Urbanities,
Vol. 3
·
No 2
·
November 2013
© 2013
Urbanities
58
be treated differently and assigned to, or segregated under a diferent category of ‘whiteness’
(McDowell 2007: 86).
It may seem that being white (as Lithuanian immigrants are) should facilitate integration
into a new society or work as a power resource that leads to privileged positions in the economic
and social sphere. Field research suggests, however, that the picture is far more complicated. On
the one hand, whiteness is indeed used as a ‘natural’ and ‘normal’ power resource; on the other,
further mechanisms are in place, suh as segregation via culture.
Lithuanian immigrants have a more or less positive attitude towards the multicultural
environment around them. This is especially true of the younger generation. Most people
describe their experience of moving from a relatively homogenous environment to an
environment with considerably greater cultural and racial variety as rewarding because it teaches
tolerance. At the same time, however, they use being white as a resource that enables them to
blend in with the dominant society and, thus, expect to be better positioned in the labour market.
A 35-years-old female informant described her experience as follows:
Do you meet any obstacles solely due to being an immigrant?
‘No, not really. Personally, I have never felt that it was harder for me to, say, get a
job, nor was I discriminated against in any way at school. As Norwegians themselves
say, whenever the topic crops up, ‘you [Lithuanians] look like Norwegians; if your
looks were different, perhaps matters would be different as well.’
What do they mean by ‘looks’?
‘Well, that our skin is white and no one suspects at first glance that we’re not
Norwegians. Due to my accent – as a matter of fact, both my accent and my surname
– I’m often taken for a Finn. So it’s not like ‘oh, you must be from that second-rate
country’ – they don’t suspect my origin until I tell them.
This example illustrates that whiteness is understood as a chance to avoid being socially
identified as ‘different’ and be perceived as more of ‘one’s own kind’ than migrants with a
different skin colour. At the same time, cultural elements such as language and accent or a
Lithuanian surname are not easily identifiable as ‘distinctly Lithuanian’ by the dominant
majority, which allows our immigrants to blend in with other, more privileged, white migrants.
On the other hand, ‘whiteness’ is not the only category involved in constructing social relations
in a host country. A number of infrmants mentioned a European mentality or being European in
general as important factors in drawing a line between the perception of ‘own kind’ and ‘alien’,
or ‘more of our own kind’ and ‘more alien’. The excerpt from an interview with 48-years-old
man given below illustrates such a way of drawing boundaries, based on presumed differences
between European and non-European mentalities.
