scholarly journals ‘I’m Not Swedish Swedish’: Self-Appraised National and Ethnic Identification among Migrant-Descendants in Sweden

Genealogy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 56
Author(s):  
Caroline Adolfsson

As a country of high migration, Sweden presents an interesting case for the study of belongingness. For the children of migrants, ethnic and national identification, as well as ascriptive identity, can pose challenges to feelings of belongingness, which is an essential element for positive mental health. In this article, survey data were collected from 626 Swedes whose parents were born in the following countries: Somalia, Poland, Vietnam, and Turkey. The results show that Poles significantly felt they received more reflective appraisals of ascription than any other group. However, despite not feeling as if they were being ascribed as Swedish, most group members (regardless of ethnic origin) had high feelings of belongingness to Sweden. Overall, individuals who felt that being Swedish was important for their identity indicated the highest feelings of belongingness. Further, individuals across groups showed a positive correlation between their national identification and ethnic identification, indicating a feeling of membership to both. These results mirror previous research in Sweden where individuals’ ethnic and national identities were positively correlated. The ability to inhabit multiple identities as a member of different groups is the choice of an individual within a pluralistic society. Multiple memberships between groups need not be contradictory but rather an expression of different spheres of inhabitance.

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jolien Galle ◽  
Fenella Fleischmann

According to liberal nationalists, sharing a national identity offers a solution to the growing concern that increasing diversity within Western societies might erode solidarity. Based on the national identity framework, a positive relation between peoples’ support for redistribution and their national identification is expected. Partially confirmed among majority group members, the aim of this study is to broaden the perspective and investigate the redistributive attitudes of people with a migration background. Since the social identification of people with a migration background is more complex and tends to be based on belonging to both the nation of residence and a specific ethnic group, we additionally consider the role of ethnic identification. We perform multivariate analyses on data from the Belgian Ethnic Minorities Election Study 2014 (BEMES), a survey conducted among Belgians of Turkish and Moroccan descent. The results confirm our hypothesis about the positive role of national identification. Ethnic identification, on the contrary, is negatively related to support for redistribution and particularly the combination of a low attachment to the country of residence and strong attachment to the country of origin is associated with lower levels of support for redistribution.


2019 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susilo Wibisono ◽  
Winnifred Louis ◽  
Jolanda Jetten

Indonesia has seen recent expansions of fundamentalist movements mobilising members in support a change to the current constitution. Against this background, two studies were conducted. In Study 1, we explored the intersection of religious and national identity among Indonesian Muslims quantitatively, and in Study 2, we qualitatively examined religious and national identification among members of moderate and fundamentalist religious organisations. Specifically, Study 1 (N= 178) assessed whether the association of religious and national identity was moderated by religious fundamentalism. Results showed that strength of religious identification was positively associated with strength of national identification for both those high and low in fundamentalism. Using structured interviews and focus group discussions, Study 2 (N =35) examined the way that self-alignment with religious and national groups develops among activists of religious movements in Indonesia. We found that while more fundamentalist activists attached greater importance to their religious identity than to any other identity (e.g., national and ethnic), more moderate activists represented their religious and national identities as more integrated and compatible. We conclude that for Indonesian Muslims higher in religious fundamentalism, religious and national identities appear to be less integrated and this is consequential for the way in which collective agendas are pursued.


2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 223-294 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karin Carmit Yefet

Abstract The encounter between synagogue and state in Israel’s military context raises a variety of complex questions that defy conventional paradigms. While religious liberty continues to occupy a special place in most liberal democratic thought, the legal and philosophical literature pondering its various dimensions has largely lost analytic sight of the fascinating intersection of military and religion. This article embarks on analyzing the appropriate integration between loyalty to God and to country, and between religious male and secular female soldiers. Evaluating examples of synagogue-state tensions and accommodationist policies, this article explores the manner and extent to which the Israeli military (IDF) responds to the observant soldier’s multiple identities as a religious minority member and a faithful citizen of the larger secular polity. Against this backdrop, the article analyzes the vexed challenges posed to multicultural theory by the equivocal status of the Orthodox community as a numerical minority but “power majority” within the military, and by the IDF’s unique exercise of multiculturalist protection, termed herein “external restrictions,” imposed on majority group members. It concludes that the ongoing “religionization” of the IDF through the 2002 “Appropriate Integration” regulation has served as a powerful counterforce to gender equality, fostering a growing practice of female exclusion through which women are disenfranchised from core, non-negotiable protections of citizenship. The article identifies as the prime casualty of this aggressive multicultural accommodation not only secular women’s hard-won equality of opportunity, but also the very rights and status of minority women within their own religious community.


2012 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-70
Author(s):  
Rulli Nasrullah

It is interesting to look at the Head of Criminal Investigation statement of the Indonesian National Police Commissioner General Ito Sumardi (Kompas, 22/9/2010), which warns that the crime of terrorism is closely related to ideology. Sociologist Van Dijk (1993) states that ideology is basically a mental system that is exchanged, represented both in the level of discourse and action to achieve certain goals or desires in a groups (defi ned as the system of mental representations and processes of group members). Why (technology) Internet so powerful in spreading the message of terrorism? First, the interaction happens on internet can be done anywhere and anytime. Second, Internet users in Indonesia, which is increasingly growing in number, allows access to the site or content to be easily obtained terrorism. Third, Internet medium provides access not only cheap but free. Fourth, the Internet allows anyone to construct new identity. In a fact proves that the identities of individuals in cyber world are individuals who have two possibilities, it could be the same or different identities as in the real world. Furthermore, the individual does not only have one identity per se on the internet, they could have multiple identities as well as different characteristics from each other. In according to Gilmore (1996), those on the Internet nobody knows you at all, not either knows your race or your sex. This is the opportunities that could be used by the perpetrators of terrorism to spread the ideology of terrorism and violence in the name of religion without worried their identity will be revealed. Key words: cybermedia, virtual terorism, internet, identity.


2009 ◽  
Vol 103 (2) ◽  
pp. 147-174 ◽  
Author(s):  
MOSES SHAYO

This article develops a model for analyzing social identity and applies it to the political economy of income redistribution, focusing on class and national identities. The model attempts to distill major findings in social psychology into a parsimonious statement of what it means to identify with a group and what factors determine the groups with whom people identify. It then proposes an equilibrium concept where both identities and behavior are endogenously determined. Applying this model to redistribution helps explain three empirical patterns in modern democracies. First, national identification is more common among the poor than among the rich. Second, national identification tends to reduce support for redistribution. Third, across democracies there is a strong negative relationship between the prevalence of national identification and the level of redistribution. The model further points to national eminence, national threats, and diversity within the lower class as factors that can reduce redistribution.


2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Asteria Brylka ◽  
Tuuli Anna Mähönen ◽  
Inga Jasinskaja-Lahti

In this study, we examined whether psychological ownership of the country one lives in (in this case, Finland) mediates the relationship between national identification and intergroup attitudes among majority and minority group members (N = 647; Finns, n = 334, Russian-speaking immigrants, n = 313). Consistent with our predictions, both majority group members and immigrants whose national identification was strong experienced greater psychological ownership of Finland; as expected, this relationship was more pronounced among majority group members. Higher psychological ownership, in turn, was associated with less positive attitudes towards Russian-speaking immigrants among majority Finns but more positive attitudes towards Finns among immigrants. The findings also showed that among immigrants, the relationship between national identification and psychological ownership is likely to be reciprocal, with national identification similarly mediating the association between psychological ownership and attitudes towards members of the national group. No support for such reciprocity between national identification and psychological ownership was found among members of the majority group.


2019 ◽  
Vol 73 (02) ◽  
pp. 329-363 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gautam Nair ◽  
Nicholas Sambanis

AbstractThis article studies the conditions that lead peripheral minorities to identify with the state, their ethnic group, or neighboring countries. We contribute to research on separatism and irredentism by examining how violence, psychological distance, and national status determine identification. The analysis uses data from a novel experiment that randomized videos of actual violence in a large, representative survey of the Kashmir Valley region in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, an enduring site of separatist and irredentist conflict. We find that a strong regional identity is a counterweight to irredentism, but violent repression by the state can push members of the minority to identify with an irredentist neighbor. Violence increases perceived distance from the nation and reduces national identification. There is suggestive evidence that these effects are concentrated among individuals with attributes that otherwise predict higher levels of identification with the state. Information about integrative institutions and increased national status brought about by economic growth is insufficient to induce national identification in a context where psychological distance from the nation is large.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Que-Lam Huynh ◽  
Thierry Devos

A robust relationship between perceived racial discrimination and psychological distress has been established. Yet, mixed evidence exists regarding the extent to which ethnic identification moderates this relationship, and scarce attention has been paid to the moderating role of national identification. We propose that the role of group identifications in the perceived discrimination–psychological distress relationship is best understood by simultaneously and interactively considering ethnic and national identifications. A sample of 259 Asian American students completed measures of perceived discrimination, group identifications (specific ethnic identification stated by respondents and national or “mainstream American” identification), and psychological distress (anxiety and depression symptoms). Regression analyses revealed a significant three-way interaction of perceived discrimination, ethnic identification, and national identification on psychological distress. Simple-slope analyses indicated that dual identification (strong ethnic and national identifications) was linked to a weaker relationship between perceived discrimination and psychological distress compared to other group identification configurations. These findings underscore the need to consider the interconnections between ethnic and national identifications to better understand the circumstances under which group identifications are likely to buffer individuals against the adverse effects of racial discrimination.


Behaviour ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 138 (6) ◽  
pp. 741-756 ◽  
Author(s):  
Klaus Zuberbühler ◽  
Dana Uster

AbstractIn their natural West African rainforest habitat, Diana monkeys continuously produce high rates of a close-range clear-sounding call, but the function of this behaviour is unknown. In other primate species, close-range calls are typically given in socially relevant situations, for example, to gain access to grooming partners or food. Quite contrarily, we tested a number of hypotheses and found that Diana monkey 'clear' calls primarily function to avoid predation. Call rates were significantly elevated when predation threat was high, for instance when the visibility was poor, when the group spread was large, when the group was not associated with other monkey species, or after alarm calls. Call rates were not significantly elevated, however, in circumstances of high social competition, for instance when the group spread was small, during resting phases, while feeding on clumped food sources, or when foraging in the periphery where inter-group encounters were more likely to occur. Calling was contagious in that calls typically elicited vocal responses from out-of-sight group members within a few seconds. Because of this, callers can effectively monitor a much larger area than is visually accessible to single individuals, suggesting that Diana monkey clear calls act as an essential element in a mutualistic system of co-ordinated vigilance.


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