimilation or integration versus isolation. It rather argues that these identities, networks and communities must be seen as products of an ongoing transformation of society. They must be analysed in relation to stratification and distribution of power in a global perspective, and to globalization and the related processes of deterritorialization and reterritorialization rather than as an expression of imported immigrant cultures. These processes are going on within a context where, on the one hand, people with different colour and origin are excluded and, on the other hand, they get the possibility to build their own ethnic communities within the framework of Swedish multiculturalism. Respondents’ experiences of and relation to Sweden as well as to the Kurdish community are complex, contradictory, and multifaceted. They vary within the group according to many factors such as class, gender, occupation, social background, political and ideological convictions, and age. There is, however, a common general tendency, though very complex and ambivalent, regarding their relation to Swedish society and the Kurdish community. Since they feel that they are not welcomed into the Swedish society accordingly they don’t feel at home in Sweden. Thus they are drawn to the Kurdish community and its network of everyday life and activities where they are welcomed, and where they feel a sense of belonging. They find a home in the Kurdish community even if many people, especially women, continually challenge its boundaries.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Sociologi -- Socialt arbete (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Sociology -- Social Work (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Social work

Socialt arbete

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)