Constructing the “Good Citizen” : Discourses of Social Inclusion in Swedish Civic Orientation

Sweden has long been described as a beacon of multiculturalism and generous access to citizenship, with integrationpolicies that seek to offer free and equal access to the welfare state. In this article, we use the policy of Civic Orientationfor Newly Arrived Migrants as a case with which to understand how migrants’ inclusion is discursively articulated andconstructed by the different constituencies involved in interpreting the policy and organising and teaching the course.We do this by employing Foucault’s closely interrelated concepts of technology of self, political technology of individuals,and governmentality. With the help of critical discourse analysis, we illustrate how migrants’ inclusion is framed aroundan opposition between an idealised “good citizen” and a “target population” (Schneider & Ingram, 1993). In our analysis,we draw on individual interviews with 14 people involved in organising civic orientation and on classroom observations ofsix civic orientation courses. Firstly, we show how migrants are constructed as unknowing and in need of being fostered bythe state. Secondly, we illustrate how social inclusion is presented as being dependent upon labour market participation,both in terms of finding work and in terms of behaving correctly in the workplace. Lastly, we show how migrant womenare constructed as being problematically chained to the home and therefore needing to subject themselves to a specificpolitical technology of self to be included.This article is part of the issue “Adult Migrants’ Language Learning, Labour Market, and Social Inclusion” edited by AndreasFejes (Linköping University) and Magnus Dahlstedt (Linköping University). CC BY 4.0