Children of the Nation
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Children of the Nation A Theoretical Study of the (Im)migrant Child’s Cultural Position Sanne Wintter Figure 1. Headline: Pure Nordic types and Swedish mixed-types. Caption: Miner’s children from Värmland. Swedish types. (Lundborg 1919:88) Barn- och ungdomsvetenskapliga institutionen Examensarbete, 30 hp AN Barn- och ungdomsvetenskap Masterprogrammet i Barnets bästa och mänskliga rättigheter (120 hp) Vårterminen 2016 Handledare: Maria Borgström Examinator: Rickard Jonsson Children of the Nation A Theoretical Study of the (Im)migrant Child’s Cultural Position Sanne Wintter Abstract This thesis explores how the history of nationalism in Sweden affects our current academic understanding of the (im)migrant child’s cultural identity. It does so by contrasting the history of academic discourse on Swedish identity to modern academic discourse on the (im)migrant child’s cultural identity. The purpose is to elucidate structures of thought on how otherness in constructed. In dialogue with dominant theoretical paradigms within “globalization studies,” this thesis contributes to the central question of the field: what happens to culture in a globalized world? The theoretical problem that is the starting point for this thesis, is the common prediction within globalization studies’ that nationalism is ending, in contrast to the fields inability to shake the nation as the primary tool to explain cultural identity. This paradox facing globalization studies is a continuation of the problem that has long puzzled scholars of nationalism: the ideology’s rational poverty in contrast to its social power. In this thesis, I will to dive into this conundrum, and based on Lévi-Strauss’ theory, illustrate that nationalism social power makes sense when understood as a myth. I will argue that the central feature of this myth is the idea of the nation as a collective transcendent being. This being becomes immortal through re-generation: one generation transfers traits considered significant of the collective’s identity into the next. Because of this understanding of the transcendence, controlling the nature of the child becomes pivotal in order to ensure the survival of the nation. Finally, I will argue that transparency of this myth is central for understanding how modern academia views the (im)migrant child as he or is described as either something that needs to be controlled to ensure re- generation, or a symptom of the impending death of the nation. Key words Nationalism, Globalization, Culture, Migration, Children Table of Contents Children of No Nation? ............................................................................ 1 Questions Posed and Why ....................................................................... 4 What Happens with Culture in a Globalized World .................................. 5 Tribalism .......................................................................................................... 5 Cosmopolitanism ............................................................................................... 6 World System Theory ......................................................................................... 7 The Dividing Lines between the Paradigms ............................................................ 7 Myth and Meaning ................................................................................... 8 The Importance of Symbols and Systems .............................................................. 8 The Mythology of the Social Order ........................................................................ 9 Is Structural Anthropology an Outdated Paradigm? ............................................... 10 Method .................................................................................................. 11 Choice of Method and Process of Analysis ............................................................ 11 Data and Limitations ........................................................................................ 12 Ethical Considerations ...................................................................................... 14 Quality of Study ............................................................................................... 15 Swedish Nationalism and the Child ....................................................... 16 18th-19th Century: Individualistic Nationalism ....................................................... 16 The Collective Individual and His Personality ..................................................... 16 Kinship between People and the Land—Moral Landscapes ................................... 18 The Harmonic Symbiosis of the King and His People .......................................... 19 History Teaching as a Self Improvement Project—The People’s School ................. 20 19th-20th Century: Integrative Nationalism ........................................................... 21 Resistance against Democratization ................................................................. 22 Organic Integration ....................................................................................... 22 The Physical Properties of the Nation’s Body ..................................................... 24 20th-21st Century: Banal Nationalism .................................................................. 26 The Rational State ........................................................................................ 26 The Moral State ............................................................................................ 27 Discussion on Mythologies of Swedish-ness and the Child ...................................... 29 The Myth of the Swedish Nation ...................................................................... 30 The Myth of the Swede .................................................................................. 32 The Child in Swedish Nationalism .................................................................... 33 The (Im)migrant Child and Being Swedish ............................................ 35 The Tribalistic Paradigm and the (Im)migrant Child in Sweden ............................... 35 Halal Hippies—Conflict of Rights ...................................................................... 35 Public vs. Private Values ................................................................................ 37 The Cosmopolitan Paradigm and the (Im)migrant Child in Sweden .......................... 37 Hybrid Identities ........................................................................................... 38 Challenges of Identity Construction ................................................................. 38 Mythological Perspective on Research of the (Im)migrant Child .............................. 39 The Myth of the Swedish State and Representations of the (Im)migrant Child ....... 40 The Myth of the Swede and Representations of the (Im)migrant Child .................. 40 The Myth of the Swedish Child and Representations of the (Im)migrant Child ........ 41 Discussion ............................................................................................. 43 References ............................................................................................ 46 Children of No Nation? When I was nine years old, I asked my parents why they had made a child that was neither white nor black. Once, I asked my wonderful nanny "why my skin was colored brown.” She said that perhaps my mother had spilled coffee on me when I was a baby. I spent a lot of time in my room between the ages of seven and twelve. I read and played a lot just like any other kid. However, I could also stand for long, long moments in front of the mirror. As if I waited for the mirror to give me an answer—if I only looked long enough. Whom did I belong to? Who were my people? Was I someone who could be loved? Did I love myself? (Diakité 2014, 10.35) When musician Jason Diakité describes his childhood, the story has been deeply colored by the color of his skin. Although Jason was born and raised in Sweden, he lost count on how many times strangers told him to go home. He understood early on that the color of his skin, the color of his eyes, and the texture of his hair, somehow disqualified him from communal belonging (Diakité 2014). Jason is probably not alone. In this age of globalization, many children are likely to stand in front of mirrors, real or proverbial, and realize that what the mirror shows them is somehow unwanted. In their study on experiences of migration, Maria Borgström and Katrin Goldstein-Kyaga (2009) found that it is common that (im)migrant1 children have similar experiences of rootlessness as Jason. In their study, (im)migrant children expressed a feeling of neither belonging to the “new nation” or the “old nation.” However, Borgström and Goldstein-Kyaga also found that being a (im)migrant child, is not simply a state of conflict. The (im)migrant state also comes with a set of “cosmopolitan competencies,” as many (im)migrant children speak several languages, have in-depth understanding of more than one culture, and have transnational networks of friends and relatives (ibid). The (im)migrant child, in both his or her conflicts and competencies, seems to represent one of the central questions of the 21th century: what happens to culture in a globalized world? According to Ulrich Beck and Nathan Szneider (2006), globalization studies are often guilty of methodological nationalism. Methodological nationalism refers to studies that approach the nation