‘You who are an immigrant – why are you in the Sweden Democrats?’

Abstract

Individuals with an immigrant or other ethnic minority background have begun to find their political home in the populist radical right and anti-immigration party, the Sweden Democrats. This study delves into this paradoxical matter by exploring how these politicians discursively account for their ethnic minority belonging in relation to their anti-immigration political affiliation. The critical discursive psychological analysis of blog entries by populist radical right politicians with an immigrant or other ethnic minority background shows that their ethnic identity negotiations were highly complex and multifaceted. Typically, an ethnic minority identity was accepted at a superficial, assigned level, whereas a Swedish identity was actively claimed at a level of personal assertion. This article analyses the discursive resources that the bloggers drew upon in order to construct and negotiate their ethnic identities and motivate their political choices. Finally, it elaborates on the discursive functions of the subject positions that these negotiations accomplished: dividing between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ immigrants, denying the existence of structural discrimination, reversing the racist label and attaching it to the political opponents of the Sweden Democrats and providing ‘proof’ of the party having rid itself of its racist past.