This article explores the usefulness of traditional sociological perspectives on inequality
in light of marginalization processes affecting immigrant youth in Norway and in
other Western societies of today. Departing from general theories on inequality and
marginalization, and the more specific perspectives on ethnic minority youth in Europe,
a trenchant argument in the article is that increasing attention to the construction of
normality and otherness in respect to majority?minority relations is needed.The 1990s
public debate about immigrant youth in Norway, as earlier in many other Western
societies, has been characterized by sensational media stories about ?problems? with
youth gangs and forced marriages. Another characteristic of the Norwegian public
debate is making links between ad hoc political ?needs? to solve these problems and
researchers? definitions of the energizing factors of marginalization. In relating the Norwegian
situation to the broader European one,where an increasing support for populist
right-wing parties and differentialist racist arguments has been a major trend throughout
the 1990s,various visions of the future for immigrant youth in Norway are examined. |