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Conditional Belonging: Middle-Class Ethnic Minorities in Norway

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Egalitarianism in Scandinavia

Part of the book series: Approaches to Social Inequality and Difference ((ATSIAD))

Abstract

This chapter discusses how Norwegian egalitarianism is played out in specific ways in relation to an emerging segment of middle class ethnic minorities. Based on a study of highly-educated descendants of migrants from Pakistan, the chapter investigates how they work on their social habitus to become accepted as middle class in Norway. The significance of egalitarianism must be studied empirically in relation to particular contexts and segments of society, as social boundaries are classed in specific ways and as class defines the ideals of equality. For middle class ethnic minorities, the need to fit in in order to be seen as equal and to achieve belonging becomes precarious in specific ways in particular moments in time. The term conditional belonging is used to underline how feelings of belonging to Norway co-exists with awareness of the conditionality of this belonging and of not being in control of these conditions.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    There has for instance traditionally been a tendency for low participation in employment and low-status jobs to overlap to some degree with higher valuation of a traditional gender based family form (Stefansen and Farstad 2008).

  2. 2.

    The “Norwegian We ” is of course an imagined community and perhaps a fata morgana dissolving in to thin air when one is trying to capture and deconstruct it. That does however not make the experience of being excluded or the wish to be included less real or significant.

  3. 3.

    Nevertheless, socioeconomic background and parent’s level of education still play an important role in the level and type of education people have.

  4. 4.

    From Statistics Norway, the numbers are per 1 January 2016. Here descendants are defined as Norwegian born to two parents who migrated from Pakistan .

  5. 5.

    Researchers point to a tendency for a polarization among descendants of immigrants; at the same time as more enroll in higher education, there are also a substantial share who do not complete upper secondary (Støren 2010).

  6. 6.

    But still to a lesser degree than women in the majority population (Olsen 2013, 31).

  7. 7.

    This resembles experiences and feelings described in writings on klassereiser; a fear of who you will become and what you must leave behind, the anticipation (and fear) that once you have made that journey it is impossible to return to what was before (Seljestad 2010; Trondman 1994).

  8. 8.

    This was not only experienced by Muslims, but also by the Sikhs and Hindus in my material. They feared that the hatred would be turned towards all visible minorities and immigrants (Aarset 2015; for similar experiences see also McIntosh 2013).

  9. 9.

    However, most majority Norwegians had not feared that theirs or their children’s right to live in Norway would be questioned by their fellow citizens because of their skin color or religious background, in the way Kubra, Karim and several others with ethnic and religious minority backgrounds did in the hours before the terrorist’s identity became known.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. NOVA – Norwegian Social Research, Centre for Welfare and Labour, Oslo and Akershus University College for Applied Sciences, Oslo, Norway

    Monica Five Aarset

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  1. Monica Five Aarset
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept of Social Anthropology, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway

    Synnøve Bendixsen

  2. University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway

    Mary Bente Bringslid

  3. University College Southeast Norway, Skien, Norway

    Halvard Vike

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Aarset, M.F. (2018). Conditional Belonging: Middle-Class Ethnic Minorities in Norway. In: Bendixsen, S., Bringslid, M., Vike, H. (eds) Egalitarianism in Scandinavia. Approaches to Social Inequality and Difference. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-59791-1_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-59791-1_13

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-59790-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-59791-1

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