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Civil Society and Social Integration of Asylum Seekers: The ‘Strength of Weak Ties’ and the Dynamics of ‘Strategic Action Fields’

Olsson, Lennart LU ; Jerneck, Anne LU ; Fry, Claudia LU and Habib, Anika Binte LU (2023) In Social Sciences 12(7).
Abstract
The dramatic increase of asylum seekers entering the EU in 2015 profoundly changed migration politics in many EU countries. Not least in Sweden which accepted more migrants per capita than any other EU country but then swung abruptly to become among the strictest recipient countries. We use Sweden as a critical and extreme case to argue that the rapid shift in asylum politics and public opinion towards migration is not profoundly shared in society. Based on a local media analysis of three types of purposively selected rural municipalities followed by the analysis of a survey of civil society organizations sent to all 290 municipalities in Sweden, we find strong civil society support and willingness to both receive migrants and facilitate... (More)
The dramatic increase of asylum seekers entering the EU in 2015 profoundly changed migration politics in many EU countries. Not least in Sweden which accepted more migrants per capita than any other EU country but then swung abruptly to become among the strictest recipient countries. We use Sweden as a critical and extreme case to argue that the rapid shift in asylum politics and public opinion towards migration is not profoundly shared in society. Based on a local media analysis of three types of purposively selected rural municipalities followed by the analysis of a survey of civil society organizations sent to all 290 municipalities in Sweden, we find strong civil society support and willingness to both receive migrants and facilitate their integration into society. Despite increasing votes for political parties with anti-migration policies, we also find remarkably positive attitudes towards migrants in civil society organizations and among citizens in the EU27 barometer for Sweden. The upshot is optimism that civil society can balance the anti-immigration governance imposed by both left and right political regimes and that populism will succeed only if it has the capacity to thoroughly transform civil society attitudes—which we doubt. (Less)
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author
; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
civil society, integration, migration, populism, rural, Sweden
in
Social Sciences
volume
12
issue
7
article number
403
publisher
MDPI AG
external identifiers
  • scopus:85166420777
ISSN
2076-0760
DOI
10.3390/socsci12070403
project
Migration Governance and Asylum Crises
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
386eb59b-f858-4dc9-bb7e-4e4c96916143
date added to LUP
2023-09-08 14:30:52
date last changed
2023-11-02 13:49:29
@article{386eb59b-f858-4dc9-bb7e-4e4c96916143,
  abstract     = {{The dramatic increase of asylum seekers entering the EU in 2015 profoundly changed migration politics in many EU countries. Not least in Sweden which accepted more migrants per capita than any other EU country but then swung abruptly to become among the strictest recipient countries. We use Sweden as a critical and extreme case to argue that the rapid shift in asylum politics and public opinion towards migration is not profoundly shared in society. Based on a local media analysis of three types of purposively selected rural municipalities followed by the analysis of a survey of civil society organizations sent to all 290 municipalities in Sweden, we find strong civil society support and willingness to both receive migrants and facilitate their integration into society. Despite increasing votes for political parties with anti-migration policies, we also find remarkably positive attitudes towards migrants in civil society organizations and among citizens in the EU27 barometer for Sweden. The upshot is optimism that civil society can balance the anti-immigration governance imposed by both left and right political regimes and that populism will succeed only if it has the capacity to thoroughly transform civil society attitudes—which we doubt.}},
  author       = {{Olsson, Lennart and Jerneck, Anne and Fry, Claudia and Habib, Anika Binte}},
  issn         = {{2076-0760}},
  keywords     = {{civil society; integration; migration; populism; rural; Sweden}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{07}},
  number       = {{7}},
  publisher    = {{MDPI AG}},
  series       = {{Social Sciences}},
  title        = {{Civil Society and Social Integration of Asylum Seekers: The ‘Strength of Weak Ties’ and the Dynamics of ‘Strategic Action Fields’}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/socsci12070403}},
  doi          = {{10.3390/socsci12070403}},
  volume       = {{12}},
  year         = {{2023}},
}