Migration and Culture

This report is written by students in the Ethnic and Migration Studies Master’s Programme, part of the Research Institute in Migration, Ethnicity, and Society (REMESO) at Linköping University, based on the Norrköping campus. REMESO is an internationally renowned institute that pursues research in migration and ethnic relations. The Master’s Programme is highly sought after, with students coming from all over the world to attend. Their interest in how migration transforms the world and how it influences other social phenomena has fuelled their work in this publication. In their first year of studies, students take the course Critical Cases in Ethnic and Migration Studies, led by Erik Berggren as course coordinator and Kenna Sim-Sarka. The course is designed for students to apply the theoretical knowledge and experiences gained throughout the first year’s courses to produce articles beyond an academic audience for the broader public. Each REMS report is based around a specific theme, with previous themes including migration and Covid-19, migration and Ukraine, and migration and democracy. The REMS report is one of the many ways in which we, as students, are trained to identify and analyse issues related to migration, integration, and diversity and to make research accessible to a wider audience. This year’s overarching theme is Migration and Culture, sparked by recent developments in Sweden’s and Norrköping’s politics of decreasing and cutting funds for cultural activities. Arts and culture are both areas of expression for migrant communities and people on the move, as well as those fighting against racism, discrimination, and exclusion. The current debate on “Swedish culture” and on a “Swedish cultural canon” recalls monolithic understandings of culture as a natural and immutable construct, contributing to the polarisation of views rather than the multiplication of perspectives and conceptions of it. Like culture, which can be visualised as a tapestry created from di