Municipal responses to national refugee settlement policies : A case study of two welcoming municipaleties in Sweden

This thesis investigates two Swedish municipalities that have vocalised a discontent with Sweden’s recent “Settlement Act,” arguing that they would like to receive more refugees than the national policy allows. Making it an interesting case of decision-making processes within governance studies. In the center of this thesis, public officials’ influence in the policy process of migration and refugee settlement is investigated, given that this focus has previously been neglected in studies concerning migration policy. As such, the primary purpose of this study is to describe and analyse how public officials potentially influence the policy process, alongside a secondary task of investigating how municipalities react towards a more restrictive national policy regarding refugee settlement and what governance arrangements this can lead to. The study uses a qualitative research method, drawing upon documents from the municipalities and twelve interviews with both public officials and politicians. The study finds that public officials influence the policy process within two dimensions of power: agenda-setting and decision-making. Furthermore, it is found that local governments react towards the more restrictive national policy with a localist approach, by formulating policies of their own, using “vertical venue shopping” to influence upper levels of government, and arguing that local problems need local solutions. Nonetheless, the thesis demonstrates that these attempts to influence upper levels of government do not succeed, with no signs of the national government changing its policy in response. Thus, it is argued that with specific regards to refugee settlement, it seems as though Swedish policy-making is becoming increasingly top-down, with limited opportunities for local governments to influence national policy

Municipal responses to national refugee settlement policies : A case study of two welcoming municipaleties in Sweden

This thesis investigates two Swedish municipalities that have vocalised a discontent with Sweden’s recent “Settlement Act,” arguing that they would like to receive more refugees than the national policy allows. Making it an interesting case of decision-making processes within governance studies. In the center of this thesis, public officials’ influence in the policy process of migration and refugee settlement is investigated, given that this focus has previously been neglected in studies concerning migration policy. As such, the primary purpose of this study is to describe and analyse how public officials potentially influence the policy process, alongside a secondary task of investigating how municipalities react towards a more restrictive national policy regarding refugee settlement and what governance arrangements this can lead to. The study uses a qualitative research method, drawing upon documents from the municipalities and twelve interviews with both public officials and politicians. The study finds that public officials influence the policy process within two dimensions of power: agenda-setting and decision-making. Furthermore, it is found that local governments react towards the more restrictive national policy with a localist approach, by formulating policies of their own, using “vertical venue shopping” to influence upper levels of government, and arguing that local problems need local solutions. Nonetheless, the thesis demonstrates that these attempts to influence upper levels of government do not succeed, with no signs of the national government changing its policy in response. Thus, it is argued that with specific regards to refugee settlement, it seems as though Swedish policy-making is becoming increasingly top-down, with limited opportunities for local governments to influence national policy

Including the social in the circular: A mapping of the consequences of a circular economy transition in the city of Umeå, Sweden

The circular economy (CE) model, where resources are kept "in the loop" for as long as possible through a series of reusing, remanufacturing, recycling, and recovery strategies, has been acclaimed for reducing the environmental impacts of our current economic model substantially and has therefore been supported by a wide range of policymakers as one solution to tackling climate change. However, how circular transitions in cities impact people has been rarely researched, and even less attention has been paid to the negative consequences of CE transitions. This paper presents the findings from a social impact assessment conducted in the city of Umeå, Sweden. We identified several negative impacts of a CE transition across seven social impact categories and explored three areas in depth with stakeholders in the city: employment, access to services and participation. We found that the negative impacts of the CE are perceived to be limited and that the CE interventions are mainly viewed as a win-win-win outcome, i.e., a win for the environment, the economy and people. This raises questions about the level to which societal consequences have been considered and whether all relevant stakeholders, in particular civil society, have participated in the design of the city's CE strategy. Our findings can inform other cities about possible negative consequences of CE transitions and provide insights into how to incorporate different stakeholders in the CE transition process to ensure that no one is left behind.QC 20221116Urban Circularity Assessment Framewor