Attitudes towards out-groups have been of academic interest for a long time, and two often-used theoretical frameworks are intergroup contact theory, and group threat theory. This article combines insights from both to investigating attitudes among youth in Sweden using multiple regression analysis. I seek particularly to understand the role that contact has on reducing attitudes, and what role different contact situations, and forms may play. Specifically contact in schools and the local area is investigated after controlling for the effect of personal friendships. The analysis finds that high quality contact does have an effect on attitudes among Swedish youth even after controlling for background variables. Superficial contact has no additional effect in the investigated context. Group threat effects are also found to be important for the groups that are most directly in competition with immigrants in the labor market.

Three decades ago, Sweden extended municipal and provincial voting privileges to non-citizen residents on the grounds that this would increase political influence, interest and self-esteem among this group of immigrants. Three decades later, in the political and public debate, electoral participation on the part of immigrants is perceived as being substantially lower than for native-born citizens. As a result, questions have arisen regarding the degree to which this may be symptomatic of a larger integration issue. The aim of this paper is to explore the determinants of voting in municipal elections for immigrants—both naturalised and non-citizens, in Sweden, by controlling for a number of socio-economic and demographic and immigrant specific characteristics. More specifically, using cohort analysis, the idea is to study the impact of time spent in the country on the voting behaviour of immigrants, foreign citizens and naturalised over time. Two unique sets of data were used in the research. The 2002, 2006 and 2010 electoral surveys (participation study) all contain information about individual electoral participation in municipal elections. This information is matched to registry data from Statistics Sweden, which also contains information relating to every Swedish resident. From these two sources of information, a database is created that matches voting to individual characteristics. This study analyses 60 thousand immigrants of which 43 thousand are non-citizens. After controlling for demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, the results show that the acquisition of citizenship makes a real difference in the voting odds. Immigrants who obtain citizenship are far more likely to vote than those who do not. Country of birth also makes a difference: Compared to immigrants from the Nordic countries, Europeans and North American immigrants are equal or less likely to vote, whereas immigrants from Asia, Africa and Latin America are more likely to vote. Finally, immigrants’ odds of voting increase as their length of stay in the country does.

This report deals with the integration of individuals originating from the six non-western immigrant countries of Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Somalia, Turkey and Vietnam and their descendants in Sweden in the ten-year period 1998-2008. The central aim of the report is to analyse the integration patterns of these groups in three important areas: demographic behaviour, educational enrolment and labour market integration. This research has three objectives. The first is to determine when the groups came into being and how they have developed, with a focus on key features of population change, i.e. the overall growth, components of growth and age-sex-structure shifts. The second objective is to analyse two specific aspects: the groups’ integration and participation in the educational system, i.e. educational enrolment, and their integration patterns in the labour market, with a main focus on employment and unemployment. In order to provide a bridge between the analyses of population change and integration, compositions of the groups by selected traits, such as immigrant generation and duration of residence, are also examined. The third objective is to study, where feasible, the impact of selected public policies and practices, particularly those pertaining to immigration and integration. Over the last six decades the size of Sweden’s immigrant population (immigrants and their descendants) has steadily increased. Migration flows into the country have been associated with societal phenomena such as labour demand in the growing economy, family reunions and refugee streams due to wars and political conflicts. Although earlier migration streams appear to have integrated relatively well, concern about the current streams is high on the political agenda. It is thought that more in-depth knowledge about the integration patterns of the demographic, educational and labour market domains could lead to improved integration policies. In 2010, almost one fifth of Sweden’s population consisted of immigrants or descendants of immigrants. To be more exact, 14.7 per cent of the country’s 9,415,570 inhabitants are immigrants in Sweden. Descendants of immigrants amount to 412,960 persons, or 4.4 per cent of the total population. In other words, immigrants from the countries that are in focus in this report and their descendants constitute 20 per cent of the immigrant population in Sweden, with individuals from Iraq making up the largest immigrant group and people from Pakistan the smallest. Since the end of the 1960s Sweden has made use of a number of integration strategies to accommodate immigrants into several areas of society. Of these, Swedish language proficiency and integration into the economic domain have been the most important. According to The Migrant Integration Policy Index (2007), Sweden scores very highly when it comes to granting immigrants access to and rights in the labour market. To summarise the most important results and at the same time return to the first objective of this study, namely the demographic integration in the period 1998-2008, we can see that all six immigrant groups have grown. In particular, the Iraqi and Somali groups have experienced a substantial increase in number. For Iran, Iraq, Somalia and Vietnam the growth is due to both net migration and an increasing number of descendants. For Pakistan, the main reason for the increase is net migration. Overall, the population growth in Sweden in this period is mainly a result of net migration and higher birth rates among immigrants and to a somewhat lower degree their descendants. As might be expected, “older” immigrant groups that have been in Sweden for a longer period of time have more descendants than “younger” immigrant groups. Iran, Turkey and Vietnam can be depicted as “older” groups and Iraq, Pakistan and Somalia as “younger” ones. With the exception of Iran, all the immigrant groups show a higher crude birth rate than that for native Swedes. The immigrant groups are still younger than the native population and have a far lower crude death rate than natives. In general, immigrants are married to individuals from the same group, whereas their descendants tend to be married to natives or individuals from other immigrant groups. The total fertility rate is higher among most of the immigrant groups compared to that for natives. Again, Iranian women are the exception, where descendants show a lower fertility rate than their immigrant parents. The second objective of the study – to analyse two specific aspects of the integration of the groups – includes participation in the educational system, i.e. educational enrolment, and integration patterns in the labour market, with a focus on employment and unemployment. When it comes to enrolment in education, the immigrant groups show a variation. Iraqi and Iranian men and women, as well as males from Pakistan and females from Vietnam, match the enrolment levels of native men and women in the age group 16-19. Moreover, the descendants of immigrants generally show a higher enrolment level than their immigrant counterparts. A positive development is visible over time. Both immigrants and descendants have higher enrolment levels in education at the end of the period compared to the beginning, i.e. 2008 versus 1998. However, Somali men and women have a lower enrolment level at the end of the period compared to the start. Major migration to Sweden and difficulties of entering the regular educational system could be reasons for this result. Descendant females show a higher enrolment level than descendant males. The pattern is similar for immigrants, but at a lower level. For higher education, the results indicate a gender gap with more female than male students. The employment integration of individuals in the core labour market ages of 25-54 is relatively low. However, a positive trend is visible over time. Both females and males from the six immigrant groups have higher employment rates at the end of the period. The gender gap shows that males have higher employment levels than females. The largest gap is detected for Pakistan and Turkey. The employment rates for young immigrants aged 16-24 are lower than those for natives. For women we see no positive development over time, but for males an increasing employment rate is visible. Male and female descendants in this age group have lower employment rates than natives, but higher employment rates than their immigrant counterparts. Following the cohort of 25-39 year-old immigrants over time from 1998 to 2003 to 2008, increasing employment levels can be observed for both females and males. The exceptions are Pakistani and Somali males, which show no increasing employment levels between 2003 and 2008. The unemployment rate for both immigrant females and males drops during the ten-year period, with the exception of Iraqi and Somali immigrants. Female youth unemployment also drops over time for most immigrant groups, again with the exception of Somali immigrants. For males, youth unemployment also decreases. The exceptions here are Iraqi, Somali and native males. Descendant unemployment levels are mainly in parity with or lower than native levels. Inactivity is higher for all immigrant groups compared to natives. However, the inactivity rate drops substantially over the period. With regard to the third objective of the study – to provide insights into the impact of selected public policies and practices, particularly those pertaining to immigration and integration on the chosen aspects of change and integration – we can highlight the following issues. No particular integration policy aimed at immigrant groups deals with demographic aspects. The observed change in the demographic behaviour of the descendants of the six immigrant groups, albeit to differing degrees, is voluntary and shows an adaption to the behaviour of the population in general. Integration policies have a strong focus on educational and labour market integration in Sweden. In addition to the general positive economic business cycle, the economic integration of six immigrant groups and their descendents shows a gradual positive development. Integration policies aimed at immigrants and education policies aimed at the population in general have also had an effect on the successive larger educational enrolment of immigrants and their descendents.

The study sets out to provide a better understanding of the emerging challenges in policy targeting the labour-market integration of refugees. What are the strategies and practices implemented in different EU Member States to facilitate access into employment? What do we know about their effectiveness? What are good practices and lessons learned in different countries? The study is based on nine detailed country case studies of the following EU Member States: Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

Den här studien undersöker två separata, men relaterade, frågor om naturalisering bland utrikes födda i Danmark, Norge och Sverige. Avsikten är såväl att belysa likheter som skillnader mellan de skandinaviska länderna vad gäller bestämningsfaktorerna för och konsekvenserna av naturalisering. I den första delen ställer vi frågan om varför utrikesfödda personer blir medborgare i ett nytt land. Detta gör vi genom att undersöka i vilken grad utrikes födda personer erhåller medborgarskap och i vilken utsträckning kontextuella faktorer i ursprungs- och destinationslandet påverkar individens benägenhet att naturalisera. I rapportens andra del ställer vi istället frågan om huruvida förvärvet av det nya medborgarskapet påverkar utrikesföddas ekonomiska integration. Data för studien är både på individ- och landnivå, det vill säga på kontextuell nivå. Våra individdata består av registerdata från respektive lands statistiska centralbyrå, där individer kontinuerligt följs under sin vistelse i respektive land, från mitten av 1980-talet och framöver. Resultaten visar, å ena sidan, tydliga skillnader i naturaliseringsfrekvens mellan Danmark, Norge och Sverige. I Sverige observeras en högre naturaliseringsfrekvens för samtliga grupper av ursprungsländer än i Norge och Danmark. Med undantag för utrikesfödda från Västeuropa och Norden, har Norge en högre naturaliseringsgrad för samtliga grupper migranter än Danmark har. Å andra sidan visar resultaten i alla tre länder att personer från Norden och Västeuropa har en relativt låg benägenhet att bli naturaliserade i sitt nya hemland medan Asien, Afrika och Östeuropa, har en mycket högre naturaliseringsgrad. Individer från Latinamerika placerar sig någonstans i mitten. Granskningen av kontextuella faktorer – som rör såväl sociala och ekonomiska förhållanden samt naturaliseringsregelverk i både ursprungslandet och destinationslandet – visar att skillnader mellan ursprungslandets och destinationslandets ekonomiska utveckling har ett genomgående samband med människors benägenhet att söka medborgarskap i det nya landet. Om en migrant kommer från ett land med en lägre ekonomisk utvecklingsnivå, är sannolikheten för naturalisering i Sverige, Norge och Danmark högre. Ett annat mönster som dock enbart framgår i Sverige är att migranter vars hemländer tillåter dubbelt medborgarskap mer eller mindre genomgående observeras med en förhöjd sannolikhet att naturaliseras. Att detta mönster enbart kan observeras i Sverige tolkas som ett resultat av att det formella förbud mot dubbelt medborgarskap som före 2001 existerade i Sverige tillämpades i mycket liten utsträckning. Detta till skillnad från Norge och Danmark som har sådana förbud som också efterlevs. I detta samband är det vidare en viktig observation att den nya lagstiftning som ägde laga kraft i Sverige 2001, som innebar ett formellt tillåtande av dubbelt medborgarskap, hade en överlag positiv effekt på migranters naturaliseringsgrad. I synnerhet är detta fallet för migranter från länder som typiskt kännetecknas av en låg naturaliseringsgrad. Analysen visar även att personer från mer ofria länder söker medborgarskap Bevelander, Helgertz, Bratsberg, Tegunimataka vi i sitt nya land i högre grad än andra. Även i Sverige finns detta samband, om än mindre tydligt. Vad gäller analysen av medborgarskapets effekter på sysselsättning och inkomster, är det främst bland migranter från länder som överlag präglas av sämre arbetsmarknadsintegration i Danmark, Norge och Sverige, där ett samband mellan naturalisering och bättre integration på arbetsmarknaden kan observeras. Naturaliserade individer från dessa länder är klart bättre integrerade på arbetsmarknaden än vad de icke-naturaliserade är. Det är dock endast i ett fåtal fall där det förbättrade utfallet på arbetsmarknaden direkt kan kopplas till naturaliseringstillfället. Därför finns det skäl att avstå från att dra slutsatsen att det finns ett kausalt orsakssamband mellan naturalisering och förbättrad arbetsmarknadsintegration för migrantgruppen i stort. Analysen har dock indikerat vissa undantag till denna mer generella slutsats, i Sveriges fall bland mer marginaliserade grupper på arbetsmarknaden. Den avslutande delen av rapporten diskuterar resultaten både i förhållande till tidigare nationella och internationella studier och i förhållande till dagens medborgarskapslagstiftningar i Danmark, Norge och Sverige.

Not only Swedish studies, but also several international studies, claim an increase in anti-Semitic attitudes in recent decades. As prejudice is acquired in the early years of socialization, and/or is innate and fairly stable over the life cycle, examining adolescents’ attitudes is vitally important. Hence, by controlling for individual demographic and socio-economic background factors, we study two interrelated questions: Has anti-Semitism among Swedish secondary school-age youths changed between 2003 and 2009? Are changes equal across groups, with a specific focus on religious groups? Using two unique cross-section surveys of secondary school-age students in Sweden for the years 2003 and 2009, we try to address the above questions. Our analysis shows, in contrast to the views of the general public and other related studies, that anti-Semitism has decreased slightly during the examined period. Moreover, the study finds a variation in anti-Semitism by religious affiliation: it has increased among Muslim youth, but remains stable in other groups.

Kunskap om valdeltagandet hos människor med utländsk bakgrund hjälper oss att förstå hur det politiska deltagandet i invandrarländer kan utvecklas på lång sikt. Hur ser det ut i Sverige? Vi har gjort en multigenerationsstudie på individnivå av personer som är födda utomlands eller som har utländsk bakgrund, där vi utgått från register över deras faktiska valdeltagande. Med kommunalvalen 2014 som fallstudie kan vi öka våra kunskaper om fenomenet. Vi verifierar tidigare forskning om invandrares röstbeteende vid valet 2014, och utforskar skillnader mellan hur utlandsfödda och svenskfödda med minst en utlandsfödd förälder utövar sina demokratiska rättigheter. Även skillnader mellan olika grupper med utländsk bakgrund studeras.

The considerable diversity among Sweden's immigrants reflects a humanitarian migration policy. Refugees have arrived in the country since the 1970s and 1980s, with their countries of origin shifting according to the ethnic and political conflicts of any given period. Sweden is also a longstanding magnet for labor migration from surrounding Scandinavia, and has attracted mobile EU citizens since its entry into the European Union in 1995—and especially following the EU enlargements of 2004 and 2007. Sweden's immigration flows continue to change today, as policy reforms in 2008 allowed employers to bring non-EU labor migrants to the country for the first time in decades. This report assesses how new immigrants to Sweden fare in the country's labor market. It shows that employment rates during newcomers’ initial years in Sweden are relatively depressed for low-educated refugees and migrants who come based on family ties, in comparison to natives and labor migrants from EU countries. Since Sweden's refugees and family arrivals are not selected through employment-related criteria, they are likely to lack locally in-demand skills and are often out of work in the years immediately after arrival. The obstacles these groups face can be exacerbated by certain features of Sweden’s labor market, such as high minimum wages, a relatively small pool of low-skilled jobs, and stringent employment protection for permanent work.

Sammanfattning Demokratin ger oss möjligheter att påverka samhället. Genom att rösta i allmänna val, eller ställa upp som kandidat till förtroendeuppdrag, har vi inflytande över lagstiftning, policy och beslut. Rösträtt och valbarhet är rättigheter som tillkommer alla röstberättigade, men det finns stora skillnader mellan olika grupper i samhället när det gäller den faktiska användningen av dessa rättigheter. Sådana skillnader brukar benämnas representationsgap eller representationsklyftor. I denna antologi belyser vi utrikes föddas valdeltagande och politisk representation. Vi ställer följande huvudfrågor: 1. Hur ser valdeltagandet ut bland utlandsfödda och personer med utländsk bakgrund? 2. Hur röstar utlandsfödda? Personröstar de i högre utsträckning än inrikes födda och vilka partier röstar de på? 3. Vilka faktorer hänger samman med att bli vald och hur kan representationsgapet förklaras? 4. Hur arbetar de politiska partierna med sina nomineringar, och på vilket sätt skapar detta hinder och möjligheter för en mer jämlik representation? 5. Vilken roll spelar etniska föreningar för det politiska deltagandet i Stockholm och i andra europeiska storstäder? 6. Vad vet vi om satsningarna på att främja valdeltagandet bland utrikes födda? Resultaten visar att utrikes födda deltar i betydligt lägre grad än inrikes födda i allmänna val. Det finns även skillnader mellan inrikes födda med två föräldrar födda utomlands och inrikes födda med svenskfödda föräldrar. Intressant nog är även benägenheten att rösta större bland dem som har en förälder som är född i Sverige – i synnerhet en mamma – än för dem som har två föräldrar födda utomlands. Personröstning, det vill säga att aktivt kryssa för en kandidat, är däremot något mer vanligt bland personer med utländsk bakgrund. Sambandet är dock svagt när kontroll sker för andra förklaringsfaktorer, såsom inkomst, utbildning och ålder. Tidigare studier har visat att personer med utländsk bakgrund i ett flertal länder tenderar att rösta på partier till vänster. Ett liknande mönster framträder i Sverige då personer med utländsk bakgrund i något större utsträckning röstar på Socialdemokraterna och Vänsterpartiet, särskilt i riksdagsval. I Sverige har invandrares representation i politiska församlingar ökat över tid men utrikes födda är fortfarande en underrepresenterad grupp. I antologin undersöks olika förklaringar till detta. Både individuella resurser (som utbildning, sysselsättning, inkomst) och kontextuella faktorer (som parti- och valsystem) beaktas. Resultaten visar att det finns litet stöd för resursbaserade förklaringar och att även kontextfaktorernas förklaringskraft är begränsad, med undantag för antalet fullmäktigeplatser i förhållande till storleken på den röstberättigade befolkningen. Upp emot en tredjedel av representationsgapet på aggregerad nivå förklaras av att utrikes födda i högre grad bor i större kommuner där antalet fullmäktigeplatser i förhållande till de röstberättigade är lägre än vad som är fallet i mindre kommuner. En annan dimension av betydelse för underrepresentationen av utrikes födda handlar om partiernas nomineringsprocesser. I antologin studeras partiinterna faktorers påverkan på möjligheterna för kandidater med invandrarbakgrund att bli nominerade till valbar plats. Nätverk har stor betydelse för karriärmöjligheter inom politiska partier och kan i vissa fall fylla en inkluderande funktion och ge tillgång till uppbackning, stöd och råd av mer erfarna och centralt placerade personer i partierna. Omvänt kan nätverken ha en exkluderande verkan gentemot personer som inte släpps in. Rollen som politiker med invandrarbakgrund kan ibland erbjuda en väg in i politiken, men kan i förlängningen också bli ett hinder för en fortsatt politisk karriär. En annan sorts hinder för utrikes födda utgörs av trösklar för deltagande, partiernas interndemokratiska processer och nyttokalkyler, till exempel när partierna väger möjligheterna att vinna vissa väljare mot risken att förlora andra. Frågan om den roll som etniska föreningar spelar för det politiska deltagandet i Stockholm och i andra europeiska storstäder undersöks också i antologin. Resultaten visar att även om föreningsanslutningen är högre i Stockholm verkar etniska föreningarna i Stockholm inte erbjuda bättre förutsättningar för politisk integration jämfört med andra europeiska storstäder. Resultaten antyder att institutionaliserat ekonomiskt och politiskt stöd till denna typ av föreningar är mindre betydelsefullt för den politiska integrationen än väntat. Samtidigt finns det inget i resultaten som ger stöd åt mothypotesen, att etniska föreningar skulle bidra till isolering. Att förverkliga ett högt och jämnt valdeltagande har länge varit ett demokratipolitiskt mål. Det finns emellertid relativt lite forskning om vilka metoder som är mest effektiva för att höja valdeltagandet, men det finns visst stöd för att möten och kontakter med väljare har positiva effekter på valdeltagande. Möten med väljare har stått i fokus i de insatser som ofta benämns ”demokratiambassadörer”, något som använts i flera kommuner inför de senaste valen. I dessa insatser har man försökt att komma tillrätta med en del problem som utmärkt tidigare demokratiinsatser och medvetet försökt undvika ett utifrån- eller uppifrånperspektiv, enkelriktad kommunikation och dessutom strävat efter att de som åtgärderna riktas mot ska vara delaktiga.

I denna bok beskrivs hur vi tillsammans inom MILSA – stödplattform för migration och hälsa – i ett gemensamt arbete lagt en grund for ett gemensamt arbete mot en hälsofrämjande etablering som bidrag till en socialt hållbar samhällsutveckling. Hälsa är en mänsklig rättighet som berör alla politikområden. Vi som arbetat tillsammans är Arbetsförmedlingen, Försäkringskassan, kommuner i Skåne, Kommunförbundet Skåne, Lunds universitet, Länsstyrelserna, Länsstyrelsen Skåne, Malmö högskola, Migrationsverket, NÄTVERKET Idéburen sektor Skåne, Region Skåne, Sveriges Kommuner och Landsting och Uppsala universitet. Arbetet har möjliggjorts genom finansiering av den Europeiska flyktingfonden. Projektet har haft gemensam projekt ledning av Malmö högskola och Länsstyrelsen Skåne.

In this introduction, we argue for the need to better understand so- cial work with migrants and to enhance its research bases against a background of increasing mobility and ethnic diversification across Europe. While much has been written on the influence of international migration on national welfare regimes and on specific forms of social welfare provision, the ways in which mi- gration affects mainstream social work practices are relatively understudied—even less so in a comparative perspective, looking at social interventions as well as to the organizations and cultures of social services, without neglecting the broader policy arrangements in which social work practice is embedded. The political and pre- scriptive bases of social workers’ remit vis-a`-vis immigrant clients, the ways of framing and categorizing the latter, and the impli- cations for social workers’ training, supervision, and research are discussed. The main value added of the five contributions to this Special Issue of JIRS is highlighted at last.

Introduction Over the last few years, the concepts and categories of transnational migration studies (Faist, Fauser, & Reisenauer, 2013; Levitt & Jaworsky, 2007) – already well-established across other disciplines – have successfully entered into the educational, theoretical, and practical field of social work. In this article we briefly take stock of this new development, in order to build a framework for the papers that follow. The contributions in this Mapping Transnationalism Section are authored by European leading scholars, with distinct and complementary takes on the emergence of a transnational turn in social work. In the first article, Karen Lyons advances a theoretical approach to social work with mobile populations, based on a conceptual revisit of international social work; in the second paper, in an educationally-oriented perspective, Pat Cox makes a case for a transnational optic to be more systematically assumed in academic curricula; in the last article, Norma Montesino and Mercedes Jiménez-Álvarez discuss the prospects for social work practice with a client group with a strongly transnational profile, such as so-called “unaccompanied minors.”1 What is specific to our own introductory piece, instead, is a three-step argument: a discussion of the conceptual grounds and the external factors underlying the transition from international to transnational social work (Section 1); an overview of the practical forms of transnational social work in the context of migration and of the types of resources circulated through them (Section 2); a preliminary balance of the professional implications of transnational social work with migrants, and of the challenges ahead for its refinement and diffusion (Section 3).

According to the theory of “defining moments” dramatic events such as the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963 and the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001 make a deep impression especially on the minds of young people and eventually lead to the formation of cohorts bound by common values. Knowledge of such cohorts can be used for many purposes, such as marketing, staff management or political campaigns. This paper analyses the impact of dramatic events on people in different age groups in Sweden through a survey answered by nearly a thousand people – of which 40 percent are foreign-born – from the city of Malmö.

In this paper, we bring questions of space, locality, and culture squarely into discussions of immigrant incorporation. The growing body of work on new immigrant destinations and contexts of reception often fails to consider how particular locales are embedded in larger geopolitical fields in ways that make them more or less receptive. Moreover, it privileges the economic characteristics of localities without paying sufficient attention to variations in cultural resources. In this study of two small, post-industrial cities, we argue that important variations in how they create and deploy their ‘cultural armature’, including differences in urban self-presentation, the prevailing ethos toward immigrants, and how culture has been harnessed in service of urban renewal, history, and the political economy, explain much of the variation in our two contexts of reception. Both cities speak the language of multiculturalism and tolerance, but Portland, ME offers newcomers welcoming spaces while those arriving in Danbury, CT encounter a hotbed of ‘anti-immigrant’ discourse and activity.

The societal effects of forced migration are a burning topic of current political debate in Europe. There is an obvious absence of sustainable approaches to deal with this issue. We describe a collaborative and systemic regional effort, involving some 50 partners, towards a health-promoting and inclusive integration process designed to reach all refugees who settle in the southern region of Sweden. The main components of this process are now being disseminated to other regions in Sweden, which is contributing to national capacity-building. In addition, a national educational programme is being developed for those engaged in conveying civic and health information to asylum seekers and refugees. This work involves stakeholders in collaboration with six universities from different geographical areas of Sweden. The effort we describe in this report is expected to greatly contribute to providing better opportunities for all refugees in Sweden, and to empower them to control their own adaptation to a new life, thus reducing the risk of health deterioration often seen among them.

Neighbourhoods are led to construct themselves in a homogeneous way, in a sort of community in the sense of aggregated groups, not necessary only in terms of ethnicity but in terms of socio-economic characteristics. This reflects migration, socio-economic difference and the dynamic of the city development. These neighbourhoods have a potential of self-regulation and stabilisation of the city that is often underestimated. Thus, I think that the mixture of a city is the result of mobility, but cannot be the starting point, in particular in modern, flexibilised societies in which weak identities search for stabilizing communities.

Review of Carceral Geographies: Spaces and Practices of Incarceration by Dominique Moran (Ashgate, 2015)

The metaphorical expression 'burning without fire' is a powerfully evocative rendering of the experience of forced removal for deportees and migrants at risk of deportation in Sweden. This chapter critically analyses the official discourse of protection of migrants' psychosocial wellbeing by drawing on first-hand experiences of migrants who are living through the forced return migration process in Sweden. It discusses the migrants' own subjective experiences of the deportation process, with a focus on aspects of their psychosocial wellbeing and health. The chapter contributes to the few publications and studies on detention and deportation in Sweden, most recently by DeBono, Khosravi, Puthoopparambil and Sager. It shows how deportable migrants in Sweden are enduring hardships that, in their different ways, they experience as 'burning', as extreme, painful, agonising, in spite of the relatively good structures in place, or rather, the well-regulated, sophisticated bureaucratic structures in place. 

The yardstick set by the EU to enact ‘fair, humane and effective returns’ includes the very basic human rights to health and life. States have an obligation to ensure that the human rights of all are safeguarded – and justifiably it is expected that in state-organised activities this standard is meticulously upheld. But is it at all possible for a state to claim that it is safeguarding deportees’ human rights? In an attempt to answer this question, this post explores migrants’ experiences of the first stage of the deportation process in Sweden in terms of their psychosocial wellbeing and human rights.

Immigration has become a litmus test of our societies’ capacity to treat people with dignity. The grim reality is that we enter a 2017 imbued with a solidarity and human rights crisis which will make the quest for social and global justice more demanding, but also more pertinent.

By analysing migrant experiences of living in Sweden under the threat of deportation, this book contributes to our understanding of the effects of deportation, or forced return, on people. Migrants at risk of deportation are a varied and disparate group, with singularly different stories. Within their different stories, often painful to listen to, there arise common and strong narratives. These narratives, the outcome of qualitative research with migrants, are the focus of this volume. An overview of key policies, legislations and institutions at the Swedish and EU levels is provided to contextualise the data and conclusions. What can we learn from these migrant experiences of the Swedish forced returns system, a system which has been both highly commended in some areas while critiqued in others? Deportation is increasingly being discussed from a social and global justice point of view, as well as from a human rights point of view. It is therefore of critical importance that migrant voices are heard and their experiences analysed. The 2009 European Return Directive, transposed into Swedish law in 2012, states that deportation and pre-removal detention should be conducted with respect to fundamental human rights, or in other words, in a ‘humane and dignified’ manner. But what is a ‘humane and dignified’ deportation? Is it an oxymoron in itself? This book does not claim to answer this question, but merely contributes to the debate through an analysis of migrant narratives. The afterword by UNHCR Nansen Award winner Dr. Katrine Camilleri reflects on the results of the study by juxtaposing it with her own work in Malta and primes a wider discussion of the topic by putting the Swedish case in the broader context of European Union trends.

This study examines three theses on local integration policies by a qualitative comparative case study of integration policies in three cities in three different countries (Berlin, Malmö, and Rotterdam). We found little evidence of a congruent local dimension of integration policies. Local policies resemble their national policy frameworks fairly well in terms of policy approaches and domains. Our multi-level perspective shows that this is not the result of top-down hierarchical governance, but rather of a multilevel dynamic of two-way interaction. Local policy legacies and local politics matter and national policies are also influenced by local approaches of integration.

There is a growing interest in the research community in the local governance of migration and integration. Studies indicate a local turn in integration policies, with local governments becoming important integration policy actors. Unlike most research, this study of recent developments in the policies for migrant newcomers in Denmark and Sweden observes a national turn in local integration policy. Despite their different integration policies, the central governments of both countries have increased their control and influence at the local level and thereby made it more difficult for local governments to formulate their own integration policies. This study highlights the need to complement earlier research based on frame analysis with an analytical framework that takes central government steering and the uneven power relationship between the levels of government into account.

This article studies the outcomes of the 2008 labour-migration policy change in Sweden, when most state control was abolished and an employer-led selection was introduced. The main goal was to increase labour migration from third countries to occupational sectors experiencing labour shortages. The article compares the volume, composition and labour-market status of labour migrants who arrived before the change in the law with those who arrived after. Labour migrants from EU countries are used as a control group to assess any eventual influence from non-migration policy determinants. The main outcome of the policy change is that non-EU labour migration increased – an effect entirely due to the rise in labour migration to surplus occupations. Changes in the composition of the labour migrants explains why those who came after the law change have, on average, a worse labour market position.

Frågan om högkvalificerad arbetskraftsinvandring är intressant av flera anledningar. För det första är allt fler överens om att den internationella konkurrensen för att locka till sig begåvningar tilltar, vad som brukar benämnas the global race for talents (Kuvik 2013). Till skillnad från andra kategorier av invandrare brukar högkvalificerade invandrare både ses som önskade och välkomna (Triadafilopoulos & Smith 2013). Med ökade möjligheter till mobilitet följer en ökad konkurrens om arbetskraften mellan EU:s medlemsländer, med traditionella invandringsländer som Kanada och USA och med nya konkurrenter som Kina och Indien. Den mest efterfrågade arbetskraften är just högkvalificerade personer, där det inte bara handlar om att locka till sig önskad arbetskraft utan också om att behålla den. Mycket tyder på att europeiska länder är mindre framgångsrika i detta avseende och de flesta OECD-länder är nettosändare av högutbildade personer. Vinnarna är engelskspråkiga länder som USA, Kanada och Australien. Även inom Europa finns det ett fåtal vinnare, bland dem Luxemburg, Sverige och Schweiz (Brücker, et al. 2012, s. 65).1 För det andra har dagens invandringspolitik i de flesta länder allt mer kommit att handla om att styra invandringen bort från en generell invandring till ett noggrant och hårt kontrollerat urval av invandrare. Dagens politik för arbetskraftsinvandring är inte som på 1960-talet utformad för att bemöta en generell arbetskraftsbrist utan för att bemöta specifika rekryteringsbehov och/eller för att stimulera ekonomisk tillväxt mer generellt (Menz & Caviedes 2010). För det tredje är de flesta yrken där det finns brist på arbetskraft högkvalificerade yrken, vilket inte minst är fallet i Sverige. Arbetsförmedlingens prognos för 2014-2016 visar till exempel att den största bristen på arbetskraft finns inom yrken som kräver högre utbildning: i offentlig sektor inom yrken som lärare och inom hälso- och sjukvård och i privat sektor yrken inom teknik och data (Arbetsförmedlingen 2014). Därutöver är bristen allt större för kvalificerade yrken inom bygg och anläggning. Det finns därför goda skäl att studera just den högkvalificerade arbetskraftsinvandringen också i den svenska kontexten.

Using data for the period 1968–2001, this article assesses the influence of partner choice and origin country characteristics on the propensity of immigrants to naturalize in Sweden. Marriage to a foreign‐born Swedish citizen increases the naturalization propensity, and its effect increases strongly when the spouse naturalizes during the same year. The analysis suggests that a lower level of civic and political freedom or relative GDP per capita in the individual's country of origin is associated with an elevated probability of naturalization. During the period of study, originating from a country which allows for dual citizenship did not systematically elevate the probability to naturalize; this probability was accentuated, however, if the individual originated from a context characterized by a low degree of civic and political freedom.

Recension av avhandling

The encapsulation of Europe´s borders inside the national states and current demands to limit migration inte the EU lie at the core of this study. I discuss how feelings of anxiety towards growing diversity in the population transmute into party political preferences. I show how the nationalist-populist party the Sweden Democrats in Sweden mobilize voters from both the right and the left, using the national myth of the People´s Home to distinguish between the fearful outside and the authenticity of the inside.

Begreppet "rasism" kan vara förvirrande då det ofta används på olika sätt av olika människor. När vi pratar om rasism finns därför risk för missförstånd för att vi helt enkelt inte pratar om samma sak. I rapporten gör statsvetaren Anders Hellström ett försök att reda ut begreppet genom att inventera och beskriva olika slags rasismer så som de ofta diskuteras i samhällsvetenskaplig forskning.

In Scandinavia, there is separation in the electorate between those who embrace diversity and those who wish for tighter bonds between people and nation. This book focuses on three nationalist populist parties in Scandinavia—the Sweden Democrats, the Progress Party in Norway, and the Danish People’s Party. In order to affect domestic politics by addressing this conflict of diversity versus homogeneity, these parties must enter the national parliament while earning the nation’s trust. Of the three, the Sweden Democrats have yet to earn the trust of the mainstream, leading to polarized and emotionally driven public debate that raises the question of national identity and what is understood as the common man.

Det finns inte en rasism, utan flera olika rasismer. Det här är ingen katastrof, utan tvärtom en början för reflektion och diskussion kring vilka vi är och vill vara i relation till de andra; hur vi kan och vill leva tillsammans i olikhet.

En narrativ analys av läsarbrev på sajten AVpixlat. Syftet är att identifiera en konkurrerande logik för att avge sin röst på Sverigedemokraterna i detta parallella offentliga rum.

Sweden and Denmark share a similar socio-political structure, yet these two countries demonstrate two distinct discourses on immigration. This article focuses on the tone of the debate in Denmark and Sweden concerning immigration and national identity. If the tone of debate is shaped by a language of fear, we argue, this predisposes people to vote for anti-immigration parties. Our analysis highlights the position of anti-immigration parties; hence, the Sweden Democrats (SD) in Sweden and the Danish People’s Party (DPP) in Denmark. We use frame analysis to detect recurrent frames in the media debate concerning the SD and the DPP in the political competition over votes. Our material concentrates on the run-up to the European Parliamentary (EP) elections of 2004 and 2009, in total 573 articles in ten major Danish and Swedish newspapers. We show that the harsh tone of the debate and the negative dialogue risks leading to the construction of beasts that are impossible to negotiate with. In the Swedish political debate, the SD is highly stigmatized as the beast (the extreme other) in Swedish politics and this stigma is used by the SD in the mobilization of votes. In Denmark the religion of Islam as such plays a similar role and provides the DPP with an identity. We conclude that we are confronted with a two-faced beast that feeds on perceptions of the people as ultimately afraid of what are not recognized as native goods.

After a quarter century in which biomedical approaches have dominated discussions about schizophrenia and the influence of environmental factors has been neglected, interest in social determinants is reviving. Research in the Netherlands and other countries has demonstrated that the risk of a diagnosis of schizophrenia among certain migrant groups is strikingly higher than the norm and that social factors play a major role in this. In the UK, however, many members of minority ethnic groups regard the increased frequencies of these diagnoses and of compulsory admission as evidence of racism. This paper examines this new wave of research studies. The hypothesis of ethnic bias in diagnoses of schizophrenia and compulsory admission orders has never been satisfactorily ruled out. In spite of this, there are many indications that the raised incidence of schizophrenia among certain groups of migrants is genuine. Various explanations of this phenomenon are discussed; quantitative and qualitative research methods can usefully complement each other in this area. In conclusion, ways of improving the care of psychotic patients and reducing the frequency of compulsory admissions are examined.

This paper analyses the marital dissolution of binational couples (i.e. couples comprised of immigrants and natives) in countries with traditionally distinct integration models: Canada, the United States and France. Previous studies appeal to cultural differences to explain the higher divorce rates of binational couples but they omit the potential effect of migration or that of environmental factors such as immigration policies and attitudes towards migration and intermarriage. In order to test a model that includes all these factors, an identical online survey was conducted in the cited countries. The concepts ‘binational couples’ and ‘culture’ were disentangled into specific types of couples and variables. While being involved in a binational marriage was not found to be a significant predictor of divorce, being involved in one where both partners are foreign born decreases the risk of divorce. Religion, family values and families’ perception of a relationship are also significantly related to marital stability.

The aim of this article was twofold: first, to provide an overview of immigration and integration policies in Sweden, and second, to analyse the labour market integration of humanitarian migrants who arrived in Sweden between 1998 and 2012 relative to other migrants and natives.

This paper provides an overview of the socio-demographic characteristics, labour-market participation and occupational mobility of highly educated immigrants1 in Sweden. Based on a statistical analysis of register data, we compare their employment rates, salaries and occupational skill level and mobility to those of immigrants with lower education and with natives. Among the questions addressed in this paper are: What is the socio-demographic profile of highly skilled immigrants to Sweden? Where do they come from and how do they enter the country? Are there differences in highly educated immigrants’ employment rates by citizenship status, migration entry route and place of birth? How do the salaries of highly educated men and women compare between immigrants and natives? What is the education-to-job match for them? How do occupational mobility patterns compare for highly educated immigrants versus those with lower education? Finally, are there differences in occupational skill level for highly educated migrants by entry route? Our results show that, while highly skilled immigrants perform better than those with a lower educational level, they never catch up with their native counterparts.

The economic integration of immigrants has become a challenging topic in the European political agenda. This is especially true for countries that are struggling to survive the economic recession which started in 2008. In this context, entrepreneurship emerges as an alternative to unemployment. While the self-employment propensity of immigrants is well documented, little is known about the performance of these ventures. This article contributes to the literature by comparing and explaining the differential earnings of self-employed versus salaried immigrants in Spain. A binary logistic regression is applied to explore data collected by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor project for 2005 and 2006. Our findings show that self-employed immigrants’ income exceeds that of salaried workers. Human capital and location-related environmental variables were found to be the best predictors of both self-employed and salaried immigrants’ earnings.

The liability of foreignness is a phenomenon scarcely studied in the entrepreneurship literature. While immigrants seem to be prone to create new firms, they face different sorts of barriers to launch new businesses. We apply a binomial logistic regression on Global Entrepreneurship Monitor data to compare immigrants’ and natives’ entrepreneurial intentions to the actual self-employment activity of each group, and the factors affecting potential differences. We found that immigrants are more likely to have self-employment plans than natives but less likely to end up becoming self-employed. We explain this gap by the liability of foreignness hypothesis, i.e. additional difficulties faced by immigrants when entering the job market or starting up a business in a new country such as poor language skills, the lack of labour experience, the lack of human and social capital endowments specific to that country, and institutional restrictions including discrimination.