Sayaka Osanami Törngren How do mixed Swedes identify themselves? MIM Working Paper Series 19: 2 MIM Working Paper Series No 19: 2 Published 2019 Editor Anders Hellström,
[email protected] Published by Malmö Institute for Studies of Migration, Diversity and Welfare (MIM) Malmö University 205 06 Malmö Sweden Online publication www.bit.mah.se/muep SAYAKA OSANAMI TÖRNGREN How do mixed Swedes identify themselves? ABSTRACT A global trend has shown an increase in intimate partnerships across nationality, race, ethnicity, and religion, and this is also the case in Sweden. As a result, the children of these unions (i.e. multiethnic and multiracial persons) are undeniably part of contemporary society. This study is one of the first studies in Sweden that solely focuses on the multiracial and multiethnic population. Based on 21 qualitative interviews, this article explores how mixed Swedes identify themselves and how they experience that they are identified by others using Brubaker’s (2016) conceptualization. The analysis shows that, contrary to the flexibility in how mixed Swedes identify themselves, mixed Swedes experience that people in society categorize them in a fixed idea of ‘either-or’ – either Swedish or not Swedish. The idea of being Swedish is strongly connected to the idea of being white; therefore, many mixed Swedes with a non-white phenotype experience that their identification as Swedish is not validated. However, some interviewees reject the idea of Swedish as solely being ‘white’ and are actively redrawing what it means to be Swedish through emphasizing nationality and cultural belonging. KEYWORDS mixed identity, Sweden, ethnic options BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES Sayaka Osanami Törngren is a senior researcher at the Malmö Institute for Studies of Migration, Diversity and Welfare (MIM).