Explaining Local Swedish Refugee Policy

Abstract

In the Swedish migration system, the local level plays a crucial role since the municipalities have full autonomy to accept or decline refugees. This has created a considerable variation in numbers of immigrants among municipalities, and there is a large variation in local societies' willingness to receive refugees. In this study, we focus on all the Swedish municipalities for a time span of several years and derive from economic, demographic, socio-cultural, and explanatory factors that have been put forward in earlier research. Through quantitative analysis, we can show how income, the unemployment rate, population, and support for the right-wing party negatively vary with the willingness to receive refugees. Moreover, the distribution of income results in the opposite significant direction. These results, partly contradicting theory, show the importance of a nuanced and holistic theoretical base in further research.

Do Anti‐immigration Parties Matter? The Case of the Sweden Democrats and Local Refugee Policy

“…Related to economic circumstances is the demographic situation. In relation to theories of a demand for additional labour (Piore ) and incentives for increasing the population in the municipality, we argue, in accordance with empirical proof from previous Swedish research (Lidén & Nyhlén ), that smaller municipalities are more inclined to receive refugees. We therefore add an indicator measuring population size.…”

“…While we can only speculate about the causes for this relationship, it might be that it serves as a proxy for other properties that causes municipalities to initiate a reception (cf. Lidén & Nyhlén ). Furthermore, income distribution, measured as a Gini coefficient, yields a positive influence.…”

“…The results from these studies on a local level suggest that we should expect the SD to have an impact on local refugee reception. However, the only study thus far dealing with the impact of the SD (Lidén and Nyhlén ) is not primarily a study targeted at political factors. As a result, the only political factor included concerning the SD is their vote share.…”

“…While the analysis seems sound, we argue that an extended test is needed to get a more nuanced picture. Therefore, we build on the insights from the Lidén and Nyhlén () study, but extend them to include a number of additional political factors.…”

Trading Refugees: The Governance of Refugee Settlement in a Decentralized Welfare State

“…Decentralized welfare states, like the Scandinavian countries, settle and enrol refugees in tailor‐made, multi‐year integration programmes, implemented at the local government level (Valenta and Bunar ; OECD , 11). Studies in Sweden and Norway have shown that local skepticism to receiving refugees is reduced by municipal affluence and by framing the issue as an administrative one rather than a political one (Liden and Nyhlen , ; Steen ). Other studies of Scandinavian refugee settlement policies have focused differences in local responses to state ambitions in liberal Sweden and restrictive Denmark (Myrberg ).…”