Continuity or Change? The refugee crisis and the end of Swedish exceptionalism

Abstract

According to the policy-making literature, external shocks are one of the most important pre-requisites for major policy changes. This article investigates how the refugee crisis affected Swedish political parties' asylum and family migration policy preferences. The results indicate that the refugee crisis contributed to the breaking up of a long-established policy paradigm of openness and equal rights previously shared by most parties in parliament. A more fragmented party system has emerged where a new paradigm of controlling numbers has also found strong support outside the anti-immigration party the Sweden Democrats.

Contemporary Land Questions in Sweden, Far‐Right Populist Strategies and Challenges for Inclusionary Rural Development

“…The first has to do with the ways in which the political agenda of SD has influenced the overall political discussion on immigration in Sweden, and the second concerns social groups and areas where SD has increased its support. In this regard, we can observe that today the two other largest Swedish political parties, namely the Swedish Social Democratic Party and the Conservative Party (and a part of their supporters), have both moved towards more restrictive immigration policies (Emilsson 2018;Demker 2019). These are the two parties from which considerable numbers of voters changed allegiance and supported SD in the last elections (Jylhä et al 2018).…”

“…The wave of new immigrants to Sweden from 2015 onwards raised new questions about integration and the capacity of the country to offer livelihood possibilities to these new immigrants. In 2020, and after the last refugee crisis and the politicisation of immigration in part motivated by the growing role of SD in the political process, several other political parties shifted some of their positions on immigration and adopted a more restrictive view on immigration policies (Emilsson 2018). Also, according to studies on voter preferences, immigration has become a much more salient issue in voters' concerns during elections.…”

The Refugee Reception Crisis : Polarized Opinions and Mobilizations

“…11 The mainstream-left bloc The Left Party has in the past had a restrictive policy on immigration, especially towards labour migration (Bucken-Knapp 2009). However, nowadays the party endorses the opposite position to the SD, and is in favour of abolishing the temporary border controls (see above), aiming to facilitate more legal ways for migrants to enter the country (Emilsson 2018). In terms of the socio-cultural division between authoritarianism and progressivism, the Left Party clearly belongs to the latter category.…”

“…Back in the 1990s and early 2000s, when many other countries moved towards the implementation of harsher policies regarding immigration, integration and citizenship, Sweden went in the opposite direction. However, this development finally came to a halt in the autumn of 2015, in what has been referred to as "the end of Swedish exceptionalism", when Sweden adjusted its immigration policy to the EU minimum level (Emilsson 2018;Rydgren and Van Meiden 2016). There was a drastic increase in the number of asylum seekers coming to Sweden in the period from September to November 2015.…”

Is There a State Crisis in Sweden?

“…Since 2015, immigration has been the single most important political issue in Sweden, 51 and a new policy paradigm has emerged that acknowledges that Sweden needs to reduce the level of immigration. 52 At the same time, according to a 2017 opinion poll by Pew Research, Swedes scored the lowest on the nationalist, anti-immigrant, anti-religious minority attitudes (NIM) scale. 53 From this vantage point, Swedes are generally tolerant, but they want reduced and managed migration, and some want to be able to express love for their communities and Swedish way of life because they cherish that they belong "somewhere".…”