Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
on the continuous racial production that shapes migrants' diverse positions in a global
context. From the racially privileged Swedish women who often experienced upward
class mobility, I argue that we need to understand migration as a racialized, classed, and
gendered phenomenon. The German sociologist Anja Weiss (2005) argues that depend-
ing on migrants' positions in the transnationalization of social inequality, we must ask
what“quality ofspace” different groupshaveaccess toinordertounderstand howpriv-
ileged migrants view themselves through the frame of migration.
Migration as a concept is fundamentally linked to the incentive to increase one's op-
portunities in life, but Swedish women who migrated to Spain, whether they did so on
a permanent or temporary basis, could either increase their prosperity by taking part in
globalprivilegesreservedforwhitemigrantsabroad,orinsomecasesexperiencedown-
ward class mobility. Yet, they did not experience the negative social costs of discrim-
ination and racism encountered by darker skinned migrants, who may not qualify for
whiteness, but they did have to adjust to Spanish income levels, which were described
as being generally lower than those in Sweden.
Being a White Migrant—An Oxymoron
Fromtheinformants'viewpoint,theconceptualizationofamigrant(immigrantoremig-
rant)wasnotonethatincludedthem.Theirunderstandingoftheterm,anditsdiscursive
context involved discrimination, borders, and racism, elements that they did not exper-
ience from an under-privileged position. The sense of not fitting into the dominant dis-
course of a migrant was obvious in an interview with Rakel, a 53-year-old Swedish wo-
man who has lived in Spain with her husband for four years. Her two adult children still
live in Sweden, but Rakel studies Spanish and plans to stay in Spain for the foreseeable
future even though she has not continued to work here. Despite experiencing a deeper
economic dependency on her husband, she says she is satisfied with her life.
Do you feel like an immigrant in Spain, living like this for the foreseeable
future, or … in some way. What are you?
Catrin:
Yeah, that's a really good question. What am I? Yeah, well what I have been
thinking about many times is that you are incredibly privileged as white,
Swedish,becausewhereveryougothereisnoonewhoiscriticaltowardyou.
Imean,youcangoalloverthewholeworld,andwell,Ihavenevermetany-
thingnegative,anditisthesamethinghere.Imean,we'rereallyimmigrants,
ifyousayso,foreigners,immigrants,okaywearenotforeignerinanegative
sense. I have never been confronted with anything like that from Spaniards;
it's such a difference being Moroccan or Swedish.… I mean, it is so easy in
a way when you ask me what I am, well I actually am an immigrant in their
Rakel:
