ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book argues that the logic of bureaucracy – especially models of the person and forms of classification – resonates with how the figure of the Muslim is represented in Europe, and specifically Sweden today. It addresses the complicity between mundane bureaucratic practices and the demonisation, or at least awakening of suspicion, against a category of people. The book looks at the logic of bureaucratic work and ethos, in and outside public-sector bureaucracies, and argues that this logic resonates with the cultural representations surrounding Muslims, and that it can be complicit in their othering. It examines how notions of culture have been presented in immigrant policy. The book provides information on Haninge, the municipality where much of the fieldwork was carried out, the political situation there, as well as the organisation of public-sector bureaucracies.
