Fernández and Jensen Comparative Migration Studies (2017) 5:5 DOI 10.1186/s40878-017-0049-z ORIGINALARTICLE Open Access The civic integrationist turn in Danish and Swedish school politics Christian Fernández1 and Kristian Kriegbaum Jensen2* * Correspondence:
[email protected] 2Department of Political Science, Abstract Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark Full list of author information is The civic integrationist turn usually refers to the stricter requirements for residence available at the end of the article and citizenship that many states have implemented since the late 1990’s. But what of other policy spheres that are essential for the formation of citizens? Is there a civic turn in school policy? And does it follow the pattern of residence and citizenship? This article addresses these questions through a comparative study of the EU’s allegedly strictest and most liberal immigration regimes, Denmark and Sweden, respectively. The analysis shows a growing concern with citizenship education in both countries, yet with different styles and content. Citizenship education in Denmark concentrates on reproducing a historically derived core of cultural values and knowledge to which minorities are expected to assimilate, while the Swedish model subscribes to a pluralist view that stresses mutual adaptation and intercultural tolerance. Despite claims to the contrary, the analysis shows that Sweden too has experienced a civic turn. Keywords: Civic integrationist turn, Citizenship education, Denmark, Sweden, Public philosophy, Mother tongue instruction, Civics, History, Religion Introduction Scholars studying the West European civic integrationist turn only rarely extend their analyses to include school policies. Instead, they have mainly focused on the increasing use of formalized language, knowledge, and employment requirements for permanent residence and citizenship since the late 1990s (Goodman, 2014; Joppke, 2007).