Racial Discrimination of the Afro-Swedish Population and the Swedish Labour Market
Hadija Suleiman
University of Eastern Finland
Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies
Master’s Thesis in Sociology
Supervisor: Dr Anni Ranniko
October 2020
Abstract UNIVERSITY OF EASTERN FINLAND
Faculty Department
Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies
Department of Social Sciences Author
Hadija Suleiman Title
Racial Discrimination of the Afro-Swedish Population and the Swedish Labour Market
Main Subject Type of Thesis Date Number of pages
Sociology Master’s Thesis October 2020 75 +1(appendix)
Abstract
The current research aims to create possibilities for understanding and resolving the increasing trends of racial discrimination and prejudice towards the Afro-Swedish population in their individual and everyday level, labour marker level, and state level, in the Swedish context.
This research study has been distributed into five chapters- Introduction, Literature Review, Methodology, Data Findings and Analysis, Discussion, & Conclusion and Recommendations.
These chapters concentrated on the conceptual understanding of the topic and dealt with the research question about the basic knowledge about the racial discriminations against the Afro- Swedish population. The core theoretical foundation and related concepts of Afro-Swedish population discrimination in the context of employment opportunities, salary and pay-gap, access of people with an African background in the high-status and low-status jobs, and the overview of existing researches into the racial discrimination in the Swedish labour market and workforce are integral part of this thesis. Application of qualitative methodology and the data collection process is initiated to meet the gap identified from the former chapter. Empirical evidences are collected through interviews from Afro-Swedish population, to map out the situations that Afro-Swedish population faces in the labour market and society, in comparison to the rest of the Swedish population. Central findings of this research aimed to prevent the practice of racism at individual and everyday level, labour marker level, and state level, in Sweden. The conclusion and recommendations are meant to present an overview of the whole research and finally includes a number of recommendations for the Government bodies and decision-makers.
Keywords: Racial Discrimination, Swedish Labour Market, Black African Origin, Migrant Responsibility, Immigrants Africans, Afro-Swedes
Acknowledgement
Conducting this research has been one of the significant experiences of my academic life as it has remarkable contribution to enhance my analytical skills and knowledge base to a great extent. It has given ample opportunities to face diverse challenges in the process of research and overcome them effectively. This research would have remained incomplete without the valuable guidance of professor Laura Assmuth and Dr Anni Rannikko, and I would like to give a special appreciation to my Supervisor Dr Anni Rannikko for her continuous support and guidance that has encouraged me to execute the thesis thoroughly. I would also like to thank my husband and my kids, my peers and friends who have been great assistance and inspiring throughout my journey in this research.
CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION TO THE RESEARCH PAPER AND ITS RELEVANCE ... 1
1.1 Research Background ... 1
1.2 Research Aim ... 5
1.3 Research Question... 6
1.4 Research Structure ... 6
2. THEORETICAL UNDERSTANDING OF RACISM AND INTROSPECTING RACISM IN THE SWEDISH LABOUR MARKET ... 8
2.1 Theories of Racism ... 8
2.1.1 Structural Racism... 10
2.1.2 Migrant Responsibility ... 11
2.1.3 Critical Race Theory (CRT) ... 13
2.2. Racism in Sweden ... 14
2.2.1 Structural Racism in Sweden ... 15
2.2.2 Post-colonial Politics ... 18
2.2.3 Racism towards people with African Background ... 20
2.3. Racism in Swedish Labour Market ... 21
2.3.1 Vertical and Horizontal Segregation ... 22
2.3.2 African Immigrants in the Swedish Labour Market ... 25
2.3.3 Labour market Policies in Sweden ... 26
2.4 Immigration Policies and Political scenario in Sweden ... 27
3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND DATA COLLECTION ... 30
3.1 Qualitative Interviews ... 30
3.2 Data Analysis ... 32
3.3 Ethical concerns ... 33
3.4 Research Limitations... 34
4. RESEARCH FINDINGS AND CRITICALLY ANALYSIS ... 35
4.1. Racism in Individual and Everyday Level ... 35
4.2 Racism in Labour Market Level ... 40
4.3 Racism in State Level ... 45
5. EVALUATIVE DISCUSSIONS IN ORDER TO PREVENT RACISM ... 51
5.1 Age-old Beliefs and Racism ... 51
5.2 Abolishing Inhumane Practices ... 53
5.3 Preventing Racism ... 56
6. CONCLUSIONS AND EFFECTIVE RECOMMENDATIONS... 59
6.1 Conclusions ... 59
6.2 Recommendations ... 63
Reference List... 65
Appendix: Interview Themes ... 77
Theme 1: In what ways are the African people are subjected to racism in Sweden (everyday level) ... 77
Theme 2: Racism towards African people manifested in the Swedish society ... 77
Theme 3: Racism faced by the African immigrants in the Swedish labour market... 77
Theme 4: Swedish Society, state legislation and politics curbing racism (prevention of racism) ... 77
List of Figures
Figure 1 African immigrants in Sweden, 2019 ... 3 Figure 2 Pay Gap for Afro-Swedish population ... 42 Figure 3 Average disposable income for ASSA, ASSw, REST ... 54
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1. INTRODUCTION TO THE RESEARCH PAPER AND ITS RELEVANCE 1.1 Research Background
The historical development of racism in Sweden is radically different from countries in South Africa, USA and Brazil which is largely influenced by the age-old history of close relations of the asymmetry occurring between black Afro-Swedish and European Swedish, this is because the case of African immigrants in Sweden is much of a recent development. The system of domination in Sweden was characterized by the master- slave relationship where the master class is largely known as “white” whereas the slaves were denoted as “black” (Eliassi, 2017). Such an approach of slavery has been considered as the major cause of racism. This was sustained by the complex networks of institutional structures, which were established the trend of marginalising the blacks and treat them differently from whites. Racism in Sweden intersects with alternative power structures such as class and gender (Scott, 2015). Black women and Black men1 are treated, spoken about and regarded as well as discriminated in different ways. The Black Africans who come from a working-class background are confronted with adverse living conditions (Scott, 2015). Hence, racism in Sweden is inherently intersectional.
Racism or discrimination towards people from African background is based on their skin colour, with total negation to their equivalent qualification. According to Schierup et al., (2018), racism is a technology that has been developing continuously and time that can be further reproduced in various forms. This statement is significantly essential in deriving racism in Swedish society, particularly where racism is associated with moral shortcomings and ignorance. In a broader sense, the concept of Afrophobia as stated by the Afro-Swedish Organisation or the Swedish organisations is identified
1 Black women and Black men with capital B for Afro origins in Sweden
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in terms of the black people being discriminated across different sectors in the society, like in the domain of housing market and the labour market (ENAR, 2014; Ehrenstråhle, 2016). This has a noteworthy contribution in today's situation where only a few people are found to acknowledge their racial discrimination towards the people from an African background.
Till date, not much of the researches have been done on the racial prejudice that the culturally sensitive Swedish society holds towards the Africans. According to the report of Jürgensen (2020) for Statista, current migrants from Africa in Sweden have been noted as follows:
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Figure 1 African immigrants in Sweden, 2019
Source: Jürgensen (2020)
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According to Nana Osei-Kofi et al. (2018), historically the Africans were represented as the inferior and that the relations between Africans and Swedes were hierarchical. Sweden has always colonised Africans and are still involved in the process of transatlantic them into low category jobs (Jansson, 2017). However, the argument raised on the claims that colonisation and slavery do not have an elaborate explanation of the historical statistics of Swedish racism. Rather, it points out that colonisation and slavery generated a system of racial domination in Sweden which was significantly influenced by the local conditions. Moreover, in the current era, the income of the Afro- Swedish population in the labour market depends on their skin colour, irrespective of possessing equivalent qualifications (Garcy and Vågerö, 2012; Dunlavy et al., 2018;
Wolgast et al., 2018).
The cross-border immigration has aggravated the age-old stereotype of discrimination and exclusion of people with ethnic minority background (people from African background) if it produces undesired population. Such a situation has resulted in surfacing racism across the country. According to several eminent authors, racism is a dynamic process that has developed from a combination of structural and institutional forces and collective actions of agents in the country (Helgesson et al., 2017; Dunlavy et al., 2018; Hervik, 2018). It can also be observed that racism is historically embedded and tied towards the development of a modern national state. This research attempts to analyse the social relations between the immigrants of Africa and “native Swedes” and the occurrence of discrimination through racism that has taken a toll on the culturally sensitive country like Sweden. It has been argued by Anderson (1983) that the national state discourses and significant country boundary have created a distinction between
“Us” and “Them” that portrays the immigrants from the non-European countries as others. Additionally, such immigrants mostly become the exclusive targets of the
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institutionalised practices of exclusion. However, whether such actions have yielded uniformity in racial identity will be verified further in the research process.
1.2 Research Aim
This thesis aims at investigating and analysing how African people who are subjected to racism evaluate the situation in Sweden and the ways through which racism is being identified in the structural level of their everyday life.
Moreover, Sweden is referred to as a culturally sensitive country that believes strictly in its own culture, and hence has a significantly low tolerance for immigrants who belong to different cultures and societies (Lamson, 2013). About the fact that the African immigrants experience negative ethnic stereotyping, which starts from segregation and leads to exclusion and marginalization due to their skin colour, hair colour and other differences that practically and discursively become the most prevalent form of racism in Sweden (Miller, 2017). The rationale of this research mainly grounds on the fact that racism today is not just the continuation from past. At present, the result of the globalising effect and capitalistic developments has brought about several uncertainties. The structural variations in the political and economic transformation in Sweden and several other countries are held responsible for causing the anxieties among the host population due to the presence of the Afro-European immigrants (Jungar and Peltonen, 2017). It could be argued that the circumstances stated above have prompted the stimulation of historically sedimented racism.
Thus, this research remains concerned about the ways structural racism towards African people manifests in their everyday life and particularly in the Swedish labour market. The core approach remains focused in understanding the initiatives undertaken by the Swedish government as well as the state legislation formed to curb
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the situation. The evaluation of the strategies that might lead to the mitigation of imminent trends of racism within the culturally sensitive Swedish society is also an integral part of this research.
1.3 Research Question
The main research question is:
How African people who are subjected to racism evaluate the situation in Sweden and how racism that has been proved to exist in the structural level manifests in their everyday life?
This question leads to few sub-categorical questions like:
• How structural racism towards African people manifests in their everyday life and particularly in the Swedish labour market?
• How African people who are subjected to racism evaluate the initiatives undertaken by the Swedish government as well as the state legislation formed to curb the situation?
• How African people who are subjected to racism evaluate strategies that might lead to the mitigation of imminent trends of racism within the culturally sensitive Swedish society?
1.4 Research Structure
The thesis is segregated into specific divisions so that each of the research perspectives are observed and studied in detail. The content of the chapters are divided into five chapters. The first chapter describes the basic preface of the topic to evaluate the theme of research. This chapter highlights the research aims and objectives that are useful for better evaluation of the topic. Chapter two undertakes the secondary research
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by evaluation of the concepts and theories about the specific area of study. The researcher illustrates earlier research and theoretical perspectives relevant to the research theme. The critical analysis of the crucial perspectives has helped in researcher to identify both the pros and cons of the topic. In chapter three, the sequential flow of research helps in obtaining a better collection of data about the specific area of research.
This chapter of research methodology acts as the guiding path that leads to better analysis of the topic and improved gathering of data. Hence, the selection of appropriate research design approaches and philosophy is crucial in the process of improved collection and analysis of the data. Moreover, the choice of appropriate research techniques is presented with adequate justification to select suitable tools in the process.
In chapter four, the researcher attempts to evaluate the sources based on the data and information collected to generate appropriate results specific to the topic of concern. The data thus obtained is analysed by using the qualitative methods and techniques based on interviews provided by the participants. The attained data are categorically distributed under three levels of speculations. These are in relation with individual and everyday level, labour marker level, and state level.
The next chapter is an evaluative discussion about the derivations attained from the theoretical and the empirical initiatives led by the researcher. In this section the individual and everyday level, labour marker level, and state level are analysed in order to prevent the activities of racism in Sweden.
The last chapter is the concluding part of the whole dissertation that presents the overview of the dissertation. This chapter includes the evaluative results and outcomes of the analysis which will further be linked with the research objectives.
Moreover, based on pre-defined research objectives and its link with the results helps the researcher to determine the level of success achieved.
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2. THEORETICAL UNDERSTANDING OF RACISM AND INTROSPECTING RACISM IN THE SWEDISH LABOUR MARKET
2.1 Theories of Racism
Pierre van den Berghe (1987) defined racism in his, ‘The Ethnic Phenomenon’
as the set of beliefs that transmit organic differences (whether imagined or real) genetically between the human groups. Such differences are intrinsically associated with the absence or presence of socially relevant characteristics and abilities. Thus, the presumed differences form the legitimate basis of undesirable disparity between the human groups socially demonstrated as races (Mulinari and Neergaard, 2012).
According to Peter Hervik (2018), racism is the result of a formative articulation to illustrate the connection between the “West” and the “non-West” or the ‘other’ or the colonized people. Hervik (2018, p. 19) further adds that the term racism is a derivation to represent Western civilization and modernity. While illustrating the reason for such development Hervik (2018) noted that the historical trends of migrations and the excessive inclusion of migrants in last two decades into the Nordic region has led to xenophobic feelings among the local population. On humanitarian grounds offering shelters to the migrants makes sense to the Nordic but some innumerable hurdles and troubles have raised intolerance against the migrants in the Nordic region, and Sweden is no specific case (Hervik, 2018).
A different view of racism has been presented by W.J. Wilson in his book Power, Privilege and Racism (1972) as the ideology of racial exploitation or racial domination that incorporate belief based on inherent biological inferiority or culture of a particular race and utilize these beliefs to prescribe and justify unequal or inferior treatment for that particular group. Again, about the declining significance of race (Mulinari and Neergaard, 2014) , Wilson demonstrated racism or the system of racial
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belief as to the ideologies or norms of racial domination that regulate or reinforce the patterns of racial inequalities. In the similar context, the concept of racism as identified specifically by Hervik (2018, 26) in relation with traditional Nordic ideologies for the establishment of social egalitarianism, is all about eloquent metaphorical representation of the local Swedish community towards other communities in terms of 'discrimination, racialization, and colour racism'. As stated by Schierup and Ålund (2011) from the idealist view classically, racism is defined as a set of beliefs or ideas that have the potential to lead the individuals to develop stereotypical prejudice i.e. negative outlook and approach towards a specific group of people. As a result, such prejudice approach induces the individuals to discriminate against the racial minorities (Schierup and Ålund, 2011). On a familiar note, Camilla Haavisto (2018) used the term 'European Whiteness’ as the only structured population that can normalise the prejudices of racism. Thus, there has to be the advent of tolerance and negation towards the acts of
‘dehumanisation of Blackness’. However, such solutions can hardly gain practical implementation, as the context of tolerance is a matter of complete social reformation.
Though Haavisto (2018) suggested the act of politicising every individual life in relation with national growth remains in concern of being rich and being part of
‘European Whiteness’, it leads to dehumanised behaviour in a very obvious manner.
There is a developed sense of superiority that is hard to get departed with.
However, even though the notion of racial domination and racial exploitation has been included in the context of racism, an autonomous and structural interpretation of the race conflict and race relations has not been developed. Rather, the race relations are observed to be dependent on larger changes in the society, mostly beyond the interracial arena of urbanization, civil wars, revolution, industrialization or immigration. Hence, racial ideologies tend to vary with structural changes.
10 2.1.1 Structural Racism
According to Lawrence and Keleher (2004, p. 1), Structural Racism gets defined as
‘the normalization and legitimization of an array of dynamics – historical, cultural, institutional and interpersonal – that routinely advantage whites while producing cumulative and chronic adverse outcomes for people of colour.’
On the other hand, Institutional Racism comes into existence among institutions as-
‘…discriminatory treatment, unfair policies and inequitable opportunities and impacts, based on race, produced and perpetuated by institutions (schools, mass media, etc.)’ (Lawrence and Keleher, 2004, p. 1).
As illustrated by Hervik (2018) racism has grown and has occupied an integrated position among all the other social structures, as well as political forces.
There is an incompatible difference between the uses of the term racism. Variations are noted while referring to inferiority, inequality, nationalism, superiority. Such variations lead to the emergence of neo-racism that is based on the structured socio-cultural diversity (Hervik, 2018, p. 15). This is a definite point of view that offers a wider perspective to understand the term racism in a structured society, here Sweden.
According to the research led by Keskinen and Andreassen (2017), there is a close interconnection between migration, racialisation and the advent of postcolonial perspectives towards structural racism. These scholars stated that the structurally institutionalised racial minorities are ‘increasingly gaining foothold in the wider public sphere, a tendency most visible in Sweden’ (Keskinen and Andreassen, 2017; p.65). In the same context, wigerfelt and Wigerfelt (2014) connected the structured existence of
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racism with the right-wing groups of Sweden. Apart from Sweden, all the other countries of the Nordic regions, which are- Northern Europe and the North Atlantic;
referred to the term 'racism' as a tabooed word.
According to Sabrina Pendergrass (2017), the concept of racial regime provides the materialistic and structural evaluation to discrimination and inequalities. Moreover, it leads to the conceptualisation of race which is comprehended as the unstable or fluid category of society which are continuously transformed by the political, social and cultural conflict. In response, Runfors (2016) proposed the concept of migrant respectability as a sensitive concept that explores the strategies of racialized groups towards their experience of discrimination and exploitation. A significant focus is rendered on the shared values within the society of majorities via the prism of respectability to provide social justice to the struggles of unprivileged groups.
As per the understanding of Irastorza and Bevelander (2017), the concept of migrant respectability is a form of understanding the subject positions. This creates a platform of dynamic and fluid understanding of migrants’ respectability by using the power of cultural hegemony and classification, whereas the Mulinari and Neergaard, (2019) noted the contradictory discourses as specific subject position that acts upon the forms of strategies and subordination of resistance and negotiations.
2.1.2 Migrant Responsibility
Dahlstedt and Neergaard (2019) suggested that the immigrants collectively and individually challenge the subject positions that have been prescribed to them by the Swedish racial regime. Correspondingly, these ideological approaches get contradictory with time. This is a kind of serious concern. It needs immediate attention form the branch of state welfare in terms refining the Swedish norms and values.
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Moreover, the specific strategy of connecting issues of respect towards the migrant are noted to be a structural way of attaining selective concepts that emphasize on tendencies instead of the automatic outcomes (Dancygier et al., 2015). The social psychology researches have investigated the processes of collective and individual dis- identification by means of defensive ‘other’ that identifies efforts given by the immigrants by trying to be a part of native population, or efforts made to bounce back the dishonour that has been experienced by them as a member of the subordinate group ((Mulinari and Neergaard, 2019; Dahlstedt and Neergaard, 2019).
In the context of everyday life level, despite the unprecedented growth of Black Middle class, there still exists an unquestionable aspect of racism to the class experience faced by all the black people and other ethnic minorities in several countries. The black middle-class experience everyday life facts differently in comparison to their white counterparts in terms of quality of living, education, income, housing, job opportunities and job satisfaction (Garcy and Vågerö, 2012). The racial minorities are mostly represented among the unemployment sections and lower tiers of the occupational structure. Even though the rate of white-collared occupations has increased substantially, the ethnic minorities are over-represented in the lower ranks of white- collared jobs. Majority of minorities earn less than the whites in all occupations despite having higher credentials and strong educational background (Åslund, Östh and Zenou, 2009). The traditional distinction between the Black and Whites in the job industry persisted even now, where the good jobs were monopolized by the whites whereas the bad jobs were saved for the Blacks. Also, whenever the Blacks and whites worked in similar work fields, whites received wages that are twenty to fifty per cent higher than the Blacks.
13 2.1.3 Critical Race Theory (CRT)
For the need for understanding the racial conditions of Sweden, it is important to understand the relevance of racism as identified through Critical Race Theory (or the CRT). This theoretical introspection offers the capability for the means of identifying the concerns and practices of racism in relation to political power games.
According to Reece (2018), the approach of CRT offers the intractability that gets withstand by the socio-political relevance of considering racism, and also offers insight into the individualistic trend of practising behavioural prejudice. It is the individual practice of inequality that refers to the mind-set of people counted from the ground level of individualistic prejudice to the wide-ranged socio-political platform of maintaining racism in the society (Ray and Seamster, 2016; Ray et al., 2017). CRT clarifies that the sense of dominating people based on their minority existence or otherwise inferior qualities, especially colour of the skin is the chief feature of racism (Branigan et al., 2013). The display of racial hierarchy in this respect is a practice that is generated from individual forefront (Ray and Seamster, 2016). In this reference, Delgado et al., (2012) stated that CRT concentrates on scrutinising the act of conventional establishments that leads to civil rights meant for a specific ethnic group that comes from a determined racial origin. These scholars further illustrated that it is through CRT that the conventional and the traditional ways of structuring civil rights in a particular society can be identified and discoursed. As a result, it becomes very evident that the practices of racial discriminations from the individual to the community and ultimately the state level gets very distinctively detected.
Further, Philomena Essed (2019) agreed to the fact that there is anti-Black racism that in general gets reinforce by the socially structured racist ideologies. The scholar noted that individual belief for maintaining racial hierarchy, and the dominance
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towards the Black peoples is a practised notion of generating lower categorical identity with an adequate amount of humiliations. The approach is not only critical but also a process that has been structured in the racially distributed society. Implementation of CRT in terms of understanding the racial discriminations and the practices of dominance over the inferior communities has been analysed by Derrick Love (2018).
Love argues that there is the need to format progressive mode of legal and expanded jurisprudence, for the establishment of individual and social practices that leads to inequality in the racially dominated society. For instance, by following CRT, the scholar noted that for the Afro-Swedish population, there is an increase of intolerance and thus, the increasing cases of violence in Sweden. This is a domain that needs serious attention and demands radical ways to lead more peaceful social settlements.
2.2. Racism in Sweden
The Sweden Democrats who was formed from the remnants of Neo-Nazi association in the year 1988 has continuously excelled and reprimanded the members for being overtly racist by the implication of violent rhetoric. The official rhetoric used by the Swedish Democrats is no longer counted as coarse racism, but it gets treated as a strategic ideology that intends to distance the party from its primary ideas of racism (which are mainly mediated using the concepts of natural residence, ethnicity, culture and nationality). According to research statistics, a party developed a campaign video during the 2010 elections. This video featured discrimination. There a woman wearing a niqab, another woman wearing a diamond ring, some pushing the baby strollers, and all competing against a light-skinned, grey-haired old migrant woman. This video mainly represents the strategy of SD who discriminate groups against one another specifically the elderly people who are refugees. Surprisingly, the disparity between the
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foreign-born and Swedish men’s party preferences are much larger than the differences observed amongst their female counterparts, which is mainly due to the lower percentage of women who are born in Sweden and voting for the SD. However, the rate of heterogeneity in the category of foreign-born voters is high which should be taken into consideration specifically in the election borne political interest of Sweden (Pasura and Christou, 2018). Based on racialisations constructs and regimes and the articulation of racism by the SDs (Swedish Democrats), the interpellation has a diverse impact on a variety of groups that are formed by foreign-born citizens or immigrants having a foreign background.
The central view about the immigrants appears to be dominated by the two major opposing views by the immigration restrictionists. They argue that people from diverse cultural and ethnic background causes significant problems like crime, unemployment, destabilising of ethnic balances and weaken traditional values. In contrast, the supporters of immigration argue that immigration boosts up the economy and also fulfil the position of responsible job roles with their specialized skills that the native population are inefficient of (Rastas, 2019). Moreover, immigration helps the receiving country to facilitate all the investments made on skilful citizens of sending countries through training and education. However, there are several arguments presented on the increasing inhibition of immigration that has been influenced by humanitarian grounds.
2.2.1 Structural Racism in Sweden
In Sweden, the immigrants are inherently subjected to several restrictions and certain basic types of exclusion are applied for all immigrants within Sweden. The
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people from an African background are restricted from participating in the employment sectors like police or military, and national elections by the ‘right-wing, racist and xenophobic parties’ like Sweden Democrats (SD) (Mulinari and Neergaard, 2019).
However, for this research, the validation of this declaration has been counted under consideration. Several arguments have been raised by the researchers pointing out why the restrictions on immigrants are considered to have a significant influence on the racism practised in Sweden given the situation where the immigration status is temporal. Officially, people no longer hold the status of immigrants in Sweden once they adopt naturally while the process of immigration constitutes the temporal phenomenon (Aman, 2018). However, the restrictions on immigrants in Sweden are largely driven by racism as the phenomenon of racial domination premises on the externalization of distinctive differences. In reality, even after naturalization, the newly turned citizens are continuously treated as immigrants. This is mainly because the children born to immigrant parents are labelled as the second generation or third- generation (Kytölä, 2018). Apart from the formal restrictions, there are several informal restrictions and discrimination formed against the immigrants of which they are legally entitled to. The discrimination of immigrants is said to be based on their cultural differences because the culture or values of immigrants majorly clash with the norms and work ethics of Sweden.
In addition, there are cultural arguments raised based on allegations made by the top officials of government on the increase of theft by immigrants which create a culture of discrimination.
The official policy towards the African minorities and immigrants promotes the ethnic and cultural difference in Sweden. The dominant discourses of Sweden encourage immigration culture as the country's policy recognises and promotes cultural
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diversity among immigrants (Ndukwe, 2017). Another key factor that contributes to increasing disparity and discrimination of the immigrants in Sweden is the fact that belongingness in Sweden is demonstrated based on relational terms. People from Europe are not considered immigrants and their belongingness is identified as “native Swedes” and not as people from the non-European background (Yngvesson, 2015). The Swedish society is unique and the specificity of its historical relations with the Africans exhibits a classic example of racism in modern society. In the Swedish society, racism is grounded on past histories of institutionalised domination (Schierup et al., 2018;
Nofar, 2019). The system of domination that has been generated created a rigid dichotomy by the construction of them and us in Sweden which led to the emergence of the discourse that represents them as inferior to us thus excluding the inferior by establishing a system of structural relations that helps in possible exploitation of the minorities (Schierup et al., 2018; Nofar, 2019).
Mulinari and Neergaard (2019) define managing migrant respectability as the positioning of predominance amongst the migrants. This is done by producing valuable migrants under the provision of institutional as well as structural racism by the formation of subordinated migrant organisations (Mulinari and Neergaard, 2019, pp.
228-232). The members of unprivileged or migrant communities often realize the patterns of socialisation and appropriate control over societal structure, to make adjustments with respectabilities of the migrants. Such a norm in Swedish culture compels the immigrants to become polite to the whites (Swedish citizen), work double, must act according to the norms, and must be able to speak the cultural language (Demissie, 2016).
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This is an oppositional migrant position which is typically associated with the rising domination of Swedish born youths of the migrant parents, while such groups are often organized in autonomous and separatist networks. This particular context is formed based on the mode of refusal to the the structural and systematic racism that mostly emphasizes on the need to challenge and transgress any of the migrant respectability forms. The slogans such as: "your silence will not protect you" inspire the immigrants to adopt this specific subject position that strongly challenges the domination of whiteness at the very core of the nation's system for classifying the rights to be considered as "Swedish" and belong to “Sweden” (Miller,2017). This oppositional migrant positioning is identified as non-respectability or anti-racism.
2.2.2 Post-colonial Politics
The Swedish post-colonial researcher Törngren (2015) has been able to identify the subject position of migrant respectability. In the process, Törngren (2015) further specified about gender equality in terms of base value proposition of the Sweden, differing immigrants from the native population. Both the men and women coming from the migrant background who engages in the public de-identification from its own culture are recognized as the desirable immigrants publicly and they are welcomed as the migrant gatekeepers in their new nation (Törngren, 2015). Such a desirable migrant category of successful respectability recurrently comprising of immigrants who are recognized with the right-wing project in defence of the neo-liberal agenda that rarely acknowledge and mostly make racism an ambiguous agenda (Hübinette and Arbouz, 2019). The migrants are provided with a facade of respectability by presenting public stories of individual success which label racism against the immigrants as a mere obsession.
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A renowned Swedish hip-hop singer Jason Diakite illustrated the anti- discrimination migrant respectability, and also presented a well-framed criticism on the decline and loss of Swedish state welfare. His song “Svarta Duvor och Vissna” in which the lyrics were focused on evaluating a person by the merits instead of the skin colour whereas the song ends with a demand to acknowledge him as a Swedish citizen (Mulinari and Neergaard, 2019). Similarly, Mulinari and Neergaard (2019) referred to the instance of Mustafa Can, who is a popular Swedish journalist, presented a piece on the experiences of his father who was a migrant from Kurdistan, with a working-class background. His article demonstrated that his father had gone through painful circumstances and was compelled to acknowledge, in an attempt to get accepted in Sweden.
In precise context, Mulinari and Neergaard (2019) stated “his father had to stand up in the bus even if there were vacant seats so that the Swedish citizen does not find him as an ignorant, uneducated and impolite migrant worker”. “His father used to work double shifts in Volvo and keep the workplace and toilet clean so that people don’t think that the migrants are dirty. He used to hold the doors open for minutes, make friendly nods so that people do not find the migrants ungrateful.” Such instances embody that Can's father had to consider the hurdles of accepting the difficulties in attaining respectability for migrant to protect the entire community of migrants (Mulinari and Neergaard, 2019). Moreover, the new generation of immigrants in Sweden has realized that being polite or working hard does not offer them equality with the Swedish citizen. The present generation immigrants have searched the latest political rhetoric to confront the notion of tolerance which forms the key to anti- discriminatory and coping migrant respectability (Crockett, 2017). Such an emerging oppositional position is associated with the strategy of anti-racism that decentres
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Swedish (the whites) and seek several means of understanding people (including the immigrants) beyond the harm and realm of racism.
On exploring these varieties in migrant respectability that typically emerges as the response to the racial regime created by Sweden, these approaches mostly avoid pathologizing the immigrants who preferably be active in or support the SD (Social Democrats). Moreover, such frameworks identify and locate the racist migrant respectability of the Swedish informants in which the inclusion procedure of migrants within the nation as an equal citizen is systematically and regularly contested (Mulinari and Neergaard, 2019, pp. 238-240) .
2.2.3 Racism towards people with African Background
Racism in Sweden is divided according to power structures which are based on class and gender. The Africans such as the Black women and Black men are discriminated in different ways. The Black Africans are treated as an underclass background; hence they are confronted with diverse living conditions in comparison to white people from the wealthy family background. According to Pasura and Christou (2018), racism in Sweden is inherently intersectional, however, it is critical to map out how the discrimination is intersectional with class and gender by using statistics.
“Afrophobia” is a concept defined as a kind of hostile behaviour that the migrants face from sub-Saharan African people or other people from the African diaspora. The National Council of Crime in Sweden referred to Afrophobia as the animosity fear or hatred meant over the black people. It leads to an afro phobic reaction against various institutions as well as the population that represents interests related to Afro-Swedish population. The RED (Rights, Equality and Diversity) network that comprises of civil society organizations and seventeen research centres within the EU
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demonstrate Afro-phobia as the wide-ranged negative feeling as well as attitude meant for the African Black people encompassing antipathy, contempt and aversion along with the irrational mode of fear (Miller, 2017). According to Wolgast et al (2018), it is subsequently difficult to empirically demonstrate the type of discrimination and racism is entirely based on the animosity, attitude and hatred within the present state of research. This is because, the suffix “phobia” instigates an individual to think about their inherent irrational fear rather than considering the processes of exclusion, unequal distribution and classification of sources. To combat the exclusion of Blacks or discrimination, people must develop an understanding of the methods that justify the processes of exclusion and discrimination. In this research, "Afrophobia" is demonstrated as the typical form of structural discrimination or racism which has significant impact over the Black people.
2.3. Racism in Swedish Labour Market
Racialization is a collective mechanism of practices and ideas of a specific group of people that produces technology of racism in a certain context and time. In other words, people confined within the classified units are not structured under trans- historical circumstances (Fox et al., 2012). These people are assumed as the enduring units having hereditary characteristics and inherited essence in which the varying classification units based on race, culture, colour, creed, religion of people are assigned to about a certain place and certain time. This criterion specifically includes skin colour, language, name and place of birth, religion, culture, ancestral origin and appearance of a person (Artiles, 2011). For instance, people who have born but not migrated to Sweden are qualified as later generation of the immigrants (Wolgast et al., 2018). Often, a heterogeneous collection of people having distinctive skills, experiences and
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backgrounds along with their ways of being are racialized as the immigrants, whereas their inherited qualities are associated with a distinctive "immigrant identity" to exclude their belonging from a "true" Swedes or "general folks" of Swedish land (Hedlund et al., 2017).
The concept of "racialization" is useful for understanding how a particular social sector within a county is structured in a preferential manner that has existential and material consequences for varying groups of people. Moreover, racialization describes how a city is distinctively segregated in classes of structural racism and co-variance.
Similarly, racialization in the labour market is illustrated about the interactions taking place between certain types of jobs, status position and career pathways (Helgesson et al., 2019). The process of racialization within the labour market of Sweden will be discussed through vertical and horizontal segregation.
2.3.1 Vertical and Horizontal Segregation
Originally, the notion of vertical and horizontal segregation was employed particularly for the gender studies within a gender divided labour market (Tammaru et al., 2016). Horizontal segregation counts the situation where women and men occupy different job roles under a diverse range of employers, they work across diverse fields within an industry or different organizations at different workplaces. In precise, some places are dominated by women and whereas others are by men. Vertical segregation implies to the situation where both the women and men occupy the varying roles in the same field of work, organization, company or industry, but they have a different salary, career opportunities and job position. Generally, in vertical segregation, a systematic pattern of male domination does exist here where the women occupy the lower position and it is practically difficult for them to get promotions in comparison to men
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(Helgesson et al., 2018). In this segment, women hardly occupy any hierarchical or managerial position and have seldom opportunity to advance their career even if they have the same qualification as their male colleagues if not more. As a result, women are found the experience of "glass ceiling" in the places where they work.
About the present study on discrimination and anti-black racism in the labour market of Sweden, the pattern of horizontal segregation in place implies that a large number of Afro-Swedish population are found in specific work fields, workplaces, and organizations whereas rest of the population tends to dominate other professional areas, workplaces or organisations left (Helgesson et al., 2017). In respect to vertical segregation, the pattern implies that it becomes difficult for the Afro-Swedish population in comparison to common population to progress to upper status in correspondence to their level of education within a high salary and high status. The present condition in the Swedes labour market points out that Afro-Swedish population hit the glass ceiling and seldom career progress opportunities in competition with other population even though the identified Afro-Swedish population are more qualified than rest of the Swedish people (Akay, 2016).
A substantial amount of existing literature reports on the position of immigrants or people with foreign background are visible in the labour market of Sweden. The research conducted by Akay (2016) was on discrimination people with foreign background or racism against the Africans on the labour market of Sweden. It has focused on the horizontal segregation primarily. A major portion of such researches was specifically conducted in the field of "integration" that has presented the aims and objectives of government in this field and also provides direction in the context of knowledge production. Such research is relevant in itself, but it does not have much implication on the present report. This project will precisely focus on the changes that
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have taken place during the start of the 21stcentury when “discrimination” has received multifaceted attention from the various research groups.
The research on "discrimination" and "racism" has primarily focussed on investigating the access of people into the labour market that supposedly referred to as the horizontal segregation. For instance, people with foreign background and had lived for an average of 20 years in Sweden took nearly 10 to 15 years to enter the Swedish labour market (Kulu and Hannemann, 2016). This entails a figure of 55% to 70% of lower probability for people with foreign background to obtain a job in the labour market in comparison to the Swedish population who does not have a foreign background. Moreover, the recruitment or hiring procedures inculcating the idea of discrimination in it is another field of critical research. Job position in the labour market in relation to the qualification has become the point of focus (Dunlavy et al., 2018).
In reference to income, it has been studied that the foreign-born employees receive low income due to their less access on social networks which enables the natives' access employment in better job roles and a higher wage. Holding a higher degree does not guarantee a job for foreign-born job seekers.
Migration culture, immigrants' exposure to the labour market, their discrimination in the labour and its outcome has gained substantial attention in social research. The research on the Afro-Swedish racism situation and Afro-Swedish population discrimination in the labour market is sparse. This research focuses on the definite disadvantages experienced by the African migrants in the labour market of Sweden particularly in terms of lower-wage, long-term unemployment and unhealthy jobs (Wolgast et al., 2018). Moreover, possible explanations for the disadvantageous position of African immigrants in Sweden are presented in this research.
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2.3.2 African Immigrants in the Swedish Labour Market
According to Venturini (2017) qualifications and previous working experiences do not play any crucial role when immigrants from the Middle East and Africa, seek jobs in Sweden. The human capital approach is a general framework utilized for explaining the inequalities or discrimination in the earnings and labour market. Similarly, for the African immigrants in Sweden, the lack of adequate human capital which is 'the stock of skills that the labour force possesses’ (Goldin, 2014, p. 1);
is essential to proliferate or succeed in the host countries. This leads them to a disadvantageous position (Mangrio et al., 2018). The possible explanations about the disadvantageous positions experienced by African immigrants in the Swedish labour market are discussed herein. In this context, Van den Broek et al., (2016, p. 528) opined that human capital approach does not address the issues associated with the devaluation of qualifications and previous experiences of a migrant. For instance, in Germany, the devaluation of human capital tends to differ in accordance with the country of origin (Daunfeldt and Wennberg, 2018). However, the case is different in Sweden. According to Bussi and Pareliussen (2017), transferability is another key component of human capital which tends to depend on the reason for immigration, i.e. higher transferability occurs commonly occurs amongst the economic migrants and less common amongst the non-economic migrants. The refugees are mostly characterized by the experiences of disasters and trauma in the context of imprisonment, rape, war and genocide, etc.
(Iosifides, 2016). Correspondingly, a large part of refugees lacks adequate human capital and less access to social networks and experience discrimination by the native population and thus have a higher risk of getting located in areas with poor job offerings (Mulinari and Neergaard, 2012).
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According to Mulinariand Neergaard (2014), African immigrants who marry the native Swedes tends to attain more access to the employment in comparison to those immigrants who married another immigrant belonging from the same country or as a reason of family re-unification. In relevance, Schierup and Ålund (2011) argued that intermarried migrants have improved economic adjustment in comparison to the intra- married migrants because the immigrants who get married to the natives can gain quick knowledge about the language, culture, system and labour market of the host country from their respective native spouses. Also, the inter-married immigrants have higher possibilities to develop indigenous social bonding which is likely to enhance their employment opportunities and prospects (Busteed, 2009). Moreover, on having a native spouse, the immigrant may get help in reducing the information costs on the local market of jobs. As reported by Dribe and Lundh (2011), nearly 2600 African migrants who married Swedes spouse between the timeframe of 1991 to 2004. As cited by Garcy and Vågerö (2012), discrimination and stereotypes against migrants of ethnic minority and women may occur due to the differences in wages, job opportunities, working conditions, etc. Migrant workers are often classified based on their ethnic minority, skin colour or gender and experience discriminatory attitude from the employers. In relevance, Åslund, Östh and Zenou (2009) suggest that segmentation in the Swedes labour market is imperative as the employers classify or distinguish the migrant workforces based on their bodily gestures i.e. skin colour, body language, strong or weak, hardworking abilities on which their stereotypical views are rooted strongly.
2.3.3 Labour market Policies in Sweden
During the 1970s, an active labour market policy has been implemented in Sweden to enhance the levels of employment across all the residents within the country,
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specifically focusing on the historically disadvantageous groups like the immigrants and women. The program reform 2010 was introduced to intensify their focus on the integration of the labour market. The key components of this program emphasize on the civic orientation, training of language, and activities of the labour market as this was the basic scope and content of the program that was laid down in law (Manhica et al., 2015). In the context of this reform, Bevelander and Emilsson (2016) incorporate two strategic tools designed to speed the integration of the labour market. The first tool referred to as introduction benefit that offers strong economic incentives for participating in the 2010 Reform integration programs. Here the economic benefit offered is a little higher than the level of social assistance and most importantly, the economic support will not be affected by the income status of any family members (Irastorza and Bevelander, 2017).
The second instrument constitutes the Introduction Guide of Reform 2010.
These guides are generally the independent actors who have been hired to help assist the migrant families in finding employment (Mangrio et al., 2018). To this, Mulinari and Neergaard (2019) stated that migrants can select their respective guides from the list of organizations and the compensation is partly paid to the guides according to the success of the process.
2.4 Immigration Policies and Political scenario in Sweden
Sweden has often been referred to as the successful political project of social and democratic welfare regimes due to its state-led multiculturalism and gender equality policies for the immigrants. In relation to the socio-political and cultural transformation of Nordic societies, Rastas (2018) noted that in the current scenario there is a sense of independence in the society to be identified as a racially different entity.
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The sense of maintaining inequality and inferiority are being challenged in a very huge manner. Rastas (2018) refers to the trends of immigration into Sweden and declares the increasing acceptance of racial differences for the possession of political power. Even though the nation has higher scores in the social justice evaluations, Mulinari and Neergaard (2019) noted that inclusion and equality, there have been striking shifts in the recent years that led to raising the question of “Has Swedish exceptionalism ended?” Even at the peak of most inclusive policies of multiculturalism in Sweden, having a comparatively low degree of inequalities between foreign immigrants and Swedish background, there has been a significant democratic deficiency in the underrepresentation of immigrants' political representatives or voters (Mulinari,2009).
The cultural discourses emphasize on the political passivity of migrants which has been further challenged by the critics by identifying discriminatory and exclusionary practices.
In comparison to several western countries, the labour market regulations amalgamate with the rationalisation processes that has forged a labour division demoting the immigrants to employment that are characterized by "three Ds" i.e.
demeaning, dirty, and dangerous. While Sweden used to have higher rates of unionisation, however, the previous research indicates that immigrants in Sweden had experiences of discrimination in labour unions. Mulinari and Neergaard (2019) noted that the opposition denoted by us-versus-them has helped in articulating the paternalist phrase of "we and our migrants" which has regulated the subordinated inclusion forms encountered in the Swedish labour union by the union activists who are from highly skilled migrant backgrounds.
In history, a significantly strong association exists between the immigrants having the migrant background and social democratic party (SDP) within the
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parliamentary elections, where SDP historically gained 50% of votes in the election.
However, the structural pattern has flipped by trending downwards with increasing count of migrant voters who support the right-wing parties.
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3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND DATA COLLECTION
The core objective of this chapter is to understand the determine research methodology that can help the researcher in terms of bridging the research gaps. Since this research aims to analyse the racial discrimination of the Afro-Swedish population in the labour market of Sweden, the appropriate research strategy will be presented in this chapter. This rightly detected the sources for primary data collection, the analysis of the collected data, concerns of ethical notions and the entire research design.
From the previous research, the researcher detected that there were many aspects that are yet not researched or analysed by any former researcher. These aspects are considered in this research and as such the research approach is chosen to be qualitative.
3.1 Qualitative Interviews
In this study, the researcher entailed inductive approach where the research gathered data, analysed the data and made novel contributions to generate new insights.
As noted by Jill Collis and Roger Hussey (2003) and Lapan et al., (2012) this provision of qualitative research methodology offers grounds to gain knowledge about individual experiences. As the current research needs data from the Afro-Swedish population, qualitative research gets well justified hereby.
Moreover, collecting qualitative data using the method of interview is a common technique. Interviews can be either semi-structured or unstructured in nature (Ploug and Holm, 2015). In this study, the method used is semi-structured interviews where the researcher obtains knowledge about the personal and social experiences of the respondents relevant to the topic. Obtaining personal views or opinion on a topic from the respondents is not possible in case of focus groups due to their public nature,
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hence the method of interviews is more appropriate in this research due to its time and cost efficiency and easier to execute in comparison to other qualitative methods.
In this particular study, the researcher applied qualitative methods for direct interviews with 5 African immigrants in Sweden, as the number of interviewees is typically small. A total of 5 interviewees, who were African immigrants settled in Swedish society, were interviewed. All of them were male participants and were between the age group of 35 to 40years of age. All these interviewees are living in Sweden for more than 3 decades and integrally connected to community activities of Swedish society and were graduates from different Swedish Universities.
The interviews aimed to gather their views on the selected topics. The interviews were further analysed in comparison with the literature, to conclude the imminent trends of discrimination based on racism within the Swedish society and the labour market.
The researcher employs semi-structured interviews on the pre-defined research objectives. It aimed to obtain in-depth knowledge through their personal opinion and views on the topic (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2009). The interviewees were approached personally with the interview questions and each one of them were asked to share their views one by one. It was done by drawing comparisons of their respective viewpoints to reach a conclusion. This method was chosen over the focus groups because the interviewees were interviewed individually and sought their motivations.
The pilot testing was conducted to test the interview questions used in the process of data collection. Pilot testing helped in optimizing the research tools which further ensured that the data obtained is appropriate for meeting the research objectives (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2007). A pilot interview was carried out in this study to ensure that the schedule of the interview was effective, and the interview questions were comprehensive for the interviewees. The test was conducted with 1 African
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immigrant who was settled in Sweden and the overall duration of the interview lasted for 55 minutes. The test results thus obtained were modified in the process.
The interviews were scheduled and conducted in a hotel café at Gothenburg, Sweden. The interviews were recorded in a paper document in order to avoid any technical issues of electronic devices that may arise. Before they participated in the interviews, they were informed about the purpose of research and the duration of the interviews through email. The consent forms were sent via emails, before the commencement of the research process, on which they agreed upon. The duration of the interview for each interviewee lasted for 50-75 minutes and successfully executed without any technical error. The document of each interview was uploaded to an external hard drive and laptop to safeguard the data against any potential loss.
3.2 Data Analysis
This research employs the technique of thematic analysis, a method in which literature-based priori themes are developed from the interview data. All the collected information are analysed in relation to the research aim and objectives. The focus also remains in terms of meeting all those gaps that the researcher identified from previous research. The prior themes were used for preparing coding template. These were useful for analysing the data and draw relevant findings (Sekaran and Bougie, 2010). The aim was to structure the data in a way that is useful for comparing the perspectives, opinions and viewpoints of the interviewees, make assumptions on the factors that influence their views thereby exploring the patterns and trends within the research data.
In the process of data collection and analysis, themes were identified within the previous research. These were useful for creating the initial coding template to code the first transcript (Silverman, 2013). The researcher closely scrutinizes the datasets to
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identify the common themes in their interview transcripts such as the ideas, topics and patterns of meaning that tend to occur repeatedly and directly apply them in the word document.
3.3 Ethical concerns
The ethical concerns were essentialfor the researcher, as the study comprised human participants. The researcher must ensure that all the interviewees can participate voluntarily and without any external influence or pressure applied towards them (Creswell et al., 2007). The interviewees were informed about the purpose of study, duration of research, and also the fact that their participation in the research will remain anonymous by keeping their identities hidden. The identity of the interviewees is concealed to save them from any form of mental or physical harassment in future. This was done by emailing a consent form to each of the interviewees individually via email (Crowther and Lancaster, 2012
Finally, the data obtained from the interviewees and its application will strictly be applied to the academic purpose only, hence any commercial application of data will be avoided and restricted.
As the researcher leads the process of collecting data from the Afro-Swedish population who were struggling in the Swedish labour market due to their ethnic background, the researcher realised that this is a very sensitive topic to talk about.
Initially, the Afro-Swedish labours/workers were not much in favour of offering any input. It seemed to the researcher that this labour group suffered serious pressure to remain as part of the lowest cadre, in the Swedish racial hierarchy. They were much emotionally involved about their sufferance and grievances for being a part of Sweden.
However, as the researcher illustrated the rationale of this study and offered them the
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confidence that all their information will be kept confidential and eventually will be destroyed; they agreed to be a part of this research.
3.4 Research Limitations
The research limitations enable the researcher to identify the areas with restricted abilities and scope. In this study, the researcher has encountered certain limitations which are enlisted in below:
▪ The cross-sectional nature of the study creates a time limitation which makes it difficult for the researcher to execute the overall research within the stipulated timeframe (Denzin and Lincoln, 2011). As a result, the several insight details of the topic remain un-analysed which can emerge as the cause of research limitation.
▪ The data gathered were rich and encompasses extensive part of the literature theories. However, a broader range of interviewees would have contributed in providing additional insight on the Racism and discrimination practised in Swedes society against the immigrants from Africa.
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4. RESEARCH FINDINGS AND CRITICALLY ANALYSIS
To obtain a clear viewpoint on the stated objectives, this systematic research initiatives of qualitative methods have been employed in this research. The findings obtained are relevant to the areas of specific field of research under investigation. The qualitative research findings throw light on the significant concepts of discrimination and racism in order to capture the everyday life and labour market situation of people with African background in the country of Sweden. This research produces knowledge discrimination and racism. The attained observations are categorically distributed under individual and everyday level, labour market level, and state level, to attain necessary understanding about the current topic.
4.1. Racism in Individual and Everyday Level
As established by Garcy and Vågerö, (2012) the everyday experiences of the black middle-class is much differently than their white counterparts, especially in terms of income, and lifestyle. This is an observation that has been much supported by the interviewees of this research. According to one of the interviewees,
Interviewee 3: Your skin colour will determine where you stand in the social ladder and believe me the whites will not treat you respectfully if you are black.
Such declarations are marked as the most common mode of discrimination comes along the visible differences and whiteness that shape the racial discrimination in terms of Swedishness and non-Swedishness. The interviewees also agreed that majority of the youths having an African background get the ‘black identity’ through their contact and interaction with the Swedes society. As the hair and skin colour of the Africans are different they often experience insults and abuse. In the words of one of the
