Gomez-Gonzalez, C., Nesseler, C., & Dietl, H. M. (2021). Mapping discrimination in Europe through a field experiment in amateur sport. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 8(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-021-00773-2 Societies are increasingly multicultural and diverse, consisting of members who migrated from various other countries. However, immigrants and ethnic minorities often face discrimination in the form of fewer opportunities for labor and housing, as well as limitations on interactions in other social domains. Using mock email accounts with typical native-sounding and foreign-sounding names, we contacted 23,020 amateur football clubs in 22 European countries, asking to participate in a training session. Response rates differed across countries and were, on average, about 10% lower for foreign-sounding names. The present field experiment reveals discrimination against ethnic minority groups, uncovering organizational deficiencies in a system trusted to foster social interactions.
PDF: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-021-00773-2
Tag: landesammenligning
Hassani, Amani. “Muslims and Islamophobia in ‘Raceless’ Societies: Critical Insights from Denmark and Quebec.” (2021) [PDF]
Hassani, Amani. “Muslims and Islamophobia in ‘Raceless’ Societies: Critical Insights from Denmark and Quebec.” The Sociological Review, The Sociological Review, June 2021. thesociologicalreview.org, https://doi.org/10.51428/tsr.gijy3798.
Fernández, Christian, and Kristian Kriegbaum Jensen. ‘The Civic Integrationist Turn in Danish and Swedish School Politics’. (2017)
Fernández, Christian, and Kristian Kriegbaum Jensen. ‘The Civic Integrationist Turn in Danish and Swedish School Politics’. Comparative Migration Studies, vol. 5, no. 1, Physica-Verlag, Dec. 2017,
The civic integrationist turn usually refers to the stricter requirements for residence 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.
Borevi, Karin, Kristian Kriegbaum Jensen, and Per Mouritsen. ‘The Civic Turn of Immigrant Integration Policies in the Scandinavian Welfare States’. (2017) [PDF]
Borevi, Karin, Kristian Kriegbaum Jensen, and Per Mouritsen. ‘The Civic Turn of Immigrant Integration Policies in the Scandinavian Welfare States’. Comparative Migration Studies, vol. 5, no. 1, Physica-Verlag, Dec. 2017.
This special issue addresses the question of how to understand the civic turn within immigrant integration in the West towards programs and instruments, public discourses and political intentions, which aim to condition, incentivize, and shape through socialization immigrants into ‘citizens’. Empirically, it focuses on the less studied Scandinavian cases of Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. In this introduction, we situate the contributions to this special issue within the overall debate on civic integration and convergence. We introduce the three cases, critically discuss the (liberal) convergence thesis and its descriptive and explanatory claims, and explain why studying the Scandinavian welfare states can further our understanding of the nature of the civic turn and its driving forces. Before concluding, we discuss whether civic integration policies actually work.
Simonsen, Kristina Bakkær, and Bart Bonikowski. ‘Is Civic Nationalism Necessarily Inclusive? Conceptions of Nationhood and Anti-Muslim Attitudes in Europe’. (2020)
Simonsen, Kristina Bakkær, and Bart Bonikowski. ‘Is Civic Nationalism Necessarily Inclusive? Conceptions of Nationhood and Anti-Muslim Attitudes in Europe’. European Journal of Political Research, vol. 59, no. 1, 2020, pp. 114–136.
Despite the centrality of national identity in the exclusionary discourse of the European radical right, scholars have not investigated how popular definitions of nationhood are connected to dispositions toward Muslims. Moreover, survey-based studies tend to conflate anti-Muslim attitudes with general anti-immigrant sentiments. This article contributes to research on nationalism and out-group attitudes by demonstrating that varieties of national self-understanding are predictive of anti-Muslim attitudes, above and beyond dispositions toward immigrants. Using latent class analysis and regression models of survey data from 41 European countries, it demonstrates that conceptions of nationhood are heterogeneous within countries and that their relationship with anti-Muslim attitudes is contextually variable. Consistent with expectations, in most countries, anti-Muslim attitudes are positively associated with ascriptive – and negatively associated with elective (including civic) – conceptions of nationhood. Northwestern Europe, however, is an exception to this pattern: in this region, civic nationalism is linked to greater antipathy toward Muslims. It is suggested that in this region, elective criteria of belonging have become fused with exclusionary notions of national culture that portray Muslims as incompatible with European liberal values, effectively legitimating anti-Muslim sentiments in mainstream political culture. This may heighten the appeal of anti-Muslim sentiments not only on the radical right, but also among mainstream segments of the Northwestern European public, with important implications for social exclusion and political behaviour.
doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-6765.12337.
https://ejpr.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1475-6765.12337.
Hovden, Jan Fredrik, and Hilmar Mjelde. ‘Increasingly Controversial, Cultural, and Political: The Immigration Debate in Scandinavian Newspapers 1970–2016’. (2019)
Hovden, Jan Fredrik, and Hilmar Mjelde. ‘Increasingly Controversial, Cultural, and Political: The Immigration Debate in Scandinavian Newspapers 1970–2016’. Javnost – The Public, vol. 26, no. 2, Apr. 2019, pp. 138–157.
Earlier accounts of the immigration debate in Scandinavia have suggested that despite the countries’ many similarities, Swedish newspapers are dominated by immigration friendly views, that Danish papers are very open to strongly negative views on immigration, and that Norwegian press occupies a middle position. However, this argument has until now not been tested through a large systematic, comparative, and historical study of newspaper coverage of immigration in these countries. As a part of the SCANPUB project [https:// scanpub.w.uib.no/], a content analysis of a representative sample of articles for two news- papers for each country for the period 1970–2016 (one constructed month pr. year, N = 4329) was done. Focusing on broad Scandinavian trends and major national differences, the results support the general claims about national differences in Scandinavian immigration debate, and also suggest some major developments, in particular the rise of immigration as an issue for debate and for national politicians.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13183222.2019.1589285
Abu El-Haj, Thea Renda, Anne Ríos-Rojas, and Reva Jaffe-Walter. ‘Whose Race Problem? Tracking Patterns of Racial Denial in US and European Educational Discourses on Muslim Youth’. (2017) [PDF]
Abu El-Haj, Thea Renda, Anne Ríos-Rojas, and Reva Jaffe-Walter. ‘Whose Race Problem? Tracking Patterns of Racial Denial in US and European Educational Discourses on Muslim Youth’. Curriculum Inquiry, vol. 47, no. 3, Routledge, 2017, pp. 310–335.
In this paper, the authors focus on everyday narrations of the nation as they are taken up by educators ‘in schools’ in the United States, Denmark and Spain. As the primary institutions within which children from im/migrant communities are incorporated into the nation-state, schools are the key sites within which young people learn the languages and practices of national belonging and citizenship. Comparing ethnographic case studies in the United States, Denmark and Spain, the authors trace the nationalist storylines that serve to frame Muslim youth as particular kinds of racialized and ‘impossible subjects’. Across national contexts, the authors document similar, often almost verbatim, stories that educators narrated about the disjuncture between liberal ideals of the nation, and what they imagined to be true of Muslim im/migrant youth. They theorize that, despite differences in US and European approaches to immigration, there are consonances in the ways that Muslims are positioned as racialized Others across liberal democracies because of the very ways that western liberalism has constructed notions of individualism and tolerance. These seemingly benign discourses of liberalism in schools provide the conditions of possibility for schools’ imposition of exclusionary nationalist values while keeping a safe distance from charges of racism. Thus, we show how liberalism’s imbrication with nationalism, and its promotion of goals conceived of as inherently humanist and universal, occlude the racial logics that ultimately restrict human freedom for Muslim youth.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03626784.2017.1324736?journalCode=rcui20
Shirazi, Roozbeh, and Reva Jaffe-Walter. ‘Conditional Hospitality and Coercive Concern: Countertopographies of Islamophobia in American and Danish Schools’. (2020) [PDF]
Shirazi, Roozbeh, and Reva Jaffe-Walter. ‘Conditional Hospitality and Coercive Concern: Countertopographies of Islamophobia in American and Danish Schools’. Comparative Education, Sept. 2020, pp. 1–21.
In this article, we explore how locally situated educational practices and policies aimed at inclusion and integration may contribute to racialised exclusion for students. Our analysis brings together two ethnographic studies of how minoritised Muslim youth navigate secondary schooling in Denmark and the US. Our cases illustrate how assumptions held by school staff toward the youth in our studies were rooted in both Islamophobic tropes and deeply held nationalist beliefs about the benevolence of the US and Denmark. Cindi Katz’s notion of ‘countertopography’ is critical to our argument that Islamophobia is productive of similar practices of surveillance and exclusion across disparate educational settings. As an analytical framework, countertopography opens important possibilities for critical and comparative qualitative inquiry, with specific promise for highlighting how seemingly dissimilarly educational spaces may be imbued with similar social meanings, and how these meanings are constituted by recurring unequal social relations between individuals and groups therein.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03050068.2020.1812234
Jonker, Merel, and Sigtona Halrynjo. ‘Multidimensional Discrimination in Judicial Practice: A Legal Comparison between Denmark, Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands’. (2014) [PDF]
Jonker, Merel, and Sigtona Halrynjo. ‘Multidimensional Discrimination in Judicial Practice: A Legal Comparison between Denmark, Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands’. Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights, vol. 32, no. 4, SAGE Publications Ltd STM, Dec. 2014, pp. 408–433.
The concept of multidimensional discrimination is claimed to pose considerable challenges for judicial practice. The methods for tackling discrimination on more than one ground have been extensively discussed in the literature but not yet comprehensively analysed empirically. The present study compares and analyses the case law of the Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish and Danish equality bodies concerning gender-plus discrimination in the labour market. Based on 74 cases, the comparison shows that neither integrated equality bodies nor anti-discrimination legislation is a prerequisite to protect against multidimensional discrimination, and that the appointment of comparators occurs on pragmatic grounds. These findings suggest that multidimensional discrimination can be adequately dealt with in judicial practice.
doi:10.1177/016934411403200405.
PDF: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/016934411403200405
Keskinen, Suvi. ‘Limits to Speech? The Racialised Politics of Gendered Violence in Denmark and Finland’. (2012) [PDF]
Keskinen, Suvi. ‘Limits to Speech? The Racialised Politics of Gendered Violence in Denmark and Finland’. Journal of Intercultural Studies, vol. 33, no. 3, Routledge, June 2012, pp. 261–274.
The ‘crisis of multiculturalism’ discourse characterises the current political and media debates in many European countries. This paper analyses how liberal arguments, especially gender equality and freedom of speech, are used to promote nationalist and racialising political agendas in Denmark and Finland. It detects the powerful emergence of a nationalist rhetoric, based on the ‘politics of reversal’ and a re-articulation of liberal notions, in the Nordic countries, which have been known for their collectivist welfare state models and commitments to social equality. Through an analysis of case studies in both countries, the paper shows how debates about gendered violence in Muslim families turn into attempts to broaden the discursive space for racialising speech and to individualise racism.
Kinnvall, Catarina, and Paul Nesbitt-Larking. ‘The Political Psychology of (de)Securitization: Place-Making Strategies in Denmark, Sweden, and Canada’. (2010) [PDF]
Kinnvall, Catarina, and Paul Nesbitt-Larking. ‘The Political Psychology of (de)Securitization: Place-Making Strategies in Denmark, Sweden, and Canada’. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, vol. 28, no. 6, Dec. 2010, pp. 1051–1070.
In this article we demonstrate how both state structures and collective agencies contribute to patterns of securitization and, in so doing, reconfigure conceptions of space and place. Focusing on the life-chances of Muslim minority populations in Denmark, Sweden, and Canada, we begin by establishing how experiences of empire and colonization have shaped dominant regimes of citizenship and multiculturalism. Analyzing responses to the Danish newspaper publication of the `Mohammed cartoons’, we illustrate the dynamics of place making that are operative in the political psychology of securitization. Our analysis illustrates the cosmopolitical and dialogical character of Canadian multiculturalism and how such a regime facilitates a politics of space that is distinct from the cartographies of imperialism that inform place making in Denmark and, to a lesser extent, Sweden.
doi:10.1068/d13808.
Kühle, Lene, and Helge Årsheim. ‘Governing Religion and Gender in Anti-Discrimination Laws in Norway and Denmark’. (2020) [PDF]
Kühle, Lene, and Helge Årsheim. ‘Governing Religion and Gender in Anti-Discrimination Laws in Norway and Denmark’. Oslo Law Review, vol. 7, no. 02, Oct. 2020, pp. 105–122.
This article examines the decisions on religious and gender discrimination handed down by two quasi-judicial monitoring bodies in Denmark and Norway, mapping similarities and differences between the two bodies. While the monitoring bodies tend to arrive at similar results, their modes of reasoning and understanding of what constitutes ‘religion’ for legal purposes differ considerably. Looking in particular at the decisions on religious headgear and handshaking, the article suggests that these differences may be due to a range of different factors, from the legal framework on anti-discrimination in the two countries, to the staffing of the monitoring bodies, and the financial support available for their work.
Lagermann, Laila Colding. Unge i – Eller Ude Af? – Skolen: Marginaliseringsprocesser Og Overskridende Forandringsbevægelser Blandt Udskolingselever Med Etnisk Minoritetsbaggrund. (2014) [PDF]
Lagermann, Laila Colding. Unge i – Eller Ude Af? – Skolen: Marginaliseringsprocesser Og Overskridende Forandringsbevægelser Blandt Udskolingselever Med Etnisk Minoritetsbaggrund. Dissertation. Aarhus University, 2014,
Denne afhandling er med finansiering fra DPU gennemført på Institut for Uddannelse og Pædagogik (DPU), Aarhus Universitet, i perioden 2009-2014. Afhandlingen har haft til hensigt at undersøge, hvilke muligheder og begrænsninger for handling, tilblivelse og forandring deltagelse i en skole skaber i henholdsvis Danmark og i Sverige for unge med etnisk minoritetsbaggrund set fra et første persons perspektiv, samt hvordan dette kan forstås som del af marginaliseringsprocesser og overskridende forandringsbevægelser. Afhandlingen er en antologisk afhandling bestående af fire artikler og en indledende tekst. Den indledende tekst indledes med en indledning, efterfulgt af de indledende bevægelser gjort i relation til arbejdet med afhandlingen, herunder afhandlingens kundskabsambitioner og forskningsspørgsmål. Herefter gennemgås den litteratur, jeg særligt har hæftet mig ved på området omkring marginalisering og overskridelse af marginalisering blandt unge med etnisk minoritetsbaggrund i udskolingen. Herefter redegøres for den anvendte teori, først overordnet og efterfølgende i relation til de teoretiske begreber anvendt i de enkelte artikler, og den indledende tekst afsluttes med en redegørelse for de konkrete metodiske og metodologiske tilgange og fremgangsmåder, herunder et afsnit om den etiske fordring og praksis, der løber igennem afhandlingens teoretiske såvel som empiriske og analytiske arbejde. Den indledende tekst afsluttes med nogle konkluderende og afrundende kommentarer, hvilket implicerer en gennemgang af afhandlingens bidrag, med et udgangspunkt i afhandlingens problemformulering og de dertil hørende tre forskningsspørgsmål. Efter den indledende tekst findes en oversigt over den anvendte litteratur i denne tekst, hvorefter de fire artikler, som udgør afhandlingens analyser, præsenteres. Afhandlingen er baseret på et kvalitativt empirisk studie af 12 unge 9. klasses elever med etnisk minoritetsbaggrund i to skoler; én i København, Danmark, og én i Malmø, Sverige. Med et dobbelt perspektiv på både marginaliseringsprocesser og overskridende forandringsbevægelser undersøges og analyseres disse to fænomener i afhandlingen med en fundering i primært tre teoretiske tænkninger; en social praksisteoretisk (i hvilken situeret læringsteori er integreret i dansk-tysk kritisk psykologisk praksisforskning), en poststrukturalistisk og en agential realistisk. Såvel den teoretiske som den metodologiske tilgang er i afhandlingen valgt ud fra et ønske om en decentreret analytisk tilgang, der bryder med samfundsmæssigt dominerende individualiserede og essentialistiske diskurser. Således er ambitionen med afhandlingen at udarbejde en undersøgelse på området, der med et overodnet udgangspunkt i de deltagende unges egne perspektiver og narrativer kan udgøre et sådan bidrag. I forhold til anden forskning på området adskiller afhandlingens sig ved et dobbeltperspektiv på både marginaliseringsprocesser og overskridende forandringsbevægelser, og på hvordan race og etnicitet får betydning i den sammenhæng, ligesom det undersøges, hvordan forbindelser mellem de unges positioner og perspektiver i skolen og i deres øvrige liv har betydning for de unges deltagerpræmisser og handlemuligheder.
PDF: https://lailalagermann.dk/onewebmedia/Laila%20Colding%20Lagermann%20-%20PHD%20afhandling.pdf.
Lindekilde, Lasse, Per Mouritsen, and Ricard Zapata-Barrero. ‘The Muhammad Cartoons Controversy in Comparative Perspective’. (2009) [PDF]
Lindekilde, Lasse, Per Mouritsen, and Ricard Zapata-Barrero. ‘The Muhammad Cartoons Controversy in Comparative Perspective’. Ethnicities, vol. 9, no. 3, Sept. 2009, pp. 291–313.
Lövheim, Mia, Haakon H. Jernsletten, David Herbert, Knut Lundby, and Stig Hjarvard. ‘Attitudes: Tendencies and Variations’. (2018) [PDF]
Lövheim, Mia, Haakon H. Jernsletten, David Herbert, Knut Lundby, and Stig Hjarvard. ‘Chapter 2 Attitudes: Tendencies and Variations’. Contesting ReligionThe Media Dynamics of Cultural Conflicts in Scandinavia, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2018. DeGruyter,
This chapter presents an overview of religiosity and attitudes to religious diversity in media and other public spaces based on a cross-Scandinavian survey conducted in 2015. Although Scandinavians in general have a weak personal connection to religion, Christianity still holds a privileged position as an expression of cultural identity. Scandinavians express support for equal rights to practice religion, but also doubtfulness towards public expressions of religion. More than one-fourth of respondents discuss news about religion and religious extremism regularly. There is a widespread sentiment that Islam is a threat to the national culture, even though most respondents state that they oppose an open expression of hostile attitudes towards foreigners. Political orientation and gender are salient aspects that shape diverging opinions regarding tolerance or scepticism towards the public visibility of religious diversity. Furthermore, Danes and Norwegians are more critical of public expressions of Islam than Swedes.
doi:10.1515/9783110502060-007.
PDF: https://www.degruyter.com/view/books/9783110502060/9783110502060-007/9783110502060-007.xml.
Lundby, Knut, Stig Hjarvard, Mia Lövheim, and Haakon H. Jernsletten. ‘Religion between Politics and Media: Conflicting Attitudes towards Islam in Scandinavia’. (2018) [PDF]
Lundby, Knut, Stig Hjarvard, Mia Lövheim, and Haakon H. Jernsletten. ‘Religion between Politics and Media: Conflicting Attitudes towards Islam in Scandinavia’. Journal of Religion in Europe, vol. 10, no. 4, Nov. 2017, pp. 437–456.
Based on a comparative project on media and religion across Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, this article analyzes relationships between religiosity and political attitudes in Scandinavia and how these connect with attitudes regarding the representation of Islam in various media. Data comes from population-wide surveys conducted in the three countries in April 2015. Most Scandinavians relate ‘religion’ with conflict, and half of the population perceives Islam as a threat to their national culture. Scandinavians thus perceive religion in terms of political tensions and predominantly feel that news media should serve a critical function towards Islam and religious conflicts. Finally, the results of the empirical analysis are discussed in view of the intertwined processes of politicization of Islam and mediatization of religion.
doi:10.1163/18748929-01004005.
PDF: http://booksandjournals.brillonline.com/content/journals/10.1163/18748929-01004005.
Sauer, Birgit, and Birte Siim. ‘Inclusive Political Intersections of Migration, Race, Gender and Sexuality – The Cases of Austria and Denmark’. (2020) [PDF]
Sauer, Birgit, and Birte Siim. ‘Inclusive Political Intersections of Migration, Race, Gender and Sexuality – The Cases of Austria and Denmark’. NORA – Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research, vol. 28, no. 1, Routledge, Jan. 2020, pp. 56–69.
The article aims to integrate key concepts from social movement, citizenship and gender theories with afocus on (political) intersectionality at the interface of migration, race, gender and sexuality. It explores the responses from civil society groups to the exclusive intersections of right-wing politics and discourses in Austria and Denmark with afocus on inclusive intersectionality and transversal politics. The article asks if and how the intersectional repertoires of NGOs were able to create transversal politics and joint activities and explains why these NGOs were unable to counter right-wing hegemony. It uses the cases of Austria and Denmark to illustrate the diverse mobilizations of counter-forces against the attempts to forge an anti-migration and anti-Muslim consensus. The focus is on the mobilization of anti-racist and pro-migrant groups, comparing their strategies and inclusionary repertoires including feminist claims, the framing of activist citizenship, acts of citizenship and of solidarity. The article scrutinizes strategies of transversal politics against the exclusionary right in the two countries; shows the influence of the different contexts of civil society mobilization, political cultures, welfare and gender regimes as well as the differences between right-wing forces in the two countries.
doi:10.1080/08038740.2019.1681510.
PDF: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/08038740.2019.1681510?needAccess=true
Solhjell, R., E. Saarikkomäki, M. B. Haller, D. Wästerfors, and T. Kolind. ‘“We Are Seen as a Threat”: Police Stops of Young Ethnic Minorities in the Nordic Countries’. (2019) [PDF]
Solhjell, R., E. Saarikkomäki, M. B. Haller, D. Wästerfors, and T. Kolind. ‘“We Are Seen as a Threat”: Police Stops of Young Ethnic Minorities in the Nordic Countries’. Critical Criminology, vol. 27, 2019, pp. 347–361.
This article focuses on the perspectives of young ethnic minorities in the Nordic countries who have experienced various forms of “police stops”, i.e. situations where the police stop them without any reference to a specific event of which the youth are aware. Analytically, the debate is positioned through an intersectionality approach of (un)belonging to majority societies. Across the Nordic countries, we found that the young people described five social markers as reasons for being stopped, namely clothing, hanging out in groups, ethnicity, neighbourhoods and gender. We argue that the police stops explicate how the young men in particular are often forced to think about themselves in terms of “a threat” to the majority and the attributes they have that make them seem like criminals.
doi:10.1007/s10612-018-9408-9.
PDF: https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10612-018-9408-9.pdf.
Storm, Ingrid. ‘«Christian Nations»? Ethnic Christianity and Anti-Immigration Attitudes in Four Western European Countries’. (2011) [PDF]
Storm, Ingrid. ‘«Christian Nations»? Ethnic Christianity and Anti-Immigration Attitudes in Four Western European Countries’. Nordic Journal of Religion & Society, vol. 24, no. 1, May 2011, pp. 75–96.
Despite a general decline in religious belief and practice in Europe, questions of national religious heritage have become increasingly salient in recent public debates about immigration and integration. Using data from the 2008 International Social Survey Programme (Religion III module), this study explores associations between individual religiosity and attitudes to immigration in four Western European countries: Great Britain, the Netherlands, Ireland and Denmark. Multivariate analysis reveals contrasting associations. Identifying with a Christian religion makes one more likely to think immigration is a threat to national identity, whereas regular church attendance reduces this effect. Despite national differences, the results from all four countries indicate a prevalence of Cultural or Ethnic Christianity, where religion is used to identify with national traditions or ethnic heritage rather than faith.
PDF: https://www.idunn.no/file/ci/66929888/Christian_Nations_Ethnic_Christianity_And_Anti-Immigratio.pdf
Hellström, Anders, and Peter Hervik. ‘Feeding the Beast: Nourishing Nativist Appeals in Sweden and in Denmark’. (2014) [PDF]
Hellström, Anders, and Peter Hervik. ‘Feeding the Beast: Nourishing Nativist Appeals in Sweden and in Denmark’. Journal of International Migration and Integration, vol. 15, no. 3, Aug. 2014, pp. 449–467.
Sweden and Denmark share a similar socio-political structure, yet these two countries demonstrate two distinct discourses on immigration. This article focuses on the tone of the debate in Denmark and Sweden concerning immigration and national identity. If the tone of debate is shaped by a language of fear, we argue, this predisposes people to vote for anti-immigration parties. Our analysis highlights the position of anti-immigration parties; hence, the Sweden Democrats (SD) in Sweden and the Danish People’s Party (DPP) in Denmark. We use frame analysis to detect recurrent frames in the media debate concerning the SD and the DPP in the political competition over votes. Our material concentrates on the run-up to the European Parliamentary (EP) elections of 2004 and 2009, in total 573 articles in ten major Danish and Swedish newspapers. We show that the harsh tone of the debate and the negative dialogue risks leading to the construction of beasts that are impossible to negotiate with. In the Swedish political debate, the SD is highly stigmatized as the beast (the extreme other) in Swedish politics and this stigma is used by the SD in the mobilization of votes. In Denmark the religion of Islam as such plays a similar role and provides the DPP with an identity. We conclude that we are confronted with a two-faced beast that feeds on perceptions of the people as ultimately afraid of what are not recognized as native goods.
Helgertz, J., P. Bevelander, and A. Tegunimataka. ‘Naturalization and Earnings: A Denmark–Sweden Comparison’. (2014) [PDF]
Helgertz, J., P. Bevelander, and A. Tegunimataka. ‘Naturalization and Earnings: A Denmark–Sweden Comparison’. European Journal of Population, vol. 30, no. 3, 2014, pp. 337–359.
The determinants and consequences of the naturalization of immigrants is a hot topic in the political debate in Europe. This article compares the effect of naturalization on the income attainment of immigrants in two Scandinavian countries, Denmark and Sweden, using longitudinal register data from 1986 and onward. Sweden is characterized by low obstacles to naturalization, and existing studies provide inconclusive evidence regarding the impact of naturalization on labor market outcomes. Denmark is instead characterized by higher barriers to naturalization, as well as a virtual inexistence of previous studies on the topic. Results, obtained through individual fixed-effect regression analysis, suggest similar effects in both countries. A consistent naturalization premium is detected for immigrants of Asian and African descent, but not for any other immigrant group. The similarity across contexts arguably questions the use of more stringent naturalization laws to promote the economic integration of immigrants.
PDF: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10680-014-9315-z
Fietkau, Sebastian, and Kasper M. Hansen. ‘How Perceptions of Immigrants Trigger Feelings of Economic and Cultural Threats in Two Welfare States, How Perceptions of Immigrants Trigger Feelings of Economic and Cultural Threats in Two Welfare States’. European Union Politics, vol. 19, no. 1, Mar. 2018, pp. 119–139.
Better understanding of attitudes toward immigration is crucial to avoid misperception of immigration in the public debate. Through two identical online survey experiments applying morphed faces of non-Western immigrants and textual vignettes, the authors manipulate complexion, education, family background, and gender in Denmark and Germany. For women, an additional split in which half of the women wore a headscarf is performed. In both countries, highly skilled immigrants are preferred to low-skilled immigrants. Danes are more skeptical toward non-Western immigration than Germans. Essentially, less educated Danes are very critical of accepting non-Western immigrants in their country. It is suggested that this difference is driven by a large welfare state in Denmark compared to Germany, suggesting a stronger fear in welfare societies that immigrants will exploit welfare benefits., Better understanding of attitudes toward immigration is crucial to avoid misperception of immigration in the public debate. Through two identical online survey experiments applying morphed faces of non-Western immigrants and textual vignettes, the authors manipulate complexion, education, family background, and gender in Denmark and Germany. For women, an additional split in which half of the women wore a headscarf is performed. In both countries, highly skilled immigrants are preferred to low-skilled immigrants. Danes are more skeptical toward non-Western immigration than Germans. Essentially, less educated Danes are very critical of accepting non-Western immigrants in their country. It is suggested that this difference is driven by a large welfare state in Denmark compared to Germany, suggesting a stronger fear in welfare societies that immigrants will exploit welfare benefits.
PDF: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1465116517734064.
Bohman, Andrea. ‘Who’s Welcome and Who’s Not? Opposition towards Immigration in the Nordic Countries, 2002–2014’. (2018)
Bohman, Andrea. ‘Who’s Welcome and Who’s Not? Opposition towards Immigration in the Nordic Countries, 2002–2014’. Scandinavian Political Studies, vol. 41, no. 3, Sept. 2018, pp. 283–306.
This article demonstrates the analytical advantages of studying not only the degree to which people oppose immigration in a country, but also the character of their opposition. Using Latent Class Analysis and data from the European Social Survey, Nordic patterns and trends are examined with the aim of identifying different kinds of immigration attitudes and how they develop in different national contexts. The Nordic countries are interesting to compare as, while they are similar in many respects, they also diverge significantly from each other in areas theoretically considered important to the formation of attitudes towards immigration. Studying the character of immigration opposition reveals five different types of immigration attitudes. These are differently distributed between the Nordic countries as well as over time, and include nativist opposition (opposition only towards immigrants of ethnic/racial groups other than that of the majority population) and economic opposition (opposition that entails a separation between immigrants considered to be an economic resource and an economic burden). By demonstrating how immigration opposition in the Nordic countries varies not only in degree but also in character, the article contributes to a deeper understanding of the nature of immigration opposition as well as of how different attitudinal profiles evolve under different contextual circumstances.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1467-9477.12120
Bech, Emily Cochran, Karin Borevi, et al. ‘A “Civic Turn” in Scandinavian Family Migration Policies? Comparing Denmark, Norway and Sweden’. (2017) [PDF]
Bech, Emily Cochran, Karin Borevi, et al. ‘A “Civic Turn” in Scandinavian Family Migration Policies? Comparing Denmark, Norway and Sweden’. Comparative Migration Studies, vol. 5, no. 1, Mar. 2017, p. 7.
Family migration policy, once basing citizens and resident foreigners’ possibilities to bring in foreign family members mainly on the right to family life, is increasingly a tool states use to limit immigration and to push newcomers to integrate into civic and economic life. The family migration policies of Denmark, Norway and Sweden range widely – from more minimal support and age requirements to high expectations of language skills, work records and even income levels. While in Denmark and increasingly in Norway growing sets of requirements have been justified on the need to protect the welfare state and a Nordic liberal way of life, in Sweden more minimal requirements have been introduced in the name of spurring immigrants’ labor market integration even as rights-based reasoning has continued to dominate. In all three countries, new restrictions have been introduced in the wake of the refugee crisis. These cases show how prioritizations of the right to family life vis-à-vis welfare-state sustainability have produced different rules for family entry, and how family migration policies are used to different extents to push civic integration of both new and already settled immigrants.
Albrekt Larsen, Christian. ‘Fordomme over for etniske minoriteter i Danmark, Sverige, Storbritannien og USA’. (2012) [PDF]
Albrekt Larsen, Christian. ‘Fordomme over for etniske minoriteter i Danmark, Sverige, Storbritannien og USA’. Politica, vol. 44, no. 4, Jan. 2012, pp. 488–504.
Artiklen sammenligninger, hvorledes majoritetsbefolkningen i Danmark, Sverige, Storbritannien og USA opfatter etniske minoriteter. I USA har en lang forsk- ningstradition afdækket, hvorledes hvide amerikanere har fordomme over for afroamerikanere. Artiklen beskriver, hvorvidt danskerne, svenskerne og briterne har udviklet de samme slags fordomme om ikke-vestlige indvandrere. Det gøres ved hjælp af et unikt datamateriale, hvor amerikanske spørgsmål fra General Social Survey er blevet repliceret i de tre lande. Sammenligningen viser, at danskernes, svenskernes og briternes opfattelse af ikke-vestlige indvandrere ikke er mere positiv end amerikanernes opfattelse af afroamerikanerne. Det leder til en konklusion om, at hverken politiske forsøg på at afpolitisere det etniske spørgsmål eller tilstedeværelsen af samhørighedsskabende universelle velfærdsstater har formået at afværge en negativ opfattelse af socialt udsatte etniske minoriteter.