But Where Are You Really From? A study about ethnic discrimination in higher education

Sammanfattning: Ethnic discrimination is a poison that can have detrimental effects on its receivers. The current study therefore investigates the occurrence of ethnic discrimination in Sweden’s higher education. To achieve this, semi-structural interviews were held to give insights into the experiences, effects and responses of students with foreign background at Lund University. By thematic sorting of the data, themes were uncovered to then be phenomenologically analysed by applying a conceptual framework. The findings indicate that students with foreign background experience additional stressors, often in the shape of microaggressions, that their ethnically Swedish peers are exempt from. The findings also show that as overt ethnic discrimination is being banished from society, the discrimination has taken a more subtle form, making it more difficult to identify and can therefore occur even in the presence of policy formation. This study concludes that more research needs to be directed in order to fully comprehend the state of ethnic discrimination in institutions for higher education in Sweden.