Digitally Mobile Swedes and Their Experiences: A Contribution to the De‐Exceptionalization of Migrants

Abstract

This article challenges entrenched notions of otherness, which presuppose that migrants’ experiences always are inherently different from those of other people. By exploring the experiences of white, middle‐class, highly educated Swedes living in Sweden, I highlight some similarities with challenges traditionally attributed solely to migrants. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in the Swedish hub of a large international company, the article examines experiences of Swedish employees participating in international digital meetings, a significant aspect of their daily professional lives. It elucidates aspects of their experiences that are often associated with migrants: struggling with language, feeling dominated and unseen and striving to adapt while subtly challenging the dominance of British and American ‘natives’ through practices of boundary maintenance. The article contributes to the de‐exceptionalization of migrants’ experiences without further equating the privileged Swedes’ living conditions with those of people who are migranticized and subjected to enduring othering in their everyday lives.