Violence, Mourning and the Precarious Other

In an age of economic decline and heightened concern about European ideals and national security, what counts as successful immigrant integration? In Norway, integration initiatives are designed to facilitate the assimilation of foreign newcomers; however, these programs are often irrelevant to the lives of young people of immigrant descent. As the second and third generation descendants of former migrants and mixed-heritage families, they have little in common with recent refugees and asylum seekers. Yet, they remain ensnared by hierarchies of value that recast the banality of their belonging as failure in integration schemes. This dilemma is particularly acute when the horrors of extremist violence intensify calls for national solidarity as a response to grief, yet simultaneously narrow the criteria for national belonging. This paper considers the attempts of these Norwegian youths to reckon with and maneuver through the tensions of multiculturalism and mourning in the context of two critical events: a highly publicized, neo-Nazi murder of an immigrant child in 2001, and the Oslo massacre ten years later in July 2011. Engaging what philosopher Judith Butler (2004) calls ‘the precarious life of the Other’, I maintain that the narratives of my young interlocutors reveal that such ‘precariousness’ manifests in the on-going confrontation with the presumed disposability of their lives, writ through the politics of exclusion and the myopia of national memory. I ask us to consider what might be learned from their strategies to reconcile their place in the nation and reaffirm their full humanity.