Evidence from Sweden: how local governments shape migration policies

While migration policies are typically set by national governments, local governments play a key role in managing the settlement of migrants and their integration into society. Based on an analysis of Swedish migration policy in the aftermath of the 2015-16 migration crisis, Jon Nyhlén and Gustav Lidén shed light on the significance of the local level of government for migration policy

Det kommunala skolsystemet och friskoleetableringen : Tre norrländska kommuner ur ett konfliktperspektiv

Det svenska skolsystemet har gått från att vara ett centralistiskt system med i princip en huvudman till ett system där skolor kan drivas av flera olika huvudmän. Detta är ett resultat av de decentraliseringsreformer som den svenska skolan genomgått. Reformerna har resulterat i att kommunerna har fått större ansvar i hur skolan och tillhörande förvaltning skall organiseras och styras. Till detta har decentraliseringen möjliggjort etablering av fristående skolor vilket i sin tur bildat en kommunal kvasi-marknad för utbildning. Detta har utmanat den hierarkiska styrningsmodellen och kommunerna söker efter olika organisatoriska lösningar för att kunna hantera friskoleetableringen. I vissa fall leder dessa spänningar till konflikter mellan friskolor och kommun.   Friskoleetableringen utmanar den byråkartiska hierarkiska styrningsmodellen. Lokala skolmarknader växer fram vilket vissa kommuner har svårt att anpassa sig till. Governaceforskningen talar i termer av en mer komplex styrning i och med att det finns ett flertal aktörer involverade. I den kommunala skolpolitiska kontexten är den hierarkiska styrningsmodellen inte helt irrelevant och den är inte fullt ut ersatt av de mer governanceinspirerade styrningsmodellerna. (Pierre m.fl 2008)  Däremot förekommer olika, mer eller mindre, decentraliserade organisationslösningar av den lokala skolförvaltningen vilka kan ses som svar på den utmaning som bl.a friskolorna innebär för de lokala skolförvaltningarna. I Governanceforskningen är de mer decentraliserade styrningsmodellerna mer anpassade till den komplexa situation som friskoleetableringarna utgör och dessa förvaltningar torde vara mer lämpade att utöva en effektiv styrning av den lokala skolpolitiken.   I den moderna styrningslitteraturen nämns att konflikterna i dessa nya, mer decentraliserade, styrsystem tenderar att öka (Bäck 200, Lantto 2005). En förklaring är att i målstyrda system tenderar konflikter att bli en fråga för förvaltningsnivån snarare än den politiska nivån. Det papper jag har för avsikt att presentera tar avstamp i den förändrade styrningen och jag undersöker hur olika kommunala organiseringar av skolan påverkar utvecklandet av förvaltningspolitiska konflikter. Tre norrlandskommuner är i fokus, vilka är ungefär lika stora, samma politiska majoritet samt med ett liknande antal friskolor på gymnasienivå.

Paths to independent schools

Paper presenterat vid Europena Group for Public Administration (EGPA) konferens i Milan

Styrideal och konflikt : Om friskoleetablering i tre norrländska kommuner

During the last decades, the public sector in Western democracies has undergone drastic changes. These changes have meant privatization and a more diverse service provision. Because of privatization, activities that were previously reserved for the public sector can now be conducted by the private sector. This has led to the traditional hierarchical model to be challenged by a new governing style throughmarket mechanisms, which was introduced during the 1980s. Both the hierarchical model and market model have since been supplemented by the network model that was introduced in the 1990s. The new organization has meant that steering is currently done in a complex environment with varying outcomes. In the foreground of the theoretical concepts that captures the development describedearlier is governance. The starting point of the governance perspective is that the traditional bureaucracy model for governing is challenged by new forms of organization and steering. In the early 1990s, it became possible, due to a change in legislation, to startindependent schools with public funding. This legislation change has had a major impact on the Swedish school system in terms of organization and steering issues. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how the ideals of hierarchy, market andnetworking appear in the municipal steering of the local school system, and how these ideals affect the development and the intensity of the conflicts in the surveyed municipalities. The focus of the empirical study is three municipalities from the northern parts of Sweden, which are equal in terms of population, number of school pupils, the number of independent schools and with the samepolitical majority. The overall result of the thesis is that different governing ideals affect the levels of conflict in different ways. The municipality governed by marked ideals exhibit thehighest degree of conflict and the municipality governed by the network ideal exhibit lower levels of conflict. The municipality governed by the hierarchical ideal in the middle of the conflict scale

Neoliberal Steering in Swedish Integration Policy : the Rise and Fall of Introduction Guides

In the past decades, many policy sectors within European countries have encountered political reforms of neoliberal character. One of the key shifts has been the reorientation of public employment services that has been enforced, for example, through the establishment of what have been denoted as quasi-markets. Simultaneously with the rise of quasi-markets, welfare policy as a whole, including integration policy, has beenincreasingly oriented toward “activation”, with its focus on the individual’s obligationsand duties in relation to welfare services. These circumstances pose particular challenges to those charged with the governance of welfare services due to increasingly complex requirements for collaboration and control involving a multitude of actors. The reform is an example of a hybrid system where for- and non-profit actors compete for the“customer”, in this case, the newly arrived immigrant. This article focuses on the changes in Swedish integration reform as an archetype of these changes and studies a clearly defined case study. Empirically, this study draws from both documents and interviews. The article illustrates an unregulated and ill-monitored policy containing a model that comprises mixed modes of steering. The governance of the reform bears traits from both centralist and cooperative forms of governance and, thereby, involves competing philosophies of steering

Neoliberal Steering in Swedish Integration Policy : the Rise and Fall of Introduction Guides

In the past decades, many policy sectors within European countries have encountered political reforms of neoliberal character. One of the key shifts has been the reorientation of public employment services that has been enforced, for example, through the establishment of what have been denoted as quasi-markets. Simultaneously with the rise of quasi-markets, welfare policy as a whole, including integration policy, has beenincreasingly oriented toward “activation”, with its focus on the individual’s obligationsand duties in relation to welfare services. These circumstances pose particular challenges to those charged with the governance of welfare services due to increasingly complex requirements for collaboration and control involving a multitude of actors. The reform is an example of a hybrid system where for- and non-profit actors compete for the“customer”, in this case, the newly arrived immigrant. This article focuses on the changes in Swedish integration reform as an archetype of these changes and studies a clearly defined case study. Empirically, this study draws from both documents and interviews. The article illustrates an unregulated and ill-monitored policy containing a model that comprises mixed modes of steering. The governance of the reform bears traits from both centralist and cooperative forms of governance and, thereby, involves competing philosophies of steering

Neoliberal Steering in Swedish Integration Policy : the Rise and Fall of Introduction Guides

In the past decades, many policy sectors within European countries have encountered political reforms of neoliberal character. One of the key shifts has been the reorientation of public employment services that has been enforced, for example, through the establishment of what have been denoted as quasi-markets. Simultaneously with the rise of quasi-markets, welfare policy as a whole, including integration policy, has beenincreasingly oriented toward “activation”, with its focus on the individual’s obligationsand duties in relation to welfare services. These circumstances pose particular challenges to those charged with the governance of welfare services due to increasingly complex requirements for collaboration and control involving a multitude of actors. The reform is an example of a hybrid system where for- and non-profit actors compete for the“customer”, in this case, the newly arrived immigrant. This article focuses on the changes in Swedish integration reform as an archetype of these changes and studies a clearly defined case study. Empirically, this study draws from both documents and interviews. The article illustrates an unregulated and ill-monitored policy containing a model that comprises mixed modes of steering. The governance of the reform bears traits from both centralist and cooperative forms of governance and, thereby, involves competing philosophies of steering

Explaining Local Swedish Refugee Policy

In the Swedish migration system, the local level plays a crucial role since the municipalities have full autonomy to accept or decline refugees. This has created a considerable variation in numbers of immigrants among municipalities, and there is a large variation in local societies' willingness to receive refugees. In this study, we focus on all the Swedish municipalities for a time span of several years and derive from economic, demographic, socio-cultural, and explanatory factors that have been put forward in earlier research. Through quantitative analysis, we can show how income, the unemployment rate, population, and support for the right-wing party negatively vary with the willingness to receive refugees. Moreover, the distribution of income results in the opposite significant direction. These results, partly contradicting theory, show the importance of a nuanced and holistic theoretical base in further research

Policy Integration and Coordination in Governance of Swedish Migration Policy

That policies are fragmented and government is siloed have become an omnipresent saying of modern welfare states. Much of scholarly attention has also been directed to how to address this from a central government perspective, most notably through concepts of joined-up government that combined with the vertical aspects of modern governance can impose a richer multi-level perspective. Embedded in such ambitions are establishing efficient policy integration and coordination that would counteract silos and fragmentation. Particularly wicked policy problems, those being without a given solution and being complex and unpredictable, create problems for efficient decision-making and implementation. To embark upon such problems, we examine policy integration and coordination within the complex area of Swedish migration policies. Drawing from extensive qualitative material we notice that elements of that character does not move in a concerted manner across the examined field. In terms of policy integration, we only see weak examples of joint objectives and platforms for decision-making, despite the fact that the government has taken a stronger grip on the regulation of migration policy and aim to increase integration. More traces of policy coordination can, though, be revealed. Although such actions undoubtedly lowers fragmentation through ways of distribution information, to which extent all involved actors share the same goal formulation is more unclear. Importantly, crucial variations are found across administrative tiers, with positive examples spurring sub-nationally. Aims to counteract siloism and fragmentation in Swedish migration policy is mainly reached at subnational levels through elements of policy coordination from a bottom-up approach, though encouraged by the government through incentives and funding