Den här rapporten ger en sammanfattning av de seminarier som organiserades under våren 2021 av PHEDKommissionen för framtiden för hälso- och sjukvården efter covid-19, som bjöd in till vittnesmål från hälso- och sjukvårdspersonal, tjänstemän, tankesmedjor, forskare, civilsamhället och andra intresserade parter baserat på de erfarenheter de fått och lärt sig av under pandemin. De vittnesmål som framfördes kom från många olika geografska platser och många olika nivåer, vilket gjorde dem relevanta både för Sverige och globalt. De fastställer fera centrala rekommendationer för att skydda och förbättra folkhälsan. Dessa rekommendationer både kompletterar och i hög grad utökar de rekommendationer som togs fram i den första rapporten, som var mer fokuserad på Sverige (”Ojämlikhet i samhället gör oss sårbara för pandemier”) och baserad på vittnesmål från hösten 2020, och som kan nås via: https://phed.uni.mau.se/. Den stora mängd erfarenheter som sammanfattas här går långt utöver pandemiperioden och tillhandahåller idéer och praktisk vägledning för att skydda och stärka människors hälsa så att den blir mer motståndskraftig inför framtida kriser. 

This report summarises the Spring 2021 sessions of the PHED Commission on the Future of Healthcare Post Covid-19, which invited testimony from healthcare practitioners, civil servants, thinktanks, researchers, civil society, and other interested parties based on their experiences learnt during the pandemic. The evidence presented came from multiple geographies and levels, making it relevant both to Sweden and globally. It identifes several key recommendations for protecting and improving public health. These recommendations supplement and greatly expand upon those identifed in the report (‘Societal inequity makes us vulnerable to pandemics’) based on testimony from Fall/Autumn 2020, which can be accessed via: https://phed.uni.mau.se/. The wealth of experience summarized here goes well beyond the pandemic period, providing ideas and practical guidance for protecting and strengthening human health to be more resilient in the face of future crises.

Objectives: The aim of the present study is to determine how marital status and certain post-migration family structures are associated with the risk of mental illness among recently arrived Arabic- speaking refugees in Sweden. 

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted during 2015 and 2016. The study population was recruited by inviting all adult refugees who participated in the mandatory public integration support programme. All refugees that participated had received refugee status. A total of 681 of the invited participants returned the GHQ-12 questionnaires, through which the risk for mental illness was measured and only Arabic- speaking refugees (N=638) were included in the analyses. 

Results: Marital status per se was not associated with a risk for mental illness. However, for the whole study sample there was a statistical significant odds ratio of 1.72 (95% CI 1.03–2.86). For male Arabic-speaking refugees with a spouse or child left behind in the home country there was a borderline significant increased risk for mental illness, odds ratio = 1. 87 (95% CI 0.99–3.56). The risk for female Arabic-speaking refugees was non-significant, odds ratio = 1.35 (95% CI 0.55–3.33). 

Conclusions: Arabic- speaking refugees who were separated from family members reported an increased risk for mental illness after arriving in the host country. Actions to facilitate family reunion after arriving as a refugee (in Sweden) seems to be an important factor to promote mental health among refugees. 

Objective: Research shows that, depending on the route of travel during the escape, the journey presents the refugees with different health risks. Traumatic events during flight may have long-lasting physical and psychological effects on the refugee children. Therefore, it is important to illuminate the experiences that refugee families arriving in Sweden have endured during their flight. A qualitative study was conducted through interviews with fifteen recently arrived Syrian refugee families. Results: The parents described different reasons as to why they as families had to escape the war. Some families had lost jobs and loved ones in the war and did not want their children to die as well. They mentioned that the journeys varied between 10 and 40 days and were usually filled with struggles and threats. The escape to Sweden was expressed as an emotionally trying journey. Many parents talked about the fear and terror the children felt. Traumatic events during the escape, such as separation from family, death of family members, sexual violence, kidnapping or extortion may have long-lasting physical and psychological effects on the refugee children and their families. Therefore, health care workers meeting and caring for these families after arrival must pay close attention to that.

This chapter compares health communication towards migrants living at the margins of society – undocumented migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees – within the different Scandinavian countries (Denmark, Norway, and Sweden), to understand the present state of health communication and its role in both strengthening and, where being unequal, segregating societal inclusion within the Nordic region. We know that such migrants often experience health challenges related not only to their migratory journey, but often caused by the precarious situation in which they are placed upon arrival in host countries. Past studies show significant challenges in obtaining care, and difficulties with communication, including cultural awareness. Where health communication fails to meet the needs of a diverse population, we see growing societal segregation that often follows racialized structures with long-term consequences for society.

Objective Housing and neighbourhood conditions are widely acknowledged important social determinants of health and health inequalities that persist in developed countries despite general improvements in health outcomes across populations. Previous research has investigated what effect crowded living conditions have on mental health and concluded that women living in crowded conditions were more likely to suffer from depression. In contrast, men living in the same conditions responded with withdrawal or aggression. To the best of our knowledge, only a few studies have examined the association between recently-arrived migrants living in crowded conditions and poor mental health. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between crowded living conditions among recently-arrived migrants in Sweden and mental ill-health. The result is based on 681 migrants who completed and returned questionnaires in 2015-2016. Results The analyses, independent of gender, resulted in a significant unadjusted odds ratio of 1.46 (95% CI 1.05-2.03); even after adjustments were made, the association remained significant OR 1.47 (1.05-2.07). When adding stability in housing into the adjustment-model, the OR did not remain significant OR 1.40 (0.99-1.99), p-value 0.061.

Objective: There is an association between pre-migration exposure to threats and violence, and the risk for mental illness among newly arrived refugees (NAR). The aim of this study is therefore to investigate the effect of pre-migration violent and threatening experiences on the mental health of NAR in Sweden. The participants were recruited between February 2015 and February 2016, undergoing the naturalisation process in Sweden. In total, 681 questionnaires were returned (response rate of 39.5%).

Results: The results showed that almost 50% of the sample were at risk for mental illness. Analysis of pre-migration exposure to violence or threats, and risk for mental illness, showed a significant odds ratio for violence as well as for threats. Analysing men and women separately resulted in a significant odds ratio for women for pre-migration threats. For men, pre-migration violence and threats were significantly associated with the risk for mental illness. The host society receiving NAR must screen for mental illness and be prepared to provide support and care for refugees who were exposed to violence or threats, and who are subsequently at risk for mental illness. This must be considered in order to improve health and subsequently the social integration of refugees.

Previous research findings suggest that insomnia could be related to decreased health status and that it could also be affected by traumatic life experiences, such as war. Good health is important for newly arrived refugees for an effective integration process. The aim of the present study is, therefore, to investigate the association between self-perceived health and sleep quality among newly arrived refugees in Sweden. The results are based on 681 migrants who participated in a survey between 2015 and 2016. There was a significant odds ratio (OR) after adjustment for confounders for newly arrived refugees that were experiencing bad self-perceived health to also experience bad sleep: OR 8.07 (4.34-15.00). Furthermore, the OR remained significant but lower after adjustments for confounders for newly arrived refugees that had bad self-perceived health to be suffering from anxiety during sleep, with OR 3.83 (2.11-6.94).

Introduction

In Sweden, often seen as one of the most egalitarian countries, the COVID-19 pandemic exposed high levels of health inequality, especially harming people with a refugee background. This is also despite Sweden’s image as a refugee-friendly country. In this context, the aim of this paper is to better understand how Swedish health- and social workers have reacted to the health- and social needs of refugees during the pandemic. The Swedish case is particularly interesting because, as seen in the paper, health- and social workers had the task of communicating health guidance to refugees who were sometimes more reliant on information from abroad where the consensus on COVID-19 restrictions ran contrary to the approach recommended by the Swedish public health authority.

Method

The study utilizes a qualitative content analysis of 13 in-depth interviews with health- and social workers in Sweden, active in the care of refugees within different kinds of health- and social care settings. 

Results

The analysis showed that healthcare services have remained open during the pandemic but with new precautions at reception areas impacting how refugees access healthcare. As discussed in the article, the shift to digital tools has particularly impacted refugees, worsening already existing barriers to healthcare services faced by those with refugee status. Public health recommendations were poorly designed to the needs of refugees whose living conditions often prevented them from self-isolation and social distancing. Furthermore, Sweden’s initially non-restrictive approach to the pandemic instructed health- and social-workers to encourage refugees to take far fewer precautions (e.g. self-isolation, home-schooling, pregnant women to avoid virus hotspots) compared both with European neighbours and the international media typically used by refugees. When Sweden shifted towards a more restrictive approach, health- and social-workers had to revise their guidance in relation to the new recommendations around precautions.

Conclusion

Refugees have faced increased barriers to maintaining their health and well-being during the pandemic that exceed those experienced by the rest of the Swedish population. Refugees have, in general, taken precautions in regard to social distancing and followed recommendations but faced challenges with social distancing due to isolation and crowded living. Public health authorities have often failed to acknowledge that individuals use increasingly diverse sources of knowledge when trying to protect their health, and that not everyone has access to the knowledge needed to access healthcare and social systems. At the same time, there is a need to acknowledge that refugees are sometimes a source of expertise that was ignored by the Swedish health and social system during the pandemic. There is a need for urgent efforts to halt the worsening health conditions for this specific group, but also to counter knock-on societal effects and rising health inequity.

The externalization of the EU’s migration policies has seen a sharp increase in recent years but many aspects of its historical roots, internal dynamics, and broader implications remain insufficiently explored. This special issue analyses recent developments in the EU’s external migration policies including the extra-territorial reach of EU migration policies; the power relationships between the EU and third countries involved in EU migration policies; the overlap with critical development studies and post-colonialism; the replication of many of Australia’s external migration policies; the impact of EU external migration policies on third countries, and civil society contestation of those policies. As the contributions show, the series of policies discussed here go beyond the specific empirical area of migration control to have significance for both the future of the European Union and its role in global affairs. 

This article will explore the extent to which a focus on the ‘local’ can tell us something meaningful about recent developments in the governance of displaced migrants and refugees. Taking a multi-sited approach spanning cases in the south and north of Europe, we consider how the challenge of housing and accommodation in particular, a core sector of migrant reception and integration, can shed light on the ways local and city level approaches may negotiate, and sometimes diverge from, national level policy and rhetoric. While it can be said that despite variation, local authorities are by definition ultimately ‘always subordinate’ (Emilsson, Comparative Migration Studies, 3: 1-17, 2015: 4), they can also show evidence of ‘decoupling’ across geographies of policy delivery (Pope and Meyer, European Journal of Cultural and Political Sociology, 3: 280–305, 2016: 290). This article traces how possible local variations in different European cases are patterned by ground-level politics, local strategic networks, and pre-existing economic resources in a manner that is empirically detailed through the study of housing.

The literature on citizenship policies is flourishing, yet we know little of which naturalisation requirements majorities and minorities find reasonable, and how they view existing citizenship regimes. Drawing on original survey data with young adults in Norway (N = 3535), comprising immigrants and descendants with origins from Iraq, Pakistan, Poland, Somalia and Turkey, as well as a non-immigrant majority group, this article examines whether perceptions of ideal citizenship criteria and assessments of Norway's current rules differ between groups. In terms of ideal citizenship criteria, we find a striking similarity across groups when looking at six different dimensions of citizenship policy. When merged into an index and estimated in a multivariate regression model, we find that both immigrants and descendants are significantly more liberal than natives are, yet the differences are small. When assessing the semi-strict citizenship regime in Norway, we find that immigrants are significantly more positive towards the current rules than natives. The results lend little support to recent work on 'strategic' and 'instrumental' citizenship and point instead to a close to universal conception of the terms of membership acquisition in Norway. This suggests that states may operate with moderate integration requirements while maintaining the legitimacy of the citizenship institution.

In this study, Albanian migrants' choices to settle in the UK are addressed. The leading question is why they migrate from Albania and why they choose to enter the UK clandestinely instead of other European countries, where they can travel with a passport (do not need a Visa). The study also assesses their expectations of the UK and future intentions for residency. Data were gathered using a mixed-methods research design with a pragmatic approach by analyzing quantitative surveys, further supported by six qualitative follow-up interviews. The results indicated that the socioeconomic and political conditions in Albania were the primary factor pushing the migrants to migrate. The United Kingdom is chosen as a migration destination because of the general view of the country in terms of economic prospects and quality of life. The findings also revealed that social networks were an essential determinant in the decision of destination selection, shaping the image of the destination country. Thus, regardless of their undocumented status, most participants do not plan to return to their home country. 

Using 2010 Japanese census data, we critically interrogate the idea of integration through marriage in Japan. Intermarriage has been seen as a result of integration but the patterns of intermarriage and integration might depend on existing intersecting power structures in the receiving society. We explore assortative mating patterns in bi-national marriages in order to understand how citizenship status, race, gender, and educational level intersect and affect the patterns of intermarriage in Japan. We argue how ‘integration’ through bi-national marriage only perpetuates the structural hierarchy that premiers and maintain the status of the (male) native Japanese majority over Asian immigrants. 

This bachelor thesis provides an overview of the experiences of black quota students in one of Brazil's most prestigious universities. This study was achieved by analyzing 8 in-depth interviews with 8 students who entered the University through race-based affirmative policies. In the analysis, the concept of racial democracy and whitening have been used to examine the position of the interviewees within Brazilian society as well as the structure of the University. The results of this study have shown that most students think the institution fails in providing the necessary support to guarantee equality of opportunities between students due to the structural racism in the institution. Furthermore, the results have shown that quota students perceive the academic environment as predominantly white and elitist, causing a great feeling of not belonging within the university environment.

This open access book shows how the politics of migration affect community building in the 21st century, drawing on both retrogressive and progressive forms of mobilization. It elaborates theoretically and shows empirically how the two master frames of nostalgia and hope are used in local, national and transnational settings, in and outside conventional forms of doing politics. It expands on polarized societal processes and external events relevant for the transformation of European welfare systems and the reproduction of national identities today. It evidences the importance of gender in the narrative use of the master frames of nostalgia and hope, either as an ideological tool for right-wing populist and extreme right retrogressive mobilization or as an essential element of progressive intersectional politics of hope. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has created an impetus for action for governments and citizens, but these actions can be challenging to understand. As a riposte, we use The Populist Divide as a framework for understanding the patchwork of populist responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our approach brings nuance to how crises are framed dependent on the trust levels between actors, thus presenting populist relationships as determined by selective trust allocation and not necessarily one of fixed ideological paradigms. Additionally, we introduce activities as the response to a measure, whether accepting or even protesting, but ultimately consenting to the legitimate powers of the leaders imposing these measures. On the other hand, counterstrategies emerging as challenges to the legitimacy of the leaders themselves.

Migration induced by the impacts of climate change is a complex phenomenon that consists of various concepts. It also consists of various perspectives about the cause and the effects of such migration. Regardless of these debates, however, some atoll island nations are under a threat of disappearance due the impacts of climate change, especially the rising sea levels. Migration remains the only option for these island nations. Consequently, there are numerous perspectives on how to address the arising problems due to such migration. By utilizing argumentative discourse analysis, this thesis identifies three dominant discourses that address these consequences of climate change induced migration and explores how the island nation of Kiribati, although seemingly follows the lead of these dominant discourses, manages to shape and transform the discourses for the best interest of the Island Nation.

A global trend has shown an increase in intimate partnerships across nationality, race, ethnicity, and religion. As a result, the children of these unions (i.e. multiethnic and multiracial persons) are undeniably part of contemporary Swedish society. This study is one of the first studies in Sweden that solely focuses on the multiracial and multiethnic population and their identity. Based on 21 qualitative interviews, this article explores how mixed Swedes identify themselves and how they experience that they are identified by others. 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’. 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 questioned, and a feeling of misrecognition emerge. However, mixed Swedes who can pass as Swedish also feeling constraints in claiming their identity and feel misrecognized especially when they identify themselves as ‘mixed’.

This case study will present how I used mixed methods in my PhD dissertation project which investigated the majority society's attitudes toward interracial dating, marriage, and childbearing in Sweden. I will explain why I chose mixed methods and describe the mixed-methods model called follow-up explanations model of explanatory design procedures. I will also explain how the model was applied to investigate the attitudes. I address the four steps of follow-up explanations model, together with the results from my study on attitudes toward interracial relationships.

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.

One in ten Swedes today is of mixed background, with parents of differing countries of origin. Despite mixed Swedes being an integral part of Swedish society, little is known about their experiences. Based on fourteen qualitative interviews with mixed Swedes who reported to be racialized as Latino, Asian, Arab, or Black, this article explores the freedom and limitations in asserting their ethnic and racial identity. Mixed Swedes’ experiences show that while identification is flexible and the choice to identify as Swedish or mixed reflects their personal decision to connect with their national, cultural, and ethnic background, they cannot choose whether or how they will be racialized or racially categorized by others.

This article compares the attitudes of white Swedes towards interracial marriages with someone of non-white migrant origin and a non-white transnational adoptee. The analysis is based on a postal survey and follow-up interviews conducted in Malmö, Sweden. Survey results show that transnational adoptees are not preferred as marriage partners by white Swedes to the same extent as white Swedes. Moreover, the differences in attitudes towards marriages with migrants and non-white adoptees are not statistically significant. Interviewees utilized the notion of cultural differences to explain the attitudes towards intermarriages with migrants. However, this was highly contested when talking about the attitudes towards non-white transnational adoptees. These results show how race and visible differences play a role in attitudes toward interracial marriages in Sweden.

Increasing immigration and intermarriage in Sweden and Japan have led to a growing multiracial and multiethnic population. Approximately 7% of the Swedish population and 2% of the Japanese population are multiracial and multiethnic today. Based on a total of 39 interviews with mixed persons in Sweden and Japan, I examine the self-claimed and ascribed identification among mixed Japanese and mixed Swedes. I argue that, despite the contextual differences, there are commonalities of experiences and identification. These commonalities of experiences shed light on the conditions the mixed individuals feel that they must fulfill in order to have their different claims to identities validated. The study gives a unique insight into how racial appraisal constrains individual choices of identity in a context where there is no official classification of racial and ethnic groups.

Racial color-blindness, the belief that race should not be seen and noticed, is widespread in all aspects of Swedish society. However, color-blindness does not necessarily mean that there is no racial prejudice in Sweden. This chapter, based on interviews, explores the discourse of color-blindness in talking about attitudes toward interracial marriages in Sweden. The interview results show that color-blind talk is established through justification of racial attitudes as natural by stressing individual choice and gender equality and through focusing on the cultural differences that can bring problems to interracial marriages and undermine the welfare of the family. These explanations emerge as a rational way of understanding the attitudes and make the racial preference sound reasonable rather than prejudiced.

Mixed populations are becoming increasingly visible in Swedish society, although they are not always recognised as such. In a colour-blind Swedish society, mixed Swedes fall into the dichotomised binary of ‘Swedes’ and ‘immigrants’. The experiences of twenty-one interviewees with multiethnic and multiracial Swedes can be broadly categorised into three types: those who feel that they are not discriminated against or racialised, those who feel that they are not discriminated against but are racialised, and those who feel that they are both discriminated against and racialised. The analysis illustrates interviewed mixed Swedes’ unique position in the racial hierarchy in Sweden and how fluid their racial experiences are. Their different experiences also show how understandings of white and non-white racial groups are formed through the processes of racialisation and deracialisation in Sweden.

Detta är den första svenska nationella rapporten inom det Europeiska projektet „National Integration Evaluation Mechanism (NIEM)”.

This chapter gives an overview of the socioeconomic situation of Asian immigrants, and their decedents, in Sweden. With the steady growth in the number of immigrants from Asian countries to Sweden since the 1970s, Asians are becoming increasingly visible among the Swedish population. However, they are rarely represented in the public, political, and academic discussions. As a first step to tackle the “narrative scarcity” (Lee and Ramakrishnan, RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences 7 (2):, 1–20, 2021), we use register data to describe the educational position and employment situation of the 10 largest East, South and Southeast Asian groups in Sweden, in comparison to non-Asian immigrant groups. We found differences based on the regions of origin: East Asian groups are highly educated but have lower employment rates. Once employed, they work in highly skilled occupations. Southeast Asians have lower education and, therefore, are underrepresented in highly skilled jobs but have high employment rates. South Asians stand between these two groups.

This special issue brings together nine articles on the experiences of multiracial and multiethnic individuals from nine different countries across the globe – the United Kingdom, Sweden, Ireland, Spain, Canada, the United States, Japan, Singapore and Israel. The articles in this volume address the diverse experiences of the identification, socialising and mainstreaming of multiethnic and multiracial individuals in different national contexts. The collection consists of both qualitative and quantitative research from various disciplines in the social sciences and thus contributes to an interdisciplinary understanding and a multi-method approach to this reality. Through a cross-country analysis of the results provided by each paper, this Introduction proposes a conceptual framework for better understanding the realities of mixedness globally.

In this article, we use the results from two studies, one on interracial relationship and the other on transnational adoption, to explore how notions of race and ethnicity shape family policies, family building and everyday life in Sweden. Transnational adoption and interracial marriage in Sweden have previously never been compared in research, even though they both are about transracial family formation. By bringing these two topics together in a critical race theory framework we got a deeper understanding of how transracial families are perceived and affected by societal beliefs and norms. The analysis revealed a somewhat contradictory and complex picture on the norms of family formation. The color-blind ideology that characterizes the Swedes’ self-understanding, together with the privileged position of whiteness in relation to Swedishness, makes the attitude towards different forms of transracial families ambivalent and contradictory. Transracial children and their parents are perceived differently depending on their origin and degree of visible differences and non-whiteness, but also based on the historical and social context. Since family formation involves an active choice, the knowledge and discussion on how race and whiteness norms structure our thoughts and behavior are essential in today’s multicultural Sweden.

This article is based on the results of a pilot study which examines and compares how multiracial and multiethnic advertisement is looked at and perceived in Sweden and the US. Research involving eye-tracking is growing in several disciplines but still underexplored in the Social Sciences. Eye trackers enable recording of eye movements both in a natural and isolated/experimental context. Combining eye-tracking data and other types of traditional data such as interviews or surveys has a great potential to analyze and challenge the data bias, such as social desirability needs and race of interviewer effect. Even though we did not find any statistically significant results due to the limited sample size, the results points to interesting trends and tendencies which need to be addressed in further studies. We did not find any statistically significant differences in the preference in monocultural advertisements among Swedish and American students. However higher prior interracial exposure had some significance in a higher preference in multicultural advertisement.

This article examined and compared the US-born and Swedish-born college students' preferences towards monoracial or multiracial advertisement. We showed four fashion advertisements, tracked their eye movements with a stationary eye-tracker, and asked questions through survey and debriefing to understand how students see and perceive advertisements with and without racial diversity. We found that both Swedish and American students exhibited higher preference in monoracial advertisements. We also found that Swedish and American students' preferences towards advertisements were quite similar, but there were some variations in the reported level of attractiveness of the advertisements, reaction times, and dwell time between the Swedish and American students. Even though we did not find any statistically significant results from the eye-tracking data due to the limited sample size, the results point to interesting trends and tendencies that need to be addressed in further studies.

In the current literature on methodology and knowledge production, there is a substantial imbalance in interracial and interethnic research: the perspective has primarily been that of the ‘white gaze’. This article reverses that gaze and attempts to initiate a methodological discussion that is missing today: what occurs when non-white researchers interview a white-majority population or persons of the same racial but different ethnic background? Based on the experiences of a female researcher with an East Asian background (Sayaka Osanami Törngren) and a male researcher with an African background (Jonathan Ngeh) who conducted interviews in Malmö, Sweden, this article analyzes incidents in which the boundaries between race, ethnicity and non-Swedishness in relation to non-whiteness are implicitly and explicitly communicated between the researcher and the researched. Our experiences reveal that the demarcation of these boundaries is not fixed but highly fluid.

This is one of the first studies in Sweden testing the notion of racial color-blindness empirically in a Swedish context, by asking a sample of Swedish participants to assign race to images of faces with different phenotypes, rate how ‘Swedish’ the faces are perceived (referred to the degree of ‘Swedishness’) and identify the skin color of the faces (through the NIS skincolor scale). We also use eye-tracking to explore whether participants look differently at faces of different racial groups. The results show that skin-color is a decisive factor in the racial ascription as Black, while skin color is not determinant of the degree of Swedishness. What determines the degree of Swedishness is the racial assignment itself, in other words, how individuals perceive and categorize phenotypes into different racial groups. We conclude that Swedes are not truly racially color-blind and race does indeed matter in Sweden.

How do Swedes, who are not exposed to administrativeroutines of reporting race and ethnicity, perceive, andcategorize faces with different phenotypical features? Thisstudy examines identity contestation that can occur andaddress how race affects the way you are perceived asSwedish. A sample of Swedish participants were asked toassign racial categories to images of faces with differentphenotypes, identify the skin color of the faces and ratehow ‘Swedish’ the faces are perceived. We also use eye‐tracking to explore whether participants look differentlyat the faces of different racial groups. The results showgreater identity contestation among Latino and Black faces.Moreover, while Swedish respondents identify the skincolor of faces self‐identified as Black as darker compared toother racial backgrounds, the differences in skin color re-ported between Asian, White and Latinos were very small.Despite these small differences in the perception of skincolor among Asian, White, and Latino faces, faces self‐reported as White were rated as significantly more Swed-ish by the respondents compared Asian and Latino faces.All these results contribute to the understanding of notonly how race matters in Sweden but also to the under-standing of constructivist nature of race.

Although immigration to Japan has been subtle and slow, Japan is becoming home to more and more visible immigrant communities, with residential segregation and ethnic communities establishing more visible identities in Japan. This is due not only to increasing immigration but also to the consequent increase of the descendants of immigrants and the increase of intermarriages and mixed children born in such unions. Despite the change in the population, the current Population Census fails to capture the diversity that exists in contemporary Japanese society. The census and statistical classification needs to be modified to reflect the changes in the population and to acknowledge the new generation of diverse Japanese, together with the discussion of what it means to be Japanese. This chapter will first briefly introduce the Japanese census categories from 1920 onwards. It will then highlight the invisibility of race, ethnicity, and mixed categories in the contemporary Japanese census category of nationality, and how this is connected to the perceptions of mixed persons in Japan. We argue that there is a need for further discussion and we propose ways of incorporating classifications of race, ethnicity, and mixed categories into the Population Census in the future.

In 2011, the Swedish national tourism organisation, Visit Sweden, together with the Swedish Institute, launched a campaign – Curators of Sweden (CoS) – on Twitter, which ended in 2018. Each week a ‘Swedish’ person was chosen as a curator to tweet whatever they liked through the @Sweden account. All the curators were chosen because they represented ‘values, skills, and ideas’ which, according to the campaign, ‘all combined, makes up Sweden’. In this article, we try to understand the contradiction of CoS offering a cacophony of ‘diverse’ voices from Swedes but, at the same time, speaking with the ‘same’ voice. Through dialogism, we locate the different voices, agendas and diverse contexts in reality, and examine how the values, skills and ideas were managed and engineered through the CoS, in a bid to imagine Sweden and Swedish identity. 

Although the number of multiracial and multiethnic Japanese who are socially recognised and identified as haafu (mixed) has increased due to a rise in intermarriages, the identities and experiences of mixed persons in Japan are seldom critically analysed. Based on interviews with 29 multiracial and multiethnic individuals residing in Japan, this article explores not only how multiracial and multiethnic Japanese identify themselves but also how they feel they are identified by others in society. The analysis shows that multiracial and multiethnic persons self-identify in a way that goes beyond either-or categories and the binary notions of Japanese/foreigner. It also reveals how both multiracial and multiethnic persons face a gap between self-identity and ascribed identity and that they negotiate this gap in various ways. However, the gap and the negotiation process that multiracial persons face differ to those of multiethnic persons. Multiracial persons whose mixedness is phenotypically visible experience more constraints in their ethnic options and have more difficulty in passing as Japanese, whereas multiethnic persons whose mixedness is invisible can pass as Japanese more easily but face constraints in their ethnic option to be identified as mixed and in claiming their multiethnic background.

INTRODUCTION: A large body of research has established a consensus that racial discrimination in CV screening occurs and persists. Nevertheless, we still know very little about how recruiters look at the CV and how this is connected to the discriminatory patterns. This article examines the way recruiters view and select CVs and how they reason about their CV selection choices, as a first step in unpacking the patterns of hiring discrimination. Specifically, we explore how race and ethnicity signaled through the CV matter, and how recruiters reason about the choices they make.

METHODS: We recorded data from 40 respondents (20 pairs) who are real-life recruiters with experiences in recruitment of diverse employees in three large Swedish-based firms in the finance and retail sector in two large cities. The participating firms all value diversity, equity and inclusion in their recruitment. Their task was to individually rate 10 fictious CVs where race (signaled by face image) and ethnicity (signaled by name) were systematically manipulated, select the top three candidates, and then discuss their choices in pairs to decide on a single top candidate. We examined whether respondents' choices were associated with the parts of the CV they looked at, and how they reasoned and justified their choices through dialog.

RESULTS: Our results show that non-White CVs were rated higher than White CVs. While we do not observe any statistically significant differences in the ratings between different racial groups, we see a statistically significant preference for Chinese over Iraqi names. There were no significant differences in time spent looking at the CV across different racial groups, but respondents looked longer at Polish names compared to Swedish names when presented next to a White face. The dialog data reveal how respondents assess different CVs by making assumptions about the candidates' job and organizational fit through limited information on the CVs, especially when the qualifications of the candidates are evaluated to be equal.

The field of migration and ethnic studies in the European context has grown in a predominantly White context criticising the power dynamics of Global North and the South. Scholars, both White and non-White, engage in how to break the legacy of the coloniser and the colonised. Our experiences as researchers located outside of the country of “origin” (Japan), which historically and structurally belongs to the North and has acted—and continues to act—as a (neo-)coloniser, simply cannot be captured by dichotomy from the perspective of the researchers from the European and White Global North. The ambiguity and the alienation that we feel in this dichotomised discourse are seldom properly addressed. Based on academic discussions and our own personal experiences, we address layers of internalised personal experiences which cannot be explained through a simple binary of the North and South, White and Black, the coloniser and the colonised. We call for all “allies” from academics from the White majority, but also from academics of colour, to seek awareness towards intersectionality, while paying attention to how systems of privilege and oppression interacts.