The diversity continuum: Blurring the boundaries between internal and external others among Italian children of migrants

Teaching nature and nation in the Swedish mobile preschool

“…Here the educator releases the arrival of spring by the flowers, but she does not know the sequence and characteristics of different flowers and the importance of their colours. This performance demonstrates the desire to belong to the nation, and highlights the need to understand the nation and everyday nationalism as plural rather than singular (Antonsich, 2022a). The educator’s way of approaching nature is through admiration – the beauty of nature.…”

“…However, it is also important to add that everyday nationalism is enacted in particular ways by groups of people positioned differently in a nation state, hence in each nation there are multiple nationalisms and everyday nationalisms. For example, Antonsich (2022aAntonsich ( : 1080 shows how some 'second generation migrants' in Italy call themselves 'new Italians' to challenge differential belonging indicated by hyphenated identities (like Afro-Italians) to re-imagine the nation in relation to their 'alterity' and belonging to it. Some of the children and educators in the mobile preschools in this study have migrant backgrounds, thus they can be considered as residing and contributing to a national community, yet might be identified as internal others (recognised and/or racialised as 'others') (Antonsich, 2022a).…”

“…For example, Antonsich (2022aAntonsich ( : 1080 shows how some 'second generation migrants' in Italy call themselves 'new Italians' to challenge differential belonging indicated by hyphenated identities (like Afro-Italians) to re-imagine the nation in relation to their 'alterity' and belonging to it. Some of the children and educators in the mobile preschools in this study have migrant backgrounds, thus they can be considered as residing and contributing to a national community, yet might be identified as internal others (recognised and/or racialised as 'others') (Antonsich, 2022a). Paying attention to and contrasting the ethnographic data of how those children and their educators enact the(ir) nation(s) in nature can help us outline everyday nationalism in Swedish preschools.…”

“…However, it is also important to add that everyday nationalism is enacted in particular ways by groups of people positioned differently in a nation state, hence in each nation there are multiple nationalisms and everyday nationalisms. For example, Antonsich (2022a: 1080) shows how some ‘second generation migrants’ in Italy call themselves ‘new Italians’ to challenge differential belonging indicated by hyphenated identities (like Afro-Italians) to re-imagine the nation in relation to their ‘alterity’ and belonging to it.…”

“…Some of the children and educators in the mobile preschools in this study have migrant backgrounds, thus they can be considered as residing and contributing to a national community, yet might be identified as internal others (recognised and/or racialised as ‘others’) (Antonsich, 2022a). Paying attention to and contrasting the ethnographic data of how those children and their educators enact the(ir) nation(s) in nature can help us outline everyday nationalism in Swedish preschools.…”