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The Attitudes of Native Swedes Toward Refugees

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The Attitudes of Native Swedes Toward Refugees Bachelor Thesis The Attitudes of Native Swedes Toward Refugees - A Case Study on the Role of Social Identity Author: Eric Sonesson Supervisor: Christopher High Examiner: Heiko Fritz Term: VT21 Subject: Peace & Development Level: Undergraduate Course code: 2FU33E Abstract Refugee-host community relations is a topic of increasing relevance, and so is the need to understand what shapes such relations. Sweden, having a historically liberal refugee and immigrant policy, accepted the biggest number of refugees in its recent history during the 2015 refugee crisis - the amount of which was the biggest per capita ever recorded in an OECD country. The attitudes of native Swedes toward refugees can be tied to whether they socially identify themselves as pluralists or nationalists, two opposing social identities which, especially in the years surrounding the refugee crisis, are observed harboring hostile attitudes toward each other. Pluralists are inclined to have positive attitudes toward refugees; nationalists are prone to have negative attitudes. While these two groups can be observed, it remains ambiguous to what extent the Swedish population identifies with them. The political popularity of openly pluralist and nationalist political parties gives some notion; however, the inherent complexity of Swedish politics makes this method of deduction overly simplistic. Seemingly contradictory, while support for multiculturalism and refugee acceptance is decreasing, the percentage harboring very negative attitudes toward migrants is historically and presently quite low, and a growing number of Swedes are observed having increasingly positive attitudes toward refugees and immigrants in their everyday interactions. As future events unfold, it will be interesting to see what identity “the silent majority” of the native Swedish population will sympathize with, as this will no doubt affect their attitudes toward refugees and change refugee-host community relations in Sweden. Key words Peace and Development Studies, Migration Studies, Refugee-host community relations, the 2015 refugee crisis Acknowledgments I would like to thank my supervisor, Christopher High, for his efforts at keeping my feet on the ground and head above water. 2 Contents 1 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 1 2 Theoretical Framework Considerations ........................................................ 2 2.1 Previous Research ...................................................................................... 2 2.2 Theoretical Framework .............................................................................. 4 3 Methodological Framework Considerations.................................................. 7 3.1 Chosen Time Period ................................................................................... 8 3.2 Surveys ....................................................................................................... 9 3.3 Statistics Provided by State Institutions ................................................... 10 3.4 News Articles ............................................................................................ 10 3.5 Political Manifests, Motions and Articles by Swedish Political Parties .. 10 3.6 YouTube Videos ........................................................................................ 11 3.7 Trending Twitter Hashtags ....................................................................... 11 3.8 Secondary Data ........................................................................................ 11 3.9 A Note on Terminology ............................................................................ 12 4 Limitations and Delimitations ....................................................................... 12 5 Case Study....................................................................................................... 13 5.1 Monocultural to Multicultural (1910-2013) ............................................. 13 5.2 The European Refugee Crisis ................................................................... 16 5.2.1 Case Study Graphs & Statistics ........................................................ 16 5.2.2 2014 .................................................................................................. 22 5.2.3 2015 .................................................................................................. 24 5.2.4 2016 .................................................................................................. 26 5.2.5 2017 .................................................................................................. 28 5.2.6 2018 .................................................................................................. 29 6 Analysis ........................................................................................................... 38 6.1 The Nationalists ....................................................................................... 39 6.1.1 Alternative Reasons for Nationalist Popularity ................................ 40 6.2 The Pluralists ........................................................................................... 41 7 Conclusion ....................................................................................................... 42 8 References ....................................................................................................... 44 3 1 Introduction What are the dynamics behind refugee-host community relations? How come one portion of a country’s native population is supportive and welcoming of refugees, and another rejects them, on both a political and personal level? This thesis is centered around these questions, meant to provide answers using a sociopsychological approach. Understanding such group dynamics is becoming increasingly relevant; as our world is growing more interconnected, different groups of people are interacting with, and affecting, each other more and more. Not unrelated to this, while many enjoy peaceful and comfortable lives, a significant proportion do not. According to the UN Refugee Agency (unhcr.org, 2018), at the end of 2018, 70,8 million people had been forcibly displaced because of persecution, conflict, violence, or human rights violations, 25,9 million of which being categorized as refugees. About half of all forcibly displaced were children below the age of 18. Understanding the dynamics between refugees and their host communities will help prevent prejudices and hostilities between the two groups, which is not only a goal in itself, but a necessary precondition for any society’s peace and development. This subject is especially relevant in Sweden. A nation that through the 20th century turned monocultural to multicultural, and homogeneous to heterogeneous, a development that continues to this day, these events were put to the forefront of Swedish public discourse during the 2015 refugee crisis, when the country accepted more refugees per capita ever recorded in an OECD country. As such, the attitudes of native Swedes toward refugees living in Sweden, and the nature of, and causal mechanisms behind those attitudes, is arguably more important to understand now more than ever. Second, Sweden was chosen as a country of analysis because of its rich economy; analyzing a nation with a well-off economy allows for a deeper analysis of the sociopsychological factors behind a native’s population toward refugees, whereas the attitudes of native citizens in a poorer country might be more affected by socioeconomic reasons, whether they are real or perceived. Third, Sweden was chosen due to the significant available data, the availability of which is caused both by the growing international and national debate on migration policy in Sweden, and due to the Swedish nationality of the author, making access to said data easier. The context of this case study is on the attitudes of Swedes toward refugees, applying the method of process-tracing on the period 2014 to 2018, together with events in Swedish history leading up to said period, 1910 to 2013. These four years cover the 2015 refugee crisis and its political consequences, which, when observed through different sources, involve the attitudes of Swedes toward refugees and migrant policy in Sweden in detail. Contemporary Sweden is experiencing an increased polarization on the topic 1 of migration, with growingly vocal proponents of both liberal and strict migration policies on opposing sides. Nationalist populism and anti-refugee sentiments is growing in popularity. Both positive and hostile attitudes toward refugees are becoming more visible in the everyday. As these developments are unfolding, it remains uncertain whether Swedes are becoming hostile, or more welcoming, toward refugees, and what the causes might be. This research problem will be explored. As a method of exploration, there are two research questions that will be serve a guide throughout the research of this thesis: 1. How does social identity affect the attitudes of native Swedes toward refugees, from a historical and contemporary perspective? 2. How are these attitudes reflected in Swedish politics? 2 Theoretical Framework Considerations 2.1 Previous Research Research concerning the relationship between refugees and their host communities is continually expanding. As a field of study, as mentioned above, migration and integration studies is growing more relevant in an ever- more globalized and interconnected world
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