Who's Welcome and Who's Not? Opposition towards Immigration in the Nordic Countries, 2002–2014

Abstract

This article demonstrates the analytical advantages of studying not only the degree to which people oppose immigration in a country, but also the character of their opposition. Using Latent Class Analysis and data from the European Social Survey, Nordic patterns and trends are examined with the aim of identifying different kinds of immigration attitudes and how they develop in different national contexts. The Nordic countries are interesting to compare as, while they are similar in many respects, they also diverge significantly from each other in areas theoretically considered important to the formation of attitudes towards immigration. Studying the character of immigration opposition reveals five different types of immigration attitudes. These are differently distributed between the Nordic countries as well as over time, and include nativist opposition (opposition only towards immigrants of ethnic/racial groups other than that of the majority population) and economic opposition (opposition that entails a separation between immigrants considered to be an economic resource and an economic burden). By demonstrating how immigration opposition in the Nordic countries varies not only in degree but also in character, the article contributes to a deeper understanding of the nature of immigration opposition as well as of how different attitudinal profiles evolve under different contextual circumstances.

Nordic welfare chauvinism: A comparative study of welfare chauvinism in Sweden, Norway and Finland

“…However, there is a clear difference in the strength of the two variables, as attitudes towards culturally dissimilar immigrants have a more than four times stronger effect than those towards culturally similar immigrants. This is in line with previous studies that indicate that Finns take differential positions on different immigrant groups (Bohman, 2018). The Russian population in Finland is often perceived as a realistic threat (Nshom and Croucher, 2014), which may explain why attitudes towards culturally similar groups have an effect in Finland.…”

Do Pure Liberals Both Endorse Immigration and Reject Muslims? Examining the Inconsistency Hypothesis

“…How does the ethnic majority in Europe react to these significant developments and to Muslim immigration? In a cross-national study, Abdelaaty and Steele (2022) report that majority members’ opposition to Muslim immigration is common, but they also found that mass-level reactions toward immigration and immigrants are not uniform (see also Bohman 2018). How should this non-uniform pattern at the mass level be conceptualized?…”

“…The inflow of Muslims from the Middle East to European nations is provoking varying popular reactions among majority members (Gusciute, Mühlau and Layte 2021). In Western democracies, some segments of the majority group oppose Muslim immigration, while others support it (Bohman 2018). But do the supporters of Muslim immigration accept Muslims without hesitation?…”