Synen på "den andre" i ett segregerat område i Kalmar : en studie gjord ur två utlandsfödda mäns perspektiv

Sammanfattning: Edward Said's book Orientalism (1978) is the most important reference point in the post-colonial theory and describes how the West is dominant over the Orient. There is a clear distinction between "us" and "the other" and the purpose of this study is that, from a postcolonial perspective, focusing on Said's theoretical concepts "the other" and "discourse", examining how two foreign-born people with ethnic backgrounds living in the same place, are looking at themselves, at other foreign-born and native Swedes. My questions to answer this are; “what are the concepts of "the other" and "discourse" and is it possible to use these concepts to examine how foreign-born people are looking at themselves, at other foreign-born and native Swedes in a specific location?”, “who is "the other" in a place where there are almost as many native Swedes as foreign-born?”, and “how do these two foreign-born people with ethnic backgrounds perceive Norrliden as a place and what effect has that place had on their identity?” I have used a post-colonial philosophical ground and a qualitative approach, focusing on two different interviews with two men, living in Norrliden. In Norrliden almost 50% of the inhabitants are foreign-born were both of the interview-persons are feeling safe and secure. They both believe that the place has had an important impact of their lives and their identities, but their identities are just “immigrants” and not their ethnical belongings. Foreign persons often feel that they have no natural place in society and therefore feel that they do not fit in there. Sweden has become a country of "we" and "the other, and one of the interview-persons believes the Swedes to be" the other "in Norrliden, while the other person believes that it is the Kurds. He argues that foreign-born persons will always be "the other", due to the fact that these people will never be Swedish. They both sense that when their own ethnical group, while visiting their home-countries, are questioning them about ethnicity and origin, the result is that none of them feel at home anywhere. Not in their home-countries and not in Sweden. They have no natural place in any of the communities and they feel both constantly as "the other", no matter what country they find themselves in.