What an ethnic lens can conceal: the emergence of a shared racialised identity position among young descendants of migrants in Sweden

The article problematises the use of the ethnic lens in research on the young descendants of migrants. It discusses methodological and theoretical insights derived from an interview study on young people from the same neighbourhood in Stockholm, Sweden – the majority of whom had parents with varying ethnic identifications. Because the study did not use any one particular ethnic group as an entry point, it illuminates processes of racialisation that exceed ethnic boundaries and the development of a racialised identity position shared by descendants with different ethnic ties. It thereby contributes to an expanding field of European studies that ethnographically illustrate racialisation of the migrant descendants in different European contexts, and their diverse answers to racialisation. Compared to US experiences, this specific European mode of racialisation limits the range of identity positions offered to a higher extent and furthermore positions a wider span of people as non-white. By focusing on the relationship between how people are represented and how they perceive themselves the article further questions the transnational perspective as an alternative means for circumventing the ethnic lens. The incorporation of a transnational perspective in this research was namely perceived by the participants as ascriptions of ethnic otherness.