Tag: national comparison

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]

~ Dansk Racismeforskning

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]

~ Dansk Racismeforskning

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.

https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/publications/christian-nations-ethnic-christianity-and-antiimmigration-attitudes-in-four-western-european-countries(6b3a6051-eff8-4cda-9ed6-f82c3439abde).html

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]

~ Dansk Racismeforskning

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.

doi:10.1007/s12134-013-0293-5.

PDF: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s12134-013-0293-5.

Helgertz, J., P. Bevelander, and A. Tegunimataka. ‘Naturalization and Earnings: A Denmark–Sweden Comparison’. (2014) [PDF]

~ Dansk Racismeforskning

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

~ Dansk Racismeforskning

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.

doi:10.1177/1465116517734064.

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)

~ Dansk Racismeforskning

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.

doi:10.1111/1467-9477.12120.

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]

~ Dansk Racismeforskning

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.

doi:10.1186/s40878-016-0046-7.

PDF: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/314143800_A_%27civic_turn%27_in_Scandinavian_family_migration_policies_Comparing_Denmark_Norway_and_Sweden.

Albrekt Larsen, Christian. ‘Fordomme over for etniske minoriteter i Danmark, Sverige, Storbritannien og USA’. (2012) [PDF]

~ Dansk Racismeforskning

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.

PDF: https://tidsskrift.dk/politica/article/view/69959

doi:10.7146/politica.v44i4.69959.