ABSTRACT
Since the mid-1980s, a debate has raged among social scientists about the patterns of marginalization and poverty on the European Continent. In many countries, including Sweden, development towards a ‘post-industrial’ society and new economic policies has implied growing social polarization. Although Sweden is a relatively prosperous country, increasing social exclusion has pushed a certain number of groups into marginalization, and ultimately into segregation (Sernhede 2002). Prominent in the debate have been the ghetto-like areas of Rinkeby (Stockholm), Angered (Gothenburg) and Rosengård (Malmö). The media discourse often demonizes the conditions of life in the ghetto-like areas so that, both inside and outside them, fear and insecurity are created. The areas are sometimes stigmatized and portrayed as dangerous and hostile environments. The people living in these districts have to deal with these conceptions of their local communities, as well as with discourses of exclusion and alienation (Hammarén 2008). We can see a moral panic based on stereotypes regarding criminality, race, culture and religious antagonisms, which additionally worsen conditions for people who are already sidetracked by relative poverty and alienation. In the Swedish cities of Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö, we find the largest proportion of young people with an immigrant background in districts characterized by high degrees of unemployment, social welfare dependency and relative poverty (Andersson 1998, Sernhede 2005). In order to understand this frame of reference, the following description will focus on the semantic, historical, political, juridical and socioeconomic conditions of young adult immigrants in Sweden.
