Gendered racism and the production of cultural difference: Media representations and identity work among "immigrant youth" in contemporary Sweden

The aim of this article is to reflect upon the racialized construction of "cultural difference" and its repercussions on "immigrant" youth living in Sweden. Drawing from critical scholarship on ethnicity and racism, as well as from postcolonial feminist theory, the first part of this article surveys and analyses hegemonic racialized discourses in mainstream media and the gendered manifestations of this discourse. With reference to my own research, the second part points to some of the ways in which these discourses play out in the lives of "immigrant" youth living in Sweden.