Immigration and Integration Policy in Europe by Haider Abbas

Author:Haider Abbas [Abbas, Haider]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780367336455
Barnesnoble:
Goodreads: 54063168
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2020-11-16T00:00:00+00:00

The role of the political tone of the debate in shaping divergent views on immigration in Sweden and Denmark

After World War II, each country embarked on a distinct institutional pattern with respect to immigration and integration policies. Examining the political language around policies helps understand how policymakers understood immigration as a political issue, what they diagnosed to be the problems surrounding immigration, and what treatments they posed to treat the problems around immigration. Policy documents and quotes from parliamentarians are the sources used in this book that help us reveal their intentions behind the policies they enacted. A close examination of these sources reveals that the tone of the debate in each country is complementary to the institutional patterns set into motion by the historical experiences of Denmark and Sweden. While the two variables set the context for policy choices, they are still insufficient for effectively explaining policy changes. This is because we can have the necessary context for policy choices, but actual policy decisions are still contingent on having a favorable structure of party competition.

Denmark’s institutional pattern of cultural homogeneity and requirement-driven integration is supported by a tone of debate that considers increased influx of immigrants as a societal problem and justifies strict integration requirements as a solution to this problem. In the case of Sweden, its institutional pattern of access to equal rights and welfare state universalism is supported by a tone of debate that considers anti-immigrant rhetoric as a threat to the ethos of Swedish society and justifies reasonable integration requirements as a solution to this problem. Naturally, the connection between institutional patterns and tone of the debate is not so straightforward all the time and it varies over time. This book will remind the reader of those times and consider appropriate explanations for discrepancies.

During the 1970s–1980s, Sweden embarked on a policy path that was upheld by principles of equality, freedom of choice, and partnership. Sweden surfaced as a global pioneer of human rights postwar and, with large labor market demands, experienced an influx of migrants. In order for it to maintain its identity, it instituted pluralistic and accommodating measures for immigrants. A clear link can be established between Sweden’s ideology post-World War II that emphasized access to equal rights and belief in the capacity of state institutions to integrate immigrants and the political language that described policy actions during that time. The tone of the debate mirrors Sweden immigration path as seen in the immigrant and minority bill of 1975.

It is important to state that equal conditions within the area of culture and education also mean that immigrants and their children, via efforts taken by society, are to be given real opportunities to retain their own language, develop their own cultural activities, and maintain contact with their original country, in the same way that the majority population is able to preserve and develop its language and its cultural traditions.20

The object of the freedom of choice clause was intended to give immigrants the opportunity to choose between their own ethnic and cultural affiliations and the Swedish culture.

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