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The Role of Media and Government in Refugee Acceptance Rates In THE ROLE OF MEDIA AND GOVERNMENT IN REFUGEE ACCEPTANCE RATES IN SWEDEN by Taylor Elizabeth Lundquist Honors Thesis Appalachian State University Submitted to the Department of Geography and Planning In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts May 2021 Approved by: Kara Dempsey, P.h.D, Thesis Director Kelly Chernin, P.h.D, Second Reader Richard Crepeau, P.h.D, Departmental Honors Director Abstract The Swedish Migration Agency states that to apply for asylum in Sweden, a person must be either a victim of or at risk of persecution in their home state (Swedish Migration Agency, 2017). Over the past decade, refugee acceptance, asylum seekers fleeing from violence, and victims of environmental or natural disasters have become an international topic of debate. The discussion on who must accept asylum seekers and why has been the cause of much political tension. For instance, there was a sudden decrease in acceptance rates from 2016 to the present day in Sweden. This paper focuses on Syrian refugee acceptance rates that illustrate the change. Statistically, Sweden accepts a majority of asylum seekers from Syria compared to applicants from other states. However, there was a shift after 2016 from 0.3% rejection of Syrian refugees to 6.9% in 2017 (AIDA, 2020). The main focus of this paper will be the discrepancy between the narrative of the Swedish government and the media. The study then explores what the main contributing drivers of the rapid change in refugee acceptance could be. While there are many contributing factors to the reduction in asylum seeker acceptance rates, I argue that the media highlighted the unparalleled rise in the alt-right Sweden Democrats and their xenophobic rhetoric, which strongly influenced public attitudes and migration legislation. Key Words: Asylum, Parliament, Media, Sweden Democrats 1 Introduction The European Commission defines an asylum seeker as “a person subject to a migratory movement in which an element of coercion exists, including threats to life and livelihood, whether arising from natural or man-made causes'' (European Commission, 2019, para. 1). Traditionally, Sweden grants a large number of asylum seekers asylum status in comparison to other European Union (EU) member states, providing humanitarian and subsidiary protection. Sweden was among the highest three receiving European states that accepted asylum seekers in 2014 during the European Migration “Crisis” with a total of 142,207 according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR, 2014). Of the EU member states, Sweden has consistently been in the top countries of asylum seeker acceptance. However, this statistic shifted in 2016 and 2017 when Sweden’s rejection rate significantly increased from around 22.2% to 52.9% (AIDA, 2020). To understand this increased rejection rate, this paper examines changing narratives within the Swedish media, including headlining xenophobic Swedish political parties’ anti-immigration agenda, and the Swedish government’s justifications - such as the implementation of the new Covid 19 legislation - for the state’s altered policy. The Swedish government justified its rising rejection rate of asylum seekers by suggesting that it no longer should shoulder the majority of the responsibility for asylum acceptance within the EU, and claimed that other member-states are not accepting or required to accept as many asylum seekers as Sweden. This justification is inconsistent with the narrative of Swedish media. Therefore, the following study explores such governmental explanations as to why the asylum rejection rate has fluctuated, while also presenting evidence of Swedish media’s “anti-immigrant” agenda through an analysis of news/media articles, parliament meeting minutes, and government officials’ speeches. More specifically, this study intends to discover the true reason for the shift in acceptance and rejection rates and to inspect the Swedish public’s 2 response to the shifts. It aims to answer the following questions through analysis of parliamentary minutes, speeches, media, and news outlet coverage: ● How has the media’s portrayal of asylum seekers and migrants in Sweden impacted rejection rates? ● What role did the rise of the Sweden Democrats play in the adoption of the anti-immigrant agenda? Background and Methods Sweden is an EU member-state, the 4th wealthiest in Europe, and the 5th richest population in the world according to the 2015 world wealth report by Allianz (Brandmeir et al., 2015). In 2015, over 160,000 migrants applied for asylum in Sweden (Wallenfeldt, 2020), which was the largest amount of asylum applications per capita within the EU. Historically, the Swedes have a reputation for fostering a positive and welcoming society for non-citizens with a generous asylum policy for those seeking refuge. For instance, unaccompanied minors that gain asylum in Sweden are granted access to equal education by law, provided healthcare, a temporary guardian, and temporary housing (Human Rights Watch, 2017). At first, Swedish natives even rushed to trains in Malmo to welcome unaccompanied minors. Swedish correspondent Maddy Savage states that at the time Sweden “was one of the most welcoming countries anywhere. At stations there were people with banners saying "refugees welcome", and a year earlier the prime minister had given a speech asking Swedes to open their hearts to migrants” (Evans, 2020). This depicts the welcoming attitudes of Swedes towards minors and refugees of all ages during this time. Once a minor achieves asylum status, they are entitled to sponsor their families to have them reunited in Sweden. During this progress, immigration officials can assist the minors with the required paperwork. In addition, if the applicants lack the financial means to fund their journey 3 to Sweden, the state helps fund the trip (Braw, 2015). This additional financial support for travel funding is particularly desirable as many families cannot afford the cost of safe passage to the EU. Another desirable aspect of the Swedish regulatory legislation for asylum seekers is its generous welfare system, which includes a robust refugee policy. Sweden’s refugee policy includes housing, health and dental care, education for children until the age of twenty, and family reunification. In comparison, other EU member states do not provide the same amount of safety, a welcoming social climate, or resources to refugees. Greece, for example, is considered to be an undesirable state for asylum due to violent acts of xenophobia and their weak financial offerings to refugees. Thus, during an acute period of political upheaval in the Middle East, Swedish reputation as a welcoming society and their generous welfare system inspired many asylum seekers to apply for asylum in Sweden. However, 2016 marked a change in Swedish acceptance rates, witnessing a decrease in those granted asylum each year, a rise in hate groups percentages, and narrative. I will demonstrate that the Swedish media played a large role in the promotion and spread of xenophobia, including widely publicizing the racist rhetoric of the Sweden Democrats, an alt-right nationalist political party, which described immigrants as a detriment to Swedish society. In more recent years, surveys have shown that there this increased xenophobia and racism remains among many in Swedish society. For example, in the year 2000, the European Monitoring System conducted a survey on xenophobia and racism in Sweden. The survey indicated that a majority of the population harbor negative attitudes toward allowing more immigrants into the state. It also showed that a majority of the population showed signs of 4 critical behavior1 and attitudes towards existing immigrants as well, and as the survey has matured, these attitudes have remained steady (Green‐Pedersen and Krogstrup, 2008). To further illustrate the findings of the Europe Monitoring System survey, I conducted a statistical analysis of refugee data from the AIDA asylum database and created two graphs to display the percentage of asylum seeker rejection rates by year in Sweden. In addition to the data present in the graphs, I did a textual analysis of Swedish news outlets to evaluate how much of the media described national immigration policy and asylum acceptance rates. The outlets chosen for examples in this paper are Aftonbladet, an independent social-democrat media outlet, Dagens Nyheter, an independent liberal outlet, and Fria Tider, a right-wing media outlet. Each of these outlets were chosen due to their difference in political affiliation, allowing for an unbiased inspection of the content presented. I searched for the keywords “immigration” and “asylum seekers” on each media outlet site to study the content pertaining to this study (Byrman). This textual analysis also facilitated a more in-depth inspection of the Sweden Democrats’ influence in fostering an anti-immigrant agenda and connections between their narratives and the media’s promotion of this party’s xenophobic campaign. Finally, I analyzed Swedish parliament minutes to examine the government’s justifications for accepting fewer asylum seekers (Keighren, 2012). Discussion Media and Asylum Rejection Rates The acceptance rate of asylum seekers in Sweden has significantly decreased since its peak in 2016, while evidence of xenophobia among Swedish citizens has risen. This is due in part to the role of the media in Swedish society. Historically, six in ten Swedish adults not only feel that news and media outlets are important, but they also believe that what the media reports 1 Behavior that is aimed towards making a transition to a new life or routine as easy as possible (Marks, 2018) 5 are to be trusted (Pew Research Center, 2018). Swedes generally trust what their media outlets report, thus making the media powerful in policymaking. It is important to understand that the media or press in Sweden is subsidized by government press support while still being owned by several different actors. The largest actor is Bonnier AB, a liberal non-party affiliated Swedish media organization ( and is considered to be a democratic corporatist media model.
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