EXCLUSION AND IMMIGRANT INCORPORATION: THE POLITICS OF CITIZENSHIP By MARA FRIDELL A DISSERTATION Presented to the Department of Sociology and the Graduate School ofthe University ofOregon in partial fulfillment ofthe requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy December 2007 ii "Exclusion and Immigrant Incorporation: The Politics of Citizenship," a dissertation prepared by Mara Fridell in partial fulfillment ofthe requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in the Department ofSociology. This dissertation has been approved and accepted by: ----- -"- Dr. Linda Fuller, Chair ofthe Examining Committee ~{Cf10 1- _ Committee in Charge: Linda Fuller, Chair Joan Acker Lynn Fujiwara Joseph Fracchia Accepted by: Dean ofthe Graduate School 1ll An Abstract of the Dissertation of Mara 1. Fridell for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Sociology to be taken December 2007 Title: EXCLUSION AND IMMIGRANT ll'l"CORPORATION: THE POLITICS OF CITIZENSHIP Approved: ----'-_~ _ Dr. Linda Fuller In both Sweden and the United States immigration has increased, and public concern over immigration, integration, and social citizenship has become heightened. Across-affluent Western countries, immigration and integration concerns have been molded into a consensus on the need to instill discipline, but conflict has emerged through public discussions of where discipline is to be applied. Analyzing media content and public documents, I find that in Sweden and in Europe more broadly, as in the United States, some disciplinary political narratives suggest that immigrants themselves are deviant and should be targeted for exclusion from the social rights of citizenship; other narratives hold that immigrants can best beincorporated by using the state to facilitate the expansion of the secondary labor market. It is popularly claimed that the expansion of secondary labor markets promotes economic inclusion, which is held to be the foundation for integration. While this has proven an effective wedge among voters, I probe the validity of this neoliberal claim by reviewing the integration of previous labor immigrants in Sweden through industrial-sector jobs, and by examining immigrant economic IV inclusion and social citizenship in the U.S. I use comparative data on inequality and immigration within the United States and across Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries to assess trends in relationships driving social citizenship politics. In interviews with policy makers and integration officials, and reviewing the labor union confederation literature in Sweden, I find satisfaction with the operation of the Swedish social democratic division oflabor in immigrant policy-setting and integration; as well I find on the national level a lack of concern with the wider, politically-transformative implications ofprominent social citizenship politics. This allows me to demonstrate how state actors and even labor institutions can be steered into facilitating neoliberal wedge politics and reforms that undermine social citizenship in favor ofconcentrated accumulation. v CURRICULUM VITAE NAME OF AUTHOR: Mara Fridell PLACE OF BIRTH: South Saint Paul, Minnesota DATE OF BIRTH: March 12, 1969 GRADUATE AND UNDERGRADUATE SCHOOLS ATTENDED: University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon University ofNew Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico Hamline University, Saint Paul, Minnesota DEGREES AWARDED: Doctor ofPhilosophy, Sociology, December 2007, University of Oregon Master ofArts, 1998, University ofNew Mexico Bachelor ofArts, 1987, Hamline University AREA OF SPECIAL INTEREST: Political Sociology PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: Instructor, Ursinus College, Collegeville, Pennsylvania Instructor, University ofOregon, Eugene, Oregon VI GRANTS, AWARDS AND HONORS: Fulbright Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship, Sweden 2002-2003 Premium for Academic Excellence Award, Iowa State University, 1999 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship in Ecological Complexity,1996-1998 PUBLICATIONS: Hort, S.E.O, T. Bums, M. Carson, and M. Fridell2003. Country Report: Sweden. Brussels: CIVGOV Project. Fridell, M., I. Hudson, and M. Hudson. 2008. "With friends like these...: The corporate response to Fair Trade Coffee." Review ofRadical Political Economics 40 (1). Fridell, M., I. Hudson, and M. Hudson. Under contract (2009). Stirring Up Trouble. Kelowna, BC, Canada: UBC Press. Vll ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to express heartfelt appreciation to Professor Linda Fuller and Professor Joan Acker for their generous assistance in the preparation of this manuscript. I thank Professor Lynn Fujiwara and Professor Joseph Fracchia for their examples of intellectual rigor. I thank the Graduate School for its very useful deadline. This final fulfillment of my Ph.D. requirements could not have been possible without funding from the Fulbright Foundation, the kind assistance of Mary Redetzke, the mentorship of Dr. Garvin Davenport, Dr. Greg Hewett, Dr. James Brown, Dr. Neal Flora and Dr. Jan Flora, and Tom Stave, and the friendship of Eric and Michelle Edwards, Dr. Joel Schoening and Dawn Borgardt, Dr. Barbara Sutton, and Gabriela Flora. Deepest gratitude is due to my family-Mark and Quinn Hudson, Kirsten and Gary Fridell, and Sue and Pete Hudson­ for their love and support. V111 For Mark and Quinn IX TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page 1. INTRODUCTION: IMMIGRATION AND CITIZENSHIP 1 Citizenship Retrenchment 8 A Brief History of the Concept of Citizenship 11 The Rise of Social Citizenship 17 The Liberal Discontents of Social Citizenship 20 Reassessing the Welfare State and Integration "Crisis" 25 To the Democratic Alternative 32 Methodology and Plan ofthe Dissertation 35 II. IMMIGRANT CITIZENSHIP AND POLICY IN SWEDEN 39 Social Democratic Efforts to Expand Citizenship 43 1990s Upheaval and Declining Immigrant Fortunes 51 The Whole of Sweden Settlement Policy............. 52 Conforming with European Institutions 58 The 1990s Economic Crisis and Recovery in Sweden 59 The Post-1990 Swedish Media and Racial Crisis................................ 63 Combating Systemic Racism in Sweden.................................................... 64 Swedish Identity and Responsibility for Integration Troubles 70 No Nazis Here?: Racialized Integration Reform Politics 72 Immigrants, Economic Needs, and Structural Labor Market Conditions.... 81 Toward a Market-dominated Citizenship? 84 III. ECONOMIC INEQUALITY AND IMMIGRATION 90 Inequality Between Ethnic Swedes and New Swedes: Segregation 93 Economic Inequality between New Swedes and Ethnic Swedes 97 Racism and Class Inequality 99 x Chapter Page Low Xenophobia and Racism in Swedish Attitudes 104 Political Economy ofImmigration: A Relationships Framework 114 A Relationship between Inequality and Immigration in the U.S. 117 Cross-national Relationships between Inequality and Immigation 127 "Controlling" Immigration by Demobilizing Capital .. 132 IV. "A CREATIVE TRANSITION TO A NEW TIME": INTEGRATION AND REFORMISTS 139 Demographic Pressure and Immigration-Integration Policy....................... 144 Neoliberal Framing: Reforming the Deviant Immigrant and the Welfare State 148 Neoliberal Framing: Economically Excluded Immigrants and Labor Market Reform 150 Swedish Multiculturalism and Cultural Essentialism .. 152 The Neoliberal Comparative Case Against Social Democracy: Austrian Economic Inclusion 155 The Hidden Gender Component of the Immigrant-Native Employment Gap in Sweden 160 Integration Approaches Compared 166 Assessing Neoliberal Inclusion: Labor Market Policy Reform and Economic Exclusion Trade-offs.... 173 Assessing Neoliberal Inclusion: Racialized Labor Market Segmentation 178 Junk Jobs Reform for Inassimilable Immigrants 181 Swedish Integration Reformists' Neoliberal Arguments 186 Immigration and Integration Policy and Organized Labor 190 Beyond Neoliberal Integration Reformism 198 V. "TO BE A SWEDE IS TO HIDE AN ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT": CONTESTED CITIZENSHIP AND INTEGRATION PRACTICES 203 Asking Integration Officials about Integration Issues 204 Critiques of Decentalized Public Integration 206 Refugee Diversity in Sweden 210 Iranian Refugees and Jantelagen...................................................... .......... 214 Xl Chapter Page Lagom Meets Multiculturalism in Public Refugee Integration.................... 216 Anti-racism Resources in Sweden 217 Working toward Integration at the Local Level 223 Fighting Immigrant Exclusion with Disruption 227 Economic and Political Understandings of Solidarity with Immigrants 233 Neoliberal Policy Diffusion: Economic Efficiency in Local Reform 235 European Integration and the Decline of Social Citizenship 241 Exclusionary Citizenship and the Immigrant Move to the Right 244 Local Actors and Public Intellectual Discourse 251 VI. CONCLUSION: ADVANCING IMMIGRANT INCLUSION THROUGH SOCIAL CITIZENSHIP 254 Immigration "Crisis" and State Autonomy 254 Neoliberal Patches and Integration Policy................................................. 260 How Can Swedish Policy Improve? 262 APPENDICES 273 A. METHODS 273 B. IMMIGRATION AND INTEGRATION POLICY TIMELINE 300 C. WHO RECEIVES REFUGEES? 304 D. POLICYMAKER INTERVIEW SCHEDULE 307 E. NATIONAL POLICYMAKER INTERVIEW CONTACTS 310 F. RESEARCH RESOURCES AND PERSONAL CONTACTS.... 311 BIBLIOGRAPHY 313 Literature Bibliography . 313 Data Bibliography: Newspaper Articles and Institutional Publications 344 Xll LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1. Miljonprogrammet housing complex in Huvudsta .. 3 2. Young Swedish citizenslJotbollspelare .. 7 3. Sweden's age pyramid 2006 145 X111 LIST OF TABLES Table