Jon Nyhlén

Do Anti-immigration Parties Matter? The Case of the Sweden Democrats and Local Refugee Policy

With the increased electoral success of anti-immigration parties, questions regarding whatimpact the parties actually have naturally follow. Previous research has rarely explored thisquestion. Furt ...

Reception of refugees in Swedish municipalities: evidences from comparative case studies

By focusing on the Swedish municipality level, we provide an intensive examination of how several Swedish municipalities design their local refugee policy, according to which they either accept or do not accept refugees. This can vary because of either instrumental or symbolic reasons. Combining this local perspective with actor-oriented theory, we derive from rationalistic premises concerning how political leaders and bureaucrats act to maximize their interests. By selecting municipalities that share important characteristics except their attitude towards the reception of refugees, we can, through analysing interviews and documents, show how a pragmatic view and internal constraints often shape local decision-making in terms of shaping refugee policy. Rationalistic perspectives do not prevail completely, though implying that other factors influence decision-making in this area.

Forced cooperation from above: the case of Sweden's establishment reform

ABSTRACT In December 2010, significant parts of Swedish integration policy were changed. Through the ‘establishment reform’, a centralization was implemented in which the national level overtook the responsibility of municipalities for the establishment of newly arrived immigrants. In todays system, the responsibility is shared between several authorities, the municipalities, and publicly financed private actors. Recent governmental reports have described the current situation as being characterized by coordination problems and shortcomings in accountability. This policy creates an institutional landscape that spans both vertical and horizontal dimensions, reflecting several levels of the public administration and actors that originate from several sectors. The purpose of this article is to explore the governance of Swedish integration policy, with a theoretical focus derived from the ideal types of hierarchy, market, and network. We examine one Swedish region in which parts of the establishment reform were applied as a pilot project before being applied to the rest of Sweden. The theoretically driven results are unexpected in that they reveal traits of governance steering but also of top-down perspectives and restrictions for involved actors in a way that counteracts theoretical logics.

Lived Experiences of Changing Integration Policies

Abstract This study aims to map, locate and make visible the everyday experiences of newly arrived immigrants in government-sponsored integration activities and to trace how these experiences are linked to changes in policy. The study pays particular attention to the dynamic nature of integration and draws links between personal, organisational and policy domains while analysing shifting integration policies from the standpoint of immigrants. Swedish integration policy has undergone vast changes during recent years as the government implements one of the largest changes in Swedish history, beginning in 2010. With this came an emphasis on employment and workfare over welfare. Consequently, the rhetoric of integration in Sweden also changed from what in municipalities was called an introduction to a sense of establishment. By examining the subjective views of immigrants, we discuss the lived experiences of individuals who are subjected to and employed in different occupations due to various integration regimes.