Friday, June 3, 2011

Late comment on the Axess seminar...

So, I've finally been able to catch up on some work, and got around to see the Axess seminar "Beyond Multiculturalism", an event that was commented widely by the Swedish media. It was a full day seminar, available here.

It had some interesting comments, particularly from dr Johansson Heinö, who correctly pointed out that Sweden has only partly adopted multicultural policies, because while there were some grants to cultural events and so on, the higher echelons of professionals and economic stratas remained rather ethnically clean.

However, for me, it was the absences and silences that were more noteworthy. For instance, looking through the list of presenters (14 in total if I recall correctly), only Sarah Mohammed, representing Glöm aldrig Pela och Fadime, an NGO focusing on protecting people from honour-related persecution, could be said to represent racialized minorities in a wider sense, and Dr Johansson Heinö was the only academic with a clear focus on matters of ethnic relations. Where was SIOS, the largest umbrella organization of ethno-cultural associations in the country? Where was SIMBA, an organization that for more than a decade have excelled in finding entry points in the labour market for African immigrants? And where were all the academics who have studied ethnic relations in Sweden for the past decades? No one representing the Multicultural Centre, or IMER, or any of the research centres actually focusing on these issues was present. Nor was there any representative from frontline workers who try to address segregation on the labour market on a daily basis (Sara Mohammed being the exception).

If this seminar was organized in North America, it would have been unthinkable to exclude NAACP in the US, or the Metropolic Research Centres in Canada, and yet, the equivalent actors were not even on the guest list, from what I could see on the footage.

This lack of experience came across in the discussions, which drifted towards polemics against some left wing form of multiculturalism that, so it was claimed, is the core problem today because it creates ghetto mentality and a fragmented comunity (echoing Neil Bissoondath in Canada). Personally, I've never seen anyone ague that murder is ok when culturally motivated, but it felt like there was an understated sentiment in the seminar that some left-wing figures would have argued this. Please refer me to a text where such a position is taken.

Indeed, the only person present bringing attention to the issue of discrimination was Ardalan Shekarabi, problem that was otherwise largely ignored during the debate.

Taken in the context of the proposals presented from the centre-right wing parties in Sweden (strongly represented through politicians or think tank supporters), I'm afraid the seminar comes reinforced the momentum in public space where blame is laid on immigrants for problems with integration. Sara Mohammed's comments are illustrative of how this came across. She argued most fervently against the conservative elements of immigrant communities who have constantly enforced the oppression that she is working against, and she was very, and understandably, frustrated with Swedish public authorities accomodating and legitimizing those actors at the cost of those who become victimized.

Now, I understand that Ms Mohammed takes part in the seminar - Swedish immigrant actors are generally underfunded, neglected by the media, and will thus will naturally take any chance to advocate their position when given some public space. Still, the tragic irony is that if this trajectory is pursued, there is a great likelyhood that immigrant actors, immigrant associations, at large will become further de-legitimized and branded as suspect "special interests". If that happens, Sara Mohammad might find, one day, that public funders will withdraw their funding from her organization because it's seen as a less-than-trustworthy by those who have power over funding decisions. This would be quite countr-productive, because I'm confident that the clients Ms Mohammed seeks to support would very likely be better served by her NGO than a less than competent public agency. Indeed, I'd argue that she founded the organization precisely because the Swedish public sector lacks the competence to deal with these issues.

The effects of the seminar have already appeared, of course, an one commentator argues that it is time for the multiculturalist pendulim to swing back. The problem with that conclusion, of course, is that swinging back means a return to paternalist assimilitary policies, which will hardly solve the problem of disempowered immigrant communities, but rather aggravate it. And that's not "moving beyond multiculturalism" at all...

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