Import: Ungdomar skapar etniska kategoriseringar

Abstract

Contemporary ethnicity research agrees that ethnicity, like other identity categories, is a social construct.
In this article I aim to illustrate how youth in a segregated junior high school on the outskirts of Stockholm,
humorously use the term import to categorize newly arrived immigrants. Although the term refers to
physical movement it is mainly concerned with matters of style and behavior. The term is, however, open,
fluid and inclusive as the youth themselves can, in a playful manner, move in and out of the category. The
overarching study, of which this article is part, is based on a yearlong fieldwork following two eight grade
classes where all the students have the experience of migration within their families.