Per Strömblad

Political Integration through Ethnic or Nonethnic Voluntary Associations

This article challenges previous findings suggesting that ethnic associations promote political participation among immigrants. Analyzing recent survey data from Sweden, the authors find that political activity among immigrants is encouraged by associational involvement in general but not by associations based on ethnic origin. To explain this difference, the authors examine important causal mechanisms between associational involvement and political participation. They conclude that while ethnic associations induce the development of civic skills, they do not create enough opportunities for mobilization through networks of political recruitment. Hence, compared to associations in which both mechanisms operate, ethnic associations tend to provide less politically stimulating environments.

Urban Inequality and Political Recruitment

This paper provides evidence of segregation-generated differences in political recruitment. Focusing on social-geographical differentiation in the urban landscape, it evaluates—in prior work largely neglected—contextual effects on requests for political participation. Consistent with previous research, the analyses suggest that political activists, who try to convince others to participate, systematically use a set of selection criteria when deciding whom to approach. However, using data based on a sample of inhabitants of Swedish cities and properties of their neighbourhoods, evidence is also presented for aggregate-level social exclusion influences on individual-level recruitment efforts. Consistent with the theoretical framework presented, the results indicate that the contextual effect stems both from the disproportional population composition in residential areas and from recruiters’ rational avoidance of areas marked by high levels of social exclusion. The net result, it is concluded, is a reinforcement of urban inequalities when it comes to the chances to be invited to political life.

Optimal Opportunities for Ethnic Organisation and Political Integration? : Comparing Stockholm with other European Cities

In most European cities, immigrants and their children comprise a rapidly growing share of the population. Although heterogeneous in most aspects, this category is characterized by at least one distinctive political feature, namely its underrepresentation in democratic decision structures (Back and Soininen, 1998: 29; Fennema and Tillie, 2001; Togeby, 2004; Myrberg, 2007). Obviously, this situation implies a potential ‘participatory distortion’ (Verba et al., 1995) in which ethnic minorities risk getting less attention paid to their problems and needs than the native majority population and, consequently, an unknown number of original and innovative views may never get through to the political agenda. If so, this political inequality constitutes a problem not only for individuals whose voices go unheard but also for the democratic society as a whole. In this respect, public policies aimed to facilitate the integration of immigrants seem to have failed.

Political Trust as Modest Expectations : Exploring Immigrants’ Falling Confidence in Swedish Political Institutions

Abstract Political trust among immigrants in Western Europe seems to be surprisingly high, especially among immigrants from non-democratic countries with institutions plagued by corruption. Over time, however, trust tends to diminish among these individuals. In this paper we argue that this may neither be explained by acculturation nor by experiences of discrimination. Analysing Swedish survey data we instead conclude, although tentatively, that falling expectations regarding the performance of host country institutions is a fruitful explanation. Such expectations presumably become more modest the longer one has been living in Sweden, causing a time-related drop in the overall confidence in Swedish political institutions.

Ethnic segregation and xenophobic party preference: Exploring the influence of the presence of visible minorities on local electoral support for the Sweden Democrats

ABSTRACT: This article presents a comprehensive analysis of the influence of the neighborhood-level presence of visible minorities on xenophobic party support. Drawing on previous research on support for xenophobic political parties in Europe, we explore variations in electoral preferences for the Sweden Democrats. We examine relationships between the presence of visible minorities at the neighborhood level, controlling for the level of unemployment and education both in terms of potentially additive and interactive effects. We find that increased exposure of visible minorities unambiguously leads to an increase in xenophobic voting if the district level of unemployment is high. Where unemployment is low the effect of increased exposure may instead lead to reduced xenophobic party support, due to complex interaction effects involving aggregate education level. The results are discussed in the light of possible public policy measures to combat unemployment in multicultural democracies.

Collective Political Action as Civic Voluntarism : Analysing Ethnic Associations as Political Participants by Translating Individual Level Theory to the Organizational Level

ABSTRACT This article presents and empirically evaluates an analytical experiment in which we seek to translate individual-level explanations of differences in political participation to an organizational level. Utilizing the Civic Voluntarism Model, we analyse the consequences of voluntary associations’ politically valuable ‘resources’, ‘motivation’, and ‘recruitment networks’. Using data from a survey of ethnic associations in Stockholm, Sweden, results suggest that the overall logic of how associational-level political participation is encouraged resembles corresponding mechanisms on the individual level. We conclude that both our theoretical argument and empirical findings merit further analyses of civil society actors’ political participation with the approach taken in this study.