The Swedish Preschool has since the beginning of the 70s been part of immigration politics, and since the 90s part of integration politics in Sweden. In the 1972 report from the Swedish Child Care Commission, preschools are seen as important meeting places, and a first introduction to Swedish culture and society (SOU 1972:26). In today‘s policy documents, the preschool is defined in a similar way, namely as an arena for social and cultural interactions, aimed to strengthen the children and prepare them for a life in an increasingly internationalised society. The purpose of this paper is to examine how figures such as “the immigrant child” and “the ethnic minority child” are articulated in the policy documents for preschool and school in Sweden between 1972 – 2010. Discoursers about children and learning manifested in Swedish policy documents for Preschools, shows that discoursers about the developmental child in need of adults have changed and today children are described as competent, curious, creative as well as cultural. Notions of children as cultural are especially evident in relations articulations of the immigrant child.

Our research questions are as follows: How are notions about "the immigrant child" articulated in policy documents for preschools in Sweden? How do these notions relate to specific discoursers in society at a certain time and space?

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