ABSTRACT
Bureaucracy personnel in Haninge frequently perceived Iranians as "similar but different." The socio-economic backgrounds of many Iranians in Sweden are rather different from those of many "typical" refugees from other parts of the world. Staff complaints that Iranians could be demanding sometimes went a step further to complain about Iranian lack of gratitude for the help they received. Ingratitude is a theme that has surfaced frequently in Sweden in connection with the refugee immigration. Some aspects of Iranian behaviour were not classed as ambiguously similar but were perceived as radically different from a putative Swedish or Western cultural norm. Many Iranians have social networks that link them to compatriots in France, Germany, the UK, USA and further afield and it has gradually become easier for Iranians to return to Iran to visit. However, despite their mixture of the familiar and the strange, Iranians are not exactly equivalent to Simmel's strangers.
