Brainstorming - the first phase of term 3

In order to get started with the term 3 part of the project, our ninth-graders were asked to brainstorm from the question "What is Swedish and what is not?". They were given a large posterboard and some markers. Many divided their board inteo two sides: Swedish and not Swedish. They mentioned different foods, buisnesses and attitudes that are primarily Swedish or typically found in Sweden:
Foods: Swedish meatballs, pickeld herring, surstömming, cinamon rolls, reindeer meat?
Buisnesses: Ikea; H + M; Volvo; SKF; SAAB are worldwide and well known.
Attitudes: "Lagom", i.e. "just right - not too much"; "Jantelagen", i.e. "Don't stick out, be like everyone else norm"; the tendancy for swedes to have everything look nice on the outside: clean neat and tidy Ikea homes; focus on fashion; saftey first - Volvos 3 point safteybelt, focus on childrens safety in parks; Childrens books - Astrid lindgrens many books about Emil and Pipi, Bamse by Rune Andreasson; and much much more.

Even here we began to discuss gray zones: Is kebab Swedish now even if it came from the Middle East? Everyone eats it in most cities in Sweden nowadays! Are Swedes the only ones in the world who eat meatballs? Not really.

They began to brainstorm around one more question, too: "Am I Swedish just because I was born within its limits?"
Most of the students in the class come from different cultural backgrounds. They are, what we say, new Swedes or second generation Swedes. Many of them had put their own names on the side designated by themselves as "Not Swedish". We teachers wondered why. After all they were born here, live here and kan speak fluent Swedish.

They said that the problem was identity. Really, they didn't know whether or not they wanted to be called Swedes and didn't want to be completely Swedish because their own cultural background was of such vital importance to them. Still they were glad to live here, go to school and have friends in Sweden. So which side should they take?