The Art of Articulation: Political Engagement and Social Movements in the Making among Young Adults in Multicultural Settings in Norway

The Myth of Failed Integration: The Case of Eastern Oslo

“…Here, the political editor comments on a demonstration in Oslo in February 2010 (Stanghelle ). The demonstration was, he insists, a reaction to another Norwegian paper ( Dagbladet ) depicting the prophet Muhammad as a pig and thus offending Muslims (Rogstad and Vestel ). Stanghelle explains that Norwegian society is characterized by a culture of consensus which makes this society unaccustomed to such conflicts that he perceives to be developing between majority (ethnic Norwegians) and minority (Muslim immigrants).…”

“…Sanjin is also preoccupied with political topics and seems to prefer the political right‐wing party, the Progress Party; although he disagrees with certain aspects of its immigration policy (this challenges the assumption that there is little interest in conventional politics among immigrant youth, cf. Rogstad and Vestel :244). He reads newspapers daily and in the future, he would like to run a newspaper.…”

“…Few, if any, youths we met in our fieldwork have expressed anger or frustration in relation to their present situation or hopes for the future (cf. Rogstad and Vestel :256). Indeed, even young men who presented themselves as “gangsters” often expressed views on criminality with which law‐abiding citizens would agree.…”

The debate about multicultural Norway before and after 22 July 2011

“…First, Eugene Obiora, who had migrated to Norway from Nigeria, died during a police arrest at a social services office in Trondheim in 2006; then, the next summer, ambulance drivers left an injured man (Ali Farah, a Somali Norwegian) behind in a public park in Oslo. Following these events, leading Norwegian journalists started discussing the structural and cultural aspects of racism in Norway (Rogstad and Vestel 2011). This debate was punctuated a year after the second event, in October 2008, when Ali Farah used a postcolonial framework to respond to the massive media coverage of a book written by one of the ambulance drivers, in which he had described how terrible it had been for him to be publicly accused of racism.…”

Innvandrarborgaren

“…Behovet for didaktisk tilrettelegging heng også saman med at slike kurs berre er ei av mange kjelder for medborgarsosialisering. Aktuelle hendingar i mediebiletet og i innvandrarane sine eigne liv Rogstad & Vestel, 2011) så vel som erfaringar med korleis offentleg sektor generelt definerer og møter innvandrarane (Schneider & Ingram, 1997) vil også spela inn og kan lett skyva kurs til sides.…”