This dissertation centers on the stories and perspectives of young refugees from Syria and Afghanistan enrolled in Sweden’s municipal music-and-arts school, or kulturskola, programs. Kulturskolor are voluntary music and arts programs regulated by Sweden’s local municipalities. These music-and-arts schools were established in the 1930s and 1940s, corresponding with the rise of Sweden’s welfare state system. There are schools in nearly every one of Sweden’s 290 municipalities, each serving to provide opportunities for its enrolled children to meet and exchange ideas and cultural experiences through music and related arts activities.Working under the premise that children are agents of their own musicultural identities, this study aims to reveal not only how musical institutions such as the kulturskola create and challenge discourses and practices surrounding integration, diversity, and social inclusion, but also how children—the very people whom these programs are meant to serve—understand and confront these issues through music and the arts. One of Sweden’s more progressive kulturskolor, the Simrishamn Kulturskola, serves as both my central case study for exploring these phenomena and as the basis for developing a broader theoretical conception of how music-and-arts institutions contribute to larger processes of cultural friction, transfer, and exchange in diversifying societies. Drawing upon twelve months of ethnographic research at the kulturskola in Simrishamn, Sweden, I investigate how these historically democratic institutions feed into young people’s postmigration experiences and interactions through the following themes: 1) language learning, 2) relationship building, 2) care and hospitality, 3) learning about other people and customs, 4) self-definition and borderwork, and 5) social mobility. These themes emerge through analysis of several ethnographic narratives contained within this study and speak to some of the many ways that the young people define and negotiate “how [they] want to live together in societies characterized by increasing heterogeneity” through their participation in the kulturskola (Foroutan 2016, 248). At the end of the day, this dissertation seeks to find a practical solution for creating more inclusive music learning environments based on the lived experiences of young refugees and former refugees participating in Simrishamn’s kulturskola programs. Discussion therefore includes, but is not limited to, the following issues: how children see their own participation in the school, how they encounter diverse musical repertoires, and how they musically navigate new social and cultural networks. The results of this research show that while the young people in this study have found their experiences at the kulturskola meaningful, there are also moments of tension surrounding musical content and approach. These moments, however, have led to further transformations in the program’s inclusion efforts and thus offer a compassionate model for other individuals and institutions whose goals include reaching refugee children and young people through music and the arts.
