Social Integration and New Realities in the Swedish Welfare Society

This article argues that there is a discrepancy between the perception of social realities held by professionals of welfare (school teachers and social workers) in Sweden and the social realities of migrants, especially migrants depending on social assistance. The views held by professionals are rooted in an old model of social integration within the framework of the nation-state. This perception contrasts with the life conditions, expressed here in the consumption practices of migrant families who, in their daily life, are linked to both local and transnational places. Consumption is an “old question” that has been linked both to poverty and immigration. The article is focusing not on consumption as such; instead on consumption as an illustration of the mismatch existing between the professionals’ view and the migrants’ description of their own consumption. The analysis is based on a qualitative study including interviews with migrant families and welfare officers in a neighbourhood in Malmoe, a city in the South of Sweden with some 300,000 inhabitants, of which 29 % are born outside Sweden.

Kultdissenz und umstrittene «Nation»: Der Totenkult um die Kommunarden von 1871 in Paris aus vergleichender Perspektive

Mit der Anbringung einer Marmorplakette am Mur des Fédérés auf dem Pariser Friedhof Père Lachaise 1908 zum Gedenken an die Ermordeten des Communeaufstandes von 1871 endete eine seit den frühen 1880er Jah­ren konfliktbeladene Initiative zum öffentlichen Totenkult. Seine linken Verfechter stilisierten die Kommune zum Referenzpunkt für die emanzipatorisch-egalitäre Nation. Von diesem Deutungsmuster distanzierte sich der regierende 'opportunisme' allerdings energisch. Konfliktträchtig blieb auch die rituelle Praxis des Totengedenkens auf dem Père Lachaise in Form politischer Demonstrationen linker Gruppierungen, die jedoch ihrer heterogenen Struktur wegen über einen punktuellen Protest kaum hinausgelangten. So blieb der Mur des Fédérés ein umstrittener Ort des Totenkults, für seine Verteidiger Symbol einer radikal-sozialistischen Zielutopie, für seine Gegner gleichsam memoriale Bürde bei dem Versuch, die Commune aus dem Gedächtnisvorrat der französischen Nation zu verbannen. Im Vergleich mit den erfolglosen Kultversuchen um die Märztoten in Berlin seit den 1880er Jahren tritt einmal mehr zutage, dass der politisierte Totenkult programmatisch wie rituell-symbolisch als Vehikel für den Entwurf nationaler Geschichtsbilder dienen konnte.

Book review of “Germany in Transit: Nation and Migration, 1955-2005”. 588 pages, University of California Press, 2007, by Deniz Göktürk, David Gramling and Anton Kaes (eds.)

Though migration is an age-old feature of human activity, driven by various circumstances, its current place in the midst of global dynamics and the phenomenon of globalization is becoming increasingly critical. International immigration and its regulation have been largely shaped by the policies in the receiving countries, often determining preferences for nationality cohorts and work skills to satisfy their labor and human capital requirements. When immigration has been necessitated by political strife, host countries have displayed immense magnanimity as well. However, the growing realization of resource limitations and the strange quirks of cultural pluralism are in turn creating waves of dissonance. Literature and the media are now replete with an in depth look into the immigration debate in various nations of the world in trying to seek new directions and satisfactory solutions.

Simon Chesterman, One Nation Under Surveillance – A New Social Contract to Defend Freedom Without Sacrificing Liberty

Oxford University Press 2011, ISBN 978-0-19-958037-8