A qualitative study on Invisible Racism, Racial Bias and Inequality among Afro-Swedish Healthcare Workers in Sweden

Abstract

For many years, migration and racialization has formed a central theme widely discussed in our world today. The central notion of difference; vis-à-vis what is not seen, that is, absence of a certain element portray a huge standing in issues of race in recent times. Thus, while migration has existed for many years, communities of color continue to be perceived as “foreign matter” in white societies (El-tayeb 2008). Such is the case in Sweden, where racism is typically seen to be invisible to the naked eye. While it is widely portrayed and hugely imbibed with a considerable amount of this happenings visible in society on a daily basis, there seem to be a case of ‘selective blindness’ where ‘white bodies’ have somehow come together unequivocally to see what they want to see. This has been made possible due to the fact that there exist a form of understanding which prohibits ‘racism’ from being discussed in the Swedish society. The aim of this research is to analyze labor market discrimination, racial bias and invisible racism on African-Swedish health care workers in Sweden. My focus is on displaying the invisibility of racism among Afro-swedes in Sweden and how they cope with it. Thus, drawing on the experiences of 8 African-Swedish healthcare workers with the aid of a qualitative research analysis, the findings suggest that a huge gap of invisible racism/bias exist in the Swedish labor market. The study also reveal that the labor market is tough on minority groups in Sweden and tougher for people of color as they have to work twice as hard, go through much more to be employed and identified as Swedish in the society.