”It’s Difficult to be a Norwegian”: <i>Minority Voices in the Memorial Messages after the Terror Attacks in Norway 2011</i>

Abstract

The terror attacks in Norway 2011, targeting what the perpetrator described as proponents of immigration and multicultural society, created exceptional circumstances for people to reflect on issues of belonging. In this kind of situation, it is assumed that people emphasise their affinity with the affected country. This, in turn, makes the problematisation of the affinities displayed particularly interesting since the act of expressing them even in a very taxing situation indicates their importance. Texts by individuals from ethnic minorities, written soon after the attacks, are analysed in terms of conceptions of 'Norwegianness'. Results show explicit support for civic values but also multiple expressions of not feeling recognised as part of majority society also from individuals obviously acculturated to Norwegian lifestyles and cultural codes. These expressions are explained in terms of whiteness -non-whiteness and religion.

From Here because from Abroad? Migrants and Grassroots Memorials in Paris in the Aftermath of 13 November 2015

“…As it appears these singular types of immediate commemorative monuments, which are a prominent form of social responses to terrorist attacks in western societies (Truc 2018), systematically articulate local, national and cosmopolitan expressions of grief and concern (Guisan 2009). However, so far, and strangely enough, the migrants' relationships to these memorials have been relatively neglected by those who study the social reactions to terrorist attacks, except a few exceptions (Chulilla 2005;Yocom 2006;Doving 2018;Lödén 2018;Sanchez-Carretero 2019). They have been of no more interest to the broader literature on collective and public mourning (Elliott 1999;Keard and Steinberg 1999;Walter 1999;Walter 2001;Ben Amos 2000;Fureix 2009).…”