ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the content of Swedish policy statements surrounding immigration over the last 40 years. It focuses on how ethnic cultures – their imagined impact on individual choice and the likelihood that they will lead to socially and culturally divisive ethnic group development – have worried successive Swedish governments since the 1980s. Any signs that "groupness," in the sense of ethnic pluralism, is developing are perceived as a potential threat to social peace, and, as the government White Paper of 1990/91 argues, antithetical to individual choice. The concerns surrounding the hijab clearly reflect the opinions expressed in the 1990 to 1991 White Paper quoted earlier about the risks of reifying groups and the impact of culture on individual choice. Woman justified the Hijab Call as a gesture of support for the right of women to wear whatever kind of clothing they choose in public places without fear of attack.
