Multiculturalism vs. Nationalism: Sweden's Immigration Policies in Response to Growing Nationalist Concerns

Sammanfattning

This study examines Sweden's immigrant integration policies in the context of the growinginfluence of nationalist movements, focusing on the state's efforts to reconcile itscommitments to multiculturalism with concerns about national identity and social cohesion.Sweden has long been known as a champion of human rights and multiculturalism, but afterthe 2015 refugee crisis, public and political discourse on immigration changed. The studymaps the progression of Swedish immigration policy and evaluates its outcomes. This study employs qualitative content analysis with Atlas.ti to analyze government pressreleases, publications from the Swedish Migration Agency (Migrationsverket), and reportsfrom international media, such as the BBC. A coding framework is created to evaluate theimpact of nationalist sentiments on policy direction and discourse. The investigation draws ontheoretical frameworks from Will Kymlicka, Benedict Anderson, and Koopmans et al.,offering a conceptual framework to investigate the relationship among diversity, nationalism,and governance. The results indicate that Sweden's policies have progressively aligned with wider Europeantendencies favoring restrictive immigration measures, prioritizing assimilation overmulticultural inclusion. This transformation is due to both the rise of nationalist movementsand the government's efforts to keep society together during times of demographic andpolitical transition. By critically analyzing these dynamics, the study enhances academicdiscourse on immigration, identity, and governance.