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The Weight of Categories: Geographically Inscribed Otherness in Botkyrka Municipality, Sweden

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  • Beiyi Hu

    (Department of Sociology, The City University of New York—the Graduate Center, New York, NY 10016, USA)

Abstract

This paper asked a paradoxical question: why have immigrants to Sweden (particularly refugees) become geographically, economically, and symbolically segregated despite the putatively generous provisions of Sweden’s welfare state? I sought to understand how people and institutions perceived and deployed categories that created geographically inscribed “Otherness” through a year-long fieldwork in Botkyrka Municipality of the Greater Stockholm area. My analysis weaved together three models for explaining social segregation: the relational, the symbolic, and the spatial. I then augmented these models by taking into account the legal and bureaucratic frameworks that influence social exclusion, as well as historical factors of geographical exclusion. My study revealed how the Swedish government has, despite repeated attempts to integrate immigrant populations into the national identity, nonetheless continued to demarcate immigrant populations both symbolically and geographically, first through a long history of categorizing immigrants as “non-Swedes” (whether as “foreigner,” “immigrant,” or “people with a foreign background”), and through policies that have inadvertently separated the spaces in which immigrants are able to live. Finally, I concluded that the nation’s ethnocultural and Volk -centered definition of nationhood makes it almost impossible for immigrants to be integrated into the Swedish society and propose a shift of academic interests in three aspects.

Suggested Citation

  • Beiyi Hu, 2018. "The Weight of Categories: Geographically Inscribed Otherness in Botkyrka Municipality, Sweden," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 7(3), pages 1-23, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:7:y:2018:i:3:p:43-:d:135947
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Sainsbury, Diane, 2012. "Welfare States and Immigrant Rights: The Politics of Inclusion and Exclusion," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199654789.
    2. Wilson, William Julius, 2012. "The Truly Disadvantaged," University of Chicago Press Economics Books, University of Chicago Press, edition 2, number 9780226901268, January.
    3. Roger Andersson, 1998. "Socio-spatial Dynamics: Ethnic Divisions of Mobility and Housing in post-Palme Sweden," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 35(3), pages 397-428, March.
    4. Hans Lind & Anders Hellström, 2006. "Market Rents and Economic Segregation: Evidence From a Natural Experiment," European Journal of Housing Policy, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 6(2), pages 167-189, August.
    5. Hans Lind & Anders Hellstrom, 2006. "Market Rents and Economic Segregation: Evidence From a Natural Experiment," International Journal of Housing Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 6(2), pages 167-189.
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