When Do Migration-Related Differences (Not) Matter? The Perspective of Postmigration Language Use in Swedish Academia

Abstract

This article introduces the perspective of postmigration as a way of rethinking integration in societies shaped by migration. Rather than positioning migrants as outsiders who need to adapt to society, postmigration understands migration-related plurality as constitutive of society and shifts attention to acceptance, participation, and equal opportunities for everyone. Drawing on research presented in the book 'Academia and Cultural Production in Sweden: Postmigrant Trajectories, Alliances, and Negotiations' (transcript Publishing, 2026), the article demonstrates the analytical value of this perspective by looking at the use of Swedish and English in academia as a highly internationalised professional field. It discusses shifting linguistic positionings that cannot be reduced to a migrant-native binary. Practices of collegial support and translanguaging illustrate how linguistic differences may be negotiated pragmatically to enable participation. The article argues that postmigration illuminates how differences acquire, lose, or regain significance in specific situations and how participation is continuously negotiated across migration-related differences.