Uddrag af artiklen "If we only had a few more Swedes here"
Af Nihad Bunar
The contemporary discourse of the idea of multiculturalism in Sweden could be divided into two parts. On the one hand, multiculturalism is portrayed as a troublesome reality to be dealt with, expressed in terms of urban segregation, poverty, unemployment, youth gangs, religious fundamentalism, traditional culture of honor and educational failure. The main subjects of this discourse are immigrants, often young and found in urban suburbs. We can tentatively call it a troublesome multiculturalism.
On the other hand multiculturalism has been widely adopted as a potentially viable political ideology celebrating globalization, diversity, the principle of non-discrimination and respect for cultural traditions. Although this discourse is propelled by the prevailing political liberalism, it appears nevertheless to have stuck at the theoretical and ideological level. The majority group does not hesitate to deploy various strategies, from open discrimination and stigmatization to an exit strategy in housing and education (Reay 2004) in order to prevent too close contacts and a too extensive mixing with minority groups, especially when these minorities are clustered in housing areas or in schools (Bunar 2001, Bunar & Kallstenius 2007, Dahlstedt 2005). We can tentatively call this version an imagined multiculturalism.