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74 Consuming Media

has read news mainly about Sweden. Celal makes a stronger connection between
reading newspapers, gathering information and actively participating in Swedish
daily life. Because of this attitude, he thinks that Swedish papers are more important
than Turkish ones at present; whereas Turkey is far away and beyond any possibility
of influence, Swedish newspapers give him resources to ‘control what is important in
life, or closest in life’, the life he lives here and now. Cédric reads Swedish newspa-
pers in addition to Le Figaro in the library. News in Swedish newspapers about the
outsourcing of production, for example, makes him reflect on the consequences of
globalization for Sweden. He is particularly concerned by the threatening disman-
tling of the welfare state. These examples show how Swedish newspapers are resources
these migrants use for constructing their local lives and for reflecting on what is
happening in Sweden as transnational relations intensify.
The library also provides the opportunity to read newspapers, magazines and jour-
nals online. So-called ‘public computers’ are available for the general public. Some
can be reserved in advance and others may be used on a drop-in basis. Pochi and
Carlota are frequent users of this service. They visit the library several times a week
to read and write e-mail, and read Colombian and Spanish newspapers, respectively.
Their reading habits clearly show how the context of reading contributes to the form
and characteristics of reading: at these computers there is always a time limit – one
hour when one has made a reservation and fifteen minutes for the ‘drop-in
computers’. Because of this, reading newspapers online must always be done quickly.
When she wants to have more time or wants to scrutinize a text, Carlota uses the
paper copies. In this way the rules that the library imposes on the visitors’ computer
use foster different user regimes.
Through its foreign, provincial and national newspapers, the library is an impor-
tant centre for forging place-bound relations and identities for both external and
internal migrants. The newspapers, magazines and other periodicals contribute to the
creation and maintenance of transnational and translocal relations, at the same time
as they produce and reproduce the local and national sense of community. A phrase
that was often used by our informants – ‘I want to know what is going on there’ – is
consistent with press research that shows newspapers and magazines as information
sources that are basic to the ability of citizens to exercise their democratic obligations
and rights. But migrants’ uses of newspapers and magazines have more sides than
this. The reading of transnational and translocal newspapers and magazines is a kind
of place-related memory work, connected to life stories and identities, which in this
way are kept alive with the help of specific media for want of the real place.

WAYS OF USING BOOKS
Now it is time to leave the city library, where migrants’ use of newspapers and maga-
zines was the focus of attention, and walk over to the commercial book space, asking
why people want to own books. What distinguishes the library loan from the book-
shop purchase is the desire to own books and also to give them away as gifts. This
shopping centre has both a library and two bookshops. Such a combination of