Class, race – and place: immigrants’ self-perceptions on inclusion, belonging and opportunities in Stockholm and Barcelona

ABSTRACT

Based on eighty-one in-depth interviews with immigrants and stakeholders performed in Stockholm and Barcelona, this article examines whether the relationship to place can mitigate the negative effects of rejection that racialized immigrants and minorities perceive from the ethnic majority society. The immigrant respondents’ perceptions and lived experiences of exclusion and discrimination lend support to the argument that it is necessary to link race and class in order to understand the particular “immigrant disadvantage,” but also reflect how attachment to the city or neighbourhood where they live can contribute to a sense of belonging: the respondents overall feel more included in Barcelona, where every day interethnic contacts are more frequent than in Stockholm.

KEYWORDS:

• Race
• class
• place
• inclusion
• discrimination
• belonging

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

ORCID

Zenia Hellgren http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1557-3779

Notes

1 It should be noted that “race” in this article is understood entirely as a social construct. Racialization refers to the negative values attributed to physical features that define visible minorities as different in relation to the ethnic majority.

2 In this article the term “immigrant” refers to people of non-western origin who are likely to be categorized as immigrants, regardless of whether they have migrated or not.

3 This study is part of the author’s postdoctoral research project Immigrants’ Perceptions on Integration in Two Institutional Frameworks, Sweden and Spain, concluded in 2016 and funded by the research foundation ahlstromska.se/Stockholm University.

4 Unlike the other groups, “Muslim” is indeed a religious and not a geographical category. However the most salient Muslim immigrant groups in Spain (Moroccans) and in Sweden (Kurds) do not have a common geographic origin, but are affected by the same kinds of prejudice based on being identified as “Muslims,” regardless of whether they are religious or not. What is relevant here is thus being cast as Muslim, not actually being a practicing Muslim.