‘Say it in Swedish!’: Babies, belonging and multilingualism in an integration initiative activity in Sweden

Abstract

The aim of this article is to critically examine ideas about language and integration in a non-governmental integration programme targeting parents of small children in Sweden. Through ethnographic and netnographic fieldwork of parenting experiences it is revealed that monolingual ideologies conflate with iconic figures reproducing and reinforcing language norms. Some parents – i.e. non-white non-Swedish speaking – are made into ‘language projects’ when the white Swedish parents take on the role of the ‘integration teacher’ acting as language and parenting role models. The Others' multilingualism is celebrated from within Swedishness, with multilingualism treated as a commodity. This contrasts with the risk of loss - experience of multilingualism by parents with migration background. The inscription of the harms of segregated society on non-white, non-Swedish mothers shows the powerful mechanisms obscuring that integration initiatives operate from monolingual norms within a neoliberal workfare model which creates programs which have unintended effects.