IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jscscx/v12y2023i7p403-d1191597.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

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

Author

Listed:
  • Lennart Olsson

    (Centre for Sustainability Studies (LUCSUS), Lund University, SE-221 00 Lund, Sweden)

  • Anne Jerneck

    (Centre for Sustainability Studies (LUCSUS), Lund University, SE-221 00 Lund, Sweden)

  • Claudia Fry

    (Environment and Migration: Interactions and Choices Section (EMIC), United Nations University, D-53113 Bonn, Germany)

  • Anika Binte Habib

    (Centre for Sustainability Studies (LUCSUS), Lund University, SE-221 00 Lund, Sweden)

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Lennart Olsson & Anne Jerneck & Claudia Fry & Anika Binte Habib, 2023. "Civil Society and Social Integration of Asylum Seekers: The ‘Strength of Weak Ties’ and the Dynamics of ‘Strategic Action Fields’," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-20, July.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:12:y:2023:i:7:p:403-:d:1191597
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/12/7/403/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/12/7/403/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fligstein, Neil & Polyakova, Alina & Sandholtz, Wayne, 2011. "European Integration, Nationalism, and European Identity," Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, Working Paper Series qt1h47s4ck, Institute of Industrial Relations, UC Berkeley.
    2. Anastasia Gorodzeisky & Moshe Semyonov, 2017. "Labor force participation, unemployment and occupational attainment among immigrants in West European countries," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(5), pages 1-22, May.
    3. Neil Fligstein & Alina Polyakova & Wayne Sandholtz, 2012. "European Integration, Nationalism and European Identity," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(S1), pages 106-122, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Soetkin Verhaegen & Marc Hooghe & Ellen Quintelier, 2014. "European Identity and Support for European Integration: A Matter of Perceived Economic Benefits?," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 67(2), pages 295-314, May.
    2. Christoffer Kølvraa, 2016. "European Fantasies: On the EU's Political Myths and the Affective Potential of Utopian Imaginaries for European Identity," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(1), pages 169-184, January.
    3. Élodie Béthoux & Roland Erne & Darragh Golden, 2018. "A Primordial Attachment to the Nation? French and Irish Workers and Trade Unions in Past EU Referendum Debates," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 56(3), pages 656-678, September.
    4. Andrea Bonilla‐Bolaños, 2021. "A step further in the theory of regional integration: A look at the South American integration strategy," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(5), pages 845-873, July.
    5. Nikolaos Antonakakis & Ioannis Chatziantoniou & David Gabauer, 2021. "The impact of Euro through time: Exchange rate dynamics under different regimes," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(1), pages 1375-1408, January.
    6. Kaija E. Schilde, 2014. "Who are the Europeans? European Identity Outside of European Integration," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(3), pages 650-667, May.
    7. Gabriel, Ricardo Duque & Pessoa, Ana Sofia, 2024. "Adopting the euro: A synthetic control approach," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    8. Thomas Baudin & Keiti Kondi, 2023. "Integration Vs Cultural Persistence: Fertility and Working Time among Second-Generation Migrants in France," LIDAM Discussion Papers IRES 2023002, Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES).
    9. Sarah Ciaglia & Clemens Fuest & Friedrich Heinemann, 2018. "What a feeling?! How to promote ‘European Identity’," EconPol Policy Reports 9, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich.
    10. Julia H. Schroedter & Jörg Rössel & Georg Datler, 2015. "European Identity in Switzerland," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 662(1), pages 148-168, November.
    11. Rubin, Amir & Rubin, Eran & Segal, Dan, 2023. "Editor home bias?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(6).
    12. Sargent, Kristina, 2023. "The labor market impacts of Brexit: Migration and the European union," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 121(C).
    13. Sybille Luhmann, 2017. "A Multi-Level Approach to European Identity: Does Integration Foster Identity?," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(6), pages 1360-1379, November.
    14. Scott Blinder & Yvonni Markaki, 2019. "Acceptable in the EU? Why some immigration restrictionists support European Union mobility," European Union Politics, , vol. 20(3), pages 468-491, September.
    15. Joan Costa-i-Font & Frank Cowell, 2015. "European Identity and Redistributive Preferences," CESifo Working Paper Series 5412, CESifo.
    16. Waqas Ejaz & Marco Bräuer & Jens Wolling, 2017. "Subjective Evaluation of Media Content as a Moderator of Media Effects on European Identity: Mere Exposure and the Hostile Media Phenomenon," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 5(2), pages 41-52.
    17. Konstantin Sokolovskiy & Valery Stepenko & Iskandar Mukhametgaliyev, 2023. "Identity Politics: an Actual Response to the Challenges of the Modern Time or the Collapse of the Concept? Historical and Legal Points of View," Public Organization Review, Springer, vol. 23(3), pages 1069-1082, September.
    18. Andrew Anzur CLEMENT, 2015. "Reporting on the ‘ever closer union’: narrative framing in national news medias and resistance to EU integration," Eastern Journal of European Studies, Centre for European Studies, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, vol. 6, pages 123-135, June.
    19. Thomas Risse, 2014. "No Demos? Identities and Public Spheres in the Euro Crisis," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(6), pages 1207-1215, November.
    20. Nella Geurts & Marcel Lubbers, 2023. "The Good and the Bad: Do Immigrants’ Positive and Negative Evaluations of Life After Migration Go Hand in Hand?," Journal of International Migration and Integration, Springer, vol. 24(3), pages 1091-1111, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:12:y:2023:i:7:p:403-:d:1191597. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.