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150 Contesting National Identity as a Racial Signifier Mixed-Race Identity in Norway and Sweden Sayaka Osanami Törngren and Tony Sandset Increased international mobility and globalization have brought about a significant increase in intimate interracial relationships, including in Norway and Sweden. As a consequence, the children of these unions— that is, multiethnic and multiracial persons—are undeniably part of con temporary society (see, e.g., Osanami Törngren, Irastorza, and Song 2016; Rodríguez-García2015).SwedenandNorwayarenotaloneinthisglobaltrend. The racial and ethnic composition of Sweden and Norway has changed dramatically in a relatively short period of time through immigration. In both countries, the majority of ethnic and racial minorities have a Middle Eastern and Muslim background. In 2018 18 percent of the ten million residents of Sweden were born abroad; 5 percent of people born in Sweden had two foreignborn parents; and 7 percent were the children of binational marriages, the offspring of one Sweden-born and one foreign-born parent. When it comes to the population under the age of eighteen in three major cities (Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö), native Swedes with two Sweden-born parents are a numerical minority: more than 50 percent have a foreign background (i.e., either themselves or one or both of their parents were born abroad). Around 17 percent of the population have one parent born in and one parent born outside Sweden in the three biggest cities, potentially representing a multi racial and multiethnic population (Statistics Sweden 2018). In Norway 14 percent of the total population were born abroad; that is, they are categorized as “immigrants” by Statistics Norway (SSB, Statistisk sentralbyrå; see Statistics Norway 2018). Some 3.2 percent of the population are so-called Norwegianborn with immigrant background; that is, both parents were born outside Contesting National Identity as a Racial Signifier 151 Norway. Of these, the majority—10 percent—are of Pakistani background, followed by those of Somali and then Polish background (Statistics Norway 2018). Norwegian “binationals,” defined by the SSB as the “Norwegian-born with 1 foreign-born parent and 2 foreign-born grandparents,” accounted in 2019 for 4 percent of the population. Statistics show that there has been a steady increase in this segment of the population since 2004, when the figure was 3 percent of the total population (Statistics Norway 2018). We can observe a clear trend, based on which we can expect that this segment of the population will gradually become more visible within the Norwegian population. Most studies on mixed-race identities are conducted in English-speaking countries, although there has been a significant increase in the amount of literatureproducedonmixednessoutsidethiscontext (e.g.,Childs2018;Edwards et al. 2012; King-O’Riain et al. 2014; Rocha and Fozdar 2017; Rocha et al. 2019). Despite the increasing number of mixed populations in Nordic countries, the field of mixed-race studies has not taken off there (exceptions are Appel and Singla 2016; Sandset 2014, 2018; Skadegård and Jensen 2018). Mixed populations , therefore, are “overlooked” (Appel and Singla 2016), and their stories are rendered invisible as yet another immigrant story (Sandset 2018, 4). Research on mixed populations in Sweden and Norway is very limited. This chapter, based on twenty-two interviews with mixed-race Norwegians and sixteen interviews with mixed-race Swedes, explores how they are ascribed with the dialectic categories based on the visibility of mixedness, such as phenotype or name, and how they respond and contest these ascribed identities by challenging the notion of national identity as a racial category. We discuss how mixed-race Norwegians and Swedes are claiming national identity as Norwegian or Swedish as an overarching identity category that goes beyond the dichotomy and embraces their mixedness.
