UC San Diego

From the end of World War II until recently, Sweden had one of the most open approaches to immigration and integration among Western nations. Initially accepting mainly economic migrants, Sweden focused on receiving refugees in the years after 1980. In 2018, immigrants made up nineteen percent of the Swedish population, with non-Western immigrants accounting for thirteen percent. Shortly after receiving during the Syrian migration crisis of 2014-2015 the largest per-capita inflow of asylum seekers ever recorded among OECD countries, Sweden enacted temporary restrictive measures. In 2021, legislation was passed that made these measures permanent and changed aspects of the country’s policy that had been in place since the 1980s. In 2022, a center-right government was voted into office and pledged to make Sweden’s immigration policy the strictest in Europe. My dissertation explains the shift in Sweden while comparing the developments there to those in the other Nordics. The change in Sweden’s policy was driven by growing public discontent over immigration and integration. This discontent did not stem from changes in general economic conditions or in general social and cultural norms, factors independent of immigration. Instead, it was caused by issues directly related to immigration and integration, specifically an increase in immigrant crime and social disorder as well as worsening cultural and economic integration. These problems reached a critical threshold in the 2010s, fueling public discontent, which pressured politicians and ultimately led to the policy change. Moreover, the aforementioned policy changes are not mere adjustments; rather, they signify a paradigm shift that entails (1) a renewed understanding of Sweden as a community defined by liberal values and a common culture—as opposed to a multicultural society—in which Swedish culture and history are dominant; and (2) a prioritization of the interests of the wider society and the state. This paradigm shift is accompanied by similar changes in Sweden’s educational policy and criminal justice policy, which—much like in the case of immigration and integration—align policy with public opinion and mark a departure from the progressive approaches in place in these areas until now.