Multiculturalism: Is Denmark a den of intolerance and Sweden a land of political correctness?

The recent ban on the wearing of full-face veils in Denmark is evidence of that country’s unease with multiculturalism, a feeling shared by some other European nations who have adopted similar legislation. Sweden, meanwhile, has largely stayed true to its policy of multiculturalism. Mahama Tawat compares Danish and Swedish policies towards immigrant communities, tracing the clear difference between the two that has emerged over time while also sounding a note of caution against exaggerating the difference

The Tip of the Iceberg : Prop. 1975:26 and its Freedom of Choice Goal in Sweden’s Multiculturalism Policy

In the expansive literature on Swedish multiculturalism policy, the Freedom of Choice Goal (FCG) of the Bill, Prop. 1975:26, Guidelines for an Immigrant and Minority Policy is often presented as its founding document. But this belies the fact that the Goal was beset by a controversy about its multicultural scope in the years that followed its adoption in 1975 that was never really settled. This article revisits the question and shows that the Goal indeed represented a multicultural vision. However, it was just the tip of an iceberg formed by socioeconomic integration policies. Earlier and more consistent multicultural policy provisions were present most notably in the state cultural policy. The article draws evidence from multiple sources including comparison with Norway

Frontiers of Fear: Immigration and Insecurity in the United States and Europe. Ariane Chebel d'Appolonia. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2012. 305 pp. 87.95(cloth).SurvivalMigration:FailedGovernanceandtheCrisisofDisplacements.AlexanderBetts.Ithaca,NY:CornellUniversityPress,2013.256pp.87.95 (cloth). Survival Migration: Failed Governance and the Crisis of Displacements. Alexander Betts. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2013. 256 pp. 77.95 (cloth)

Never since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States have the issues of migration, securitization, and state capacity come to bear in such a dramatic fashion as today. The surge of more than 1 million refugees from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Eritrea, and beyond in the space of a few months has triggered events whose historical parallel can only be found in the early hours of World War II. In a matter of months, the Dublin Convention, the EU signature legislation on asylum seeking and the freedom of movement, one of its prize achievements has been hollowed out. Europeans have raised up fences against each other and Americans against Europeans for the foreseeable future. Masquerading as refugees or otherwise, assailants with an immigrant background acting on behalf of the Islamist State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), a terrorist organization, struck France twice at its heart, Paris. On January 7, 2015, when 12 people (most of them journalists) of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo were massacred, and again on November 13 when 130 people were maimed at different locations. In the aftermath, fear has stalked the Continent and daily life has been disrupted on a scale hardly seen before as governments issued vast security arrangements to preempt new attacks. The “wilkommenspolitik” that saw many Germans line up at Munich railway stations to welcome refugees has worn thin following allegations of mass sexual assaults carried out by migrants against local women in Cologne on New Year's Eve and mounting difficulties with the absorption of refugees. Attacks have multiplied against asylum seekers’ homes and far‐right organizations such as the French National Front, Alternative for Germany (AfD), PEGIDA (Patriotic Europeans against the Islamisation of the Occident) and the Swedish Democrats are having a field day

The Divergent Convergence of Multiculturalism Policy in the Nordic Countries (1964 - 2006) : Immigration Size, Policy Diffusion and Path Dependency

Nordic countries are among the main destinations for immigrants in the world because of their traditionally generous policies. They are also some of the most integrated and similar countries. Yet, in the 1970s when they became confronted with the “multicultural question”, they made different choices. This article shows that the presence or absence of a sizeable immigration was the main causal factor. It explains why Sweden adopted multiculturalism while Finland and Iceland did not. However, this factor was sufficient and not necessary. The formulation of multicultural policy provisions (MCPs) in Norway despite a small and late labour immigration was the result of diffusion from Sweden. In Denmark, the absence of sizeable immigration combined with the presence of a nationally-oriented policy legacy to further deny such outcome. There was an upward albeit slow convergence towards multiculturalism. Groupings of multiculturalist and assimilationist countries stuck together until the civic turn in the mid-2000s

The birth of Sweden's multicultural policy : The impact of Olof Palme and his ideas

The breadth of Sweden's multicultural policy has left it as one of the few truly multiculturalist countries in the West. This exceptionalism is puzzling and has generated a lot of attention from scholars and the public alike. Using a policy process perspective, this article traces its process of adoption in the 1970s. It shows that the adoption of an official multicultural policy relied crucially on Olof Palme and his ideas in his role as an 'activist gatekeeper.' The article takes as illustration the country's first State Cultural Policy passed in 1974

Two Tales of Viking Diversity: A Comparative Study of the Immigrant Integration Policies of Denmark and Sweden, 1960-2006

The perspective of this dissertation is a comparison between the integration policies of Denmark and Sweden between 1960, when there was a shift toward non-Nordic and non-European immigration, and 2006. The two countries’ policies continued to diverge in the cultural integration domain. In Denmark, ideas stemming from a policy legacy, and promoting the national culture, prevented multiculturalism from taking root. In Sweden, it was— above all—Olof Palme, the slain activist, in his capacity as Minister of Culture and Prime Minister, who engineered the advent of multiculturalism. Danish policy makers chose a policy of toleration. That is, the disapproval of immigrants’ cultural practices in the public sphere but the non-interference of the state in the private sphere as long as these practices did not harm the majority. In Sweden, the cultural embeddedness of immigrants was promoted until the mid-1990s. After that time ethnocultural diversity was portrayed as a source of cultural enrichment, a remedy against racism and xenophobia, and lastly as a means of taking advantage of globalization especially in economic terms. Their policies converged in the socioeconomic and political integration domains. Both states sought to maximize their interests by emphasizing employment and self-help among immigrants, but they continued to consolidate immigrants’ socioeconomic rights, mainly through anti-discrimination policies. Despite the fear of globalization, a rise in the number of refugees, and xenophobia from the 1990s onwards, all these policies were “locked” in their trajectories

The Tip of the Iceberg : Prop. 1975:26 and its Freedom of Choice Goal in Sweden’s Multiculturalism Policy

In the expansive literature on Swedish multiculturalism policy, the Freedom of Choice Goal (FCG) of the Bill, Prop. 1975:26, Guidelines for an Immigrant and Minority Policy is often presented as its founding document. But this belies the fact that the Goal was beset by a controversy about its multicultural scope in the years that followed its adoption in 1975 that was never really settled. This article revisits the question and shows that the Goal indeed represented a multicultural vision. However, it was just the tip of an iceberg formed by socioeconomic integration policies. Earlier and more consistent multicultural policy provisions were present most notably in the state cultural policy. The article draws evidence from multiple sources including comparison with Norway

Multiculturalism and Policymaking : A comparative study of Danish and Swedish cultural policies since 1969

This master’s thesis deals with the cultural diversity policies of Denmark and Sweden within the cultural sector. It attempts at explaining why these two “most-similar” scandinavian countries having in common the same cultural model, “the architect model”, opted for different policies when it came to cultural diversity: Assimilationism for Denmark and multiculturalism for Sweden. I show that though institutional and power-interest factors had an impact, ideas as “programmatic beliefs” (Sheri E. Berman 2001) or “frames” (Erik Bleich 2003) played the ultimate role. I evaluate their relative importance by analyzing the anthropological dimension of the countries cultural policies since 1969. The study confirms that at least in the cultural sector, Danish policies have been assimilationist and Swedish ones multiculturalist and proposes a new classification of terms.By investigating immigrants cultures, it fills a gap left by previous researchers working on a common Nordic cultural model