The purpose of this enquiry was to study how the rhetoric about immigrants (invandrarprat) influences the interpretation of reality in regards to new swedes. The study was conducted with the help of qualitative interviews with eight new swedes who, apart from their country of origin, by Swedish social standards would be considered average. Two questions were examined for the purpose of this study:
1. How do new swedes react to rhetoric about immigrants?
2. How do these reactions influence their interpretation of reality?
We chose to evaluate the empirical data using Robin Lakoff's theory about politics of the language and also applying Thomas J. Scheff and Bengt Starrin's understanding of shame as a predominant and socially defined emotion. The interviews we conducted were conversational. We encouraged the respondents' reflections about chosen topics by affirming their testimony. In order to increase the validity of this study the respondents were in addition asked to comment on our analysis.
As a result of studying these testimonies made by new swedes in the given context of the rhetoric about immigrants, we came to the following conclusions:
1. Reactions that take place while meeting the immediate context of categorizing rhetoric can be explained as related to shame and earlier experiences. Hence, these reactions are not proportional to the immediate context of the categorizing rhetoric. The context functions as their trigger. Shame is handled in different ways, by consciously protesting against the substance of the categorizing rhetoric as well as subconsciously through emotions.
2. In constructing the reality of the self and the reality of others, the use of categorizing rhetoric about immigrants constitutes a tool for construction even if the rhetoric is perceived as unjust and confusi...
