| 1. |
- Ahlén, Anton
(författare)
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Managing migration in modern welfare states : Essays on the development, causes, and effects of policies regulating family immigration
- 2022
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Being the main channel of migration into advanced industrial democracies, family migration has been the subject of increasing contestation in political debate. While previous studies have noted that many OECD countries have introduced more restrictive policies on family immigration during the last few decades, we still know little about how cross-country policy configurations in this area have evolved and varied over time, or about how policies affect inflows and why they differ between countries. This dissertation addresses these research gaps by presenting a set of integrated analyses of variations and changes in family-immigration policies across periods and countries.Essay I presents a typology for analysing policy configurations and changes therein. It finds that admission policies on average became more restrictive over time, although there were some notable exceptions. Uncovering patterns of congruence and deviation in a more detailed way than previous research has done, this paper qualifies previous expectations about convergence, a ‘race to the bottom’, and a ‘civic turn’ in family-immigration policies. Essay II develops and tests different theories of what causes policy changes. It finds that the restrictive effects of certain risk factors on family-immigration policies, such as growing immigration and worsening economic distress, have been conditioned by the type of welfare regime. Essay III investigates whether and how much family-immigration policies have influenced patterns of family immigration in European states. While restrictive admission policies have led to falling overall levels of family immigration, the analysis reveals stratifying implications, whereby the effect have been greater where the sponsor is a non-EU citizen than where he/she is an EU citizen.With its three-stage approach, this thesis contributes to the study of comparative migration policies. It presents new findings on the interplay between welfare states and migration policies, on the methods with which states regulate international migration, and on the differential impact of different policies on the size and composition of migrant inflows. It also adds insights on increasingly conditional forms of migration management in modern welfare states.
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| 2. |
- Ahlén, Anton, et al.
(författare)
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Migrants' Access to Social Protection in Sweden
- 2020
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Ingår i: Migration and Social Protection in Europe and Beyond (Volume 1). - Cham : Springer. - 9783030512415 ; , s. 421-435
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- While the Swedish welfare state has undergone an intensified market orientation and a number of cutbacks since 1990, it has maintained many of its universal characteristics. It still provides all residents with a rather extensive system of benefits from the cradle to the grave. This chapter contributes to a systematic and detailed analysis of eligibility criteria and conditions for accessing social benefits in five core policy areas of the Swedish social security system. As universalism continues to be a cornerstone of the Swedish welfare state, nationality or the immigration status of a person does not condition his/her entitlement to social security benefits. More recently, however, a political debate has emerged regarding immigration and the welfare system, both in terms of the benefit system being a magnet that attracts migrants and concerning the capacity of the system to cope with large-scale immigration. By discussing the main features of the Swedish welfare regime and key patterns and policy developments in the field of migration, the chapter seeks to account for recent developments, trends and directions in the access to social protection for residents, non-national residents and non-resident nationals.
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| 3. |
- Aidukaite, Jolanta
(författare)
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The Emergence of the Post-Socialist Welfare State - The Case of the Baltic States : Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania
- 2004
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation takes a step towards providing a better understanding of post-socialist welfare state development from a theoretical as well as an empirical perspective. The overall analytical goal of this thesis has been to critically assess the development of social policies in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania using them as illustrative examples of post-socialist welfare state development in the light of the theories, approaches and typologies that have been developed to study affluent capitalist democracies. The four studies included in this dissertation aspire to a common aim in a number of specific ways.The first study tries to place the ideal-typical welfare state models of the Baltic States within the well-known welfare state typologies. At the same time, it provides a rich overview of the main social security institutions in the three countries by comparing them with each other and with the previous structures of the Soviet period. It examines the social insurance institutions of the Baltic States (old-age pensions, unemployment insurance, short-term benefits, sickness, maternity and parental insurance and family benefits) with respect to conditions of eligibility, replacement rates, financing and contributions. The findings of this study indicate that the Latvian social security system can generally be labelled as a mix of the basic security and corporatist models. The Estonian social security system can generally also be characterised as a mix of the basic security and corporatist models, even if there are some weak elements of the targeted model in it. It appears that the institutional changes developing in the social security system of Lithuania have led to a combination of the basic security and targeted models of the welfare state. Nevertheless, as the example of the three Baltic States shows, there is diversity in how these countries solve problems within the field of social policy. In studying the social security schemes in detail, some common features were found that could be attributed to all three countries. Therefore, the critical analysis of the main social security institutions of the Baltic States in this study gave strong supporting evidence in favour of identifying the post-socialist regime type that is already gaining acceptance within comparative welfare state research.Study Two compares the system of social maintenance and insurance in the Soviet Union, which was in force in the three Baltic countries before their independence, with the currently existing social security systems. The aim of the essay is to highlight the forces that have influenced the transformation of the social policy from its former highly universal, albeit authoritarian, form, to the less universal, social insurance-based systems of present-day Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. This study demonstrates that the welfare–economy nexus is not the only important factor in the development of social programs. The results of this analysis revealed that people's attitudes towards distributive justice and the developmental level of civil society also play an important part in shaping social policies. The shift to individualism in people’s mentality and the decline of the labour movement, or, to be more precise, the decline in trade union membership and influence, does nothing to promote the development of social rights in the Baltic countries and hinders the expansion of social policies. The legacy of the past has been another important factor in shaping social programs. It can be concluded that social policy should be studied as if embedded not only in the welfare-economy nexus, but also in the societal, historical and cultural nexus of a given society. Study Three discusses the views of the state elites on family policy within a wider theoretical setting covering family policy and social policy in a broader sense and attempts to expand this analytical framework to include other post-socialist countries. The aim of this essay is to explore the various views of the state elites in the Baltics concerning family policy and, in particular, family benefits as one of the possible explanations for the observed policy differences. The qualitative analyses indicate that the Baltic States differ significantly with regard to the motives behind their family policies. Lithuanian decision-makers seek to reduce poverty among families with children and enhance the parents’ responsibility for bringing up their children. Latvian policy-makers act so as to increase the birth rate and create equal opportunities for children from all families. Estonian policy-makers seek to create equal opportunities for all children and the desire to enhance gender equality is more visible in the case of Estonia in comparison with the other two countries. It is strongly arguable that there is a link between the underlying motives and the kinds of family benefits in a given country. This study, thus, indicates how intimately the attitudes of the state bureaucrats, policy-makers, political elite and researchers shape social policy. It confirms that family policy is a product of the prevailing ideology within a country, while the potential influence of globalisation and Europeanisation is detectable too. The final essay takes into account the opinions of welfare users and examines the performances of the institutionalised family benefits by relying on the recipients’ opinions regarding these benefits. The opinions of the populations as a whole regarding government efforts to help families are compared with those of the welfare users. Various family benefits are evaluated according to the recipients' satisfaction with those benefits as well as the contemporaneous levels of subjective satisfaction with the welfare programs related to the absolute level of expenditure on each program. The findings of this paper indicate that, in Latvia, people experience a lower level of success regarding state-run family insurance institutions, as compared to those in Lithuania and Estonia. This is deemed to be because the cash benefits for families and children in Latvia are, on average, seen as marginally influencing the overall financial situation of the families concerned. In Lithuania and Estonia, the overwhelming majority think that the family benefit systems improve the financial situation of families. It appears that recipients evaluated universal family benefits as less positive than targeted benefits. Some universal benefits negatively influenced the level of general satisfaction with the family benefits system provided in the countries being researched. This study puts forward a discussion about whether universalism is always more legitimate than targeting. In transitional economies, in which resources are highly constrained, some forms of universal benefits could turn out to be very expensive in relative terms, without being seen as useful or legitimate forms of help to families. In sum, by closely examining the different aspects of social policy, this dissertation goes beyond the over-generalisation of Eastern European welfare state development and, instead, takes a more detailed look at what is really going on in these countries through the examples of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. In addition, another important contribution made by this study is that it revives ‘western’ theoretical knowledge through ‘eastern’ empirical evidence and provides the opportunity to expand the theoretical framework for post-socialist societies.
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| 4. |
- Alm, Susanne, 1970-, et al.
(författare)
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Att utforska framtiden : valda perspektiv
- 2012
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Bok (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Visst går det att utforska framtiden på vetenskaplig grund! I boken ges exempel på hur perspektiv från såväl humaniora som samhälls- och naturvetenskap kan berika studiet även av det forskningsobjekt som ännu inte finns.
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| 5. |
- Alm, Susanne, 1970-, et al.
(författare)
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Avslutning : Framtidsstudier på agendan
- 2012
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Ingår i: Att utforska framtiden. - Stockholm : Dialogos Förlag. - 9789175042527 ; , s. 235-246
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Bokkapitel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)
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| 6. |
- Batljan, Ilija, 1967-
(författare)
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Demographics and Future Needs for Public Long Term Care and Services among the Elderly in Sweden : The Need for Planning
- 2007
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Long term care and social services (LTCaS) for older people are an important part of the Scandinavian welfare state. The fast growing number of elderly people in Sweden has caused many concerns about increases in future needs (and particularly costs) of age-related social programs such as LTCaS. The general aim of this dissertation is to examine how projected demographic changes may affect future needs for long-term care and services in Sweden assuming different trends in morbidity and mortality. The following data sources are used: national population registers, register data on inpatient/outpatient health care from region Skåne, the Swedish National Survey on Living Conditions (SNSLC) for the period 1975-1999. Three alternative methods to inform simple demographic extrapolations of needs for health and social care for the elderly are presented. Furthermore, a new method for demographic projections has been developed. According to our studies, the health of older people (measured as the prevalence of severe ill-health) has improved during the study period. Taking into account health status, when projecting future needs for LTCaS, will result in a fairly substantial reduction of the rate of the demographically influenced increase in projected LTCaS needs. The changes in population composition regarding education and mortality differentials per educational level may have a significant impact on the number of the elderly in the future. On the other hand, the projected increase in the number of older people suffering from severe ill-health, as a consequence of population ageing, may be counterbalanced to a large extent by changes in the educational composition towards a higher proportion of the population having a high educational level and lower prevalence of severe ill-health. We need to improve our planning tools in order to support policy-makers to plan for uncertainty concerning future needs and demand for LTCaS.
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| 7. |
- Beland, Daniel, et al.
(författare)
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The Universal Decline of Universality? Social Policy Change in Canada, Denmark, Sweden and the United Kingdom
- 2014
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Ingår i: Social Policy & Administration. - : Wiley. - 0144-5596 .- 1467-9515. ; 48:7, s. 739-756
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The debate about the future of universal social programmes has been raging for years, both in social-democratic and in liberal welfare states. The objective of this article is to contribute to the literature on universality by analyzing the evolution of universal social programmes in two social-democratic and two liberal countries: Denmark, Sweden, Canada and the UK. This choice of countries provides the opportunity to investigate whether the principle and practice of universality has fared differently both within and between countries. The analysis focuses primarily on the national level while exploring three policy areas: pensions, healthcare and family policy, specifically child benefits and day care. The main conclusion of our comparative analysis is clear: among our two liberal and two social-democratic countries, the institutional strength of universality varies greatly from one policy area and one country to another. Considering this, there is no such a thing as a universal decline of universality.
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| 8. |
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| 9. |
- Bengtsson-Palme, Johan, 1985, et al.
(författare)
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Can branding and price of pharmaceuticals guide informed choices towards improved pollution control during manufacturing?
- 2018
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Ingår i: Journal of Cleaner Production. - 0959-6526. ; 171, s. 137-146
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Pharmaceutical manufacturing can lead to substantial discharges of active pharmaceutical ingredients into the environment, with local consequences to the environment and, in the case of antibiotics, potentially global implications in terms of increasing risks for resistance development. In this study, we used Swedish sales data for pharmaceuticals combined with data on the origin of the active ingredients to determine if price pressure and generic substitution are related to the estimated general environmental performance and the perceived corruption levels of the production countries. In line with the general perception, India was the largest producer of generics, while Europe and the USA dominated for branded products. We found that the price and environmental performance index of the production countries were linked, but that this relationship was largely explained by whether the product was original or generic. Although this relationship would allow buyers to select products that are more likely to originate from countries that, in general terms, have better pollution control, it lacks resolution. We conclude that to better allow consumers, hospitals and pharmacies to influence the environmental impact of their product choices, there is need for regulation as well as transparency in the production chain. To this end, emissions from manufacturing need to be measured, allowing for control and follow-up on industry commitments towards sustainable manufacturing of pharmaceuticals.
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| 10. |
- Bengtsson-Palme, Johan, 1985, et al.
(författare)
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Concentrations of antibiotics predicted to select for resistant bacteria: Proposed limits for environmental regulation
- 2016
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Ingår i: Environment International. - : Elsevier BV. - 0160-4120 .- 1873-6750. ; 86, s. 140-149
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- There are concerns that selection pressure from antibiotics in the environment may accelerate the evolution and dissemination of antibiotic-resistant pathogens. Nevertheless, there is currently no regulatory system that takes such risks into account. In part, this is due to limited knowledge of environmental concentrations that might exert selection for resistant bacteria. To experimentally determine minimal selective concentrations in complex microbial ecosystems for all antibiotics would involve considerable effort. In this work, our aim was to estimate upper boundaries for selective concentrations for all common antibiotics, based on the assumption that selective concentrations a priori need to be lower than those completely inhibiting growth. Data on Minimal Inhibitory Concentrations (MICs) were obtained for 111 antibiotics from the public EUCAST database. The 1% lowest observed MICs were identified, and to compensate for limited species coverage, predicted lowest MICs adjusted for the number of tested species were extrapolated through modeling. Predicted No Effect Concentrations (PNECs) for resistance selection were then assessed using an assessment factor of 10 to account for differences between MICs and minimal selective concentrations. The resulting PNECs ranged from 8 ng/L to 64 μg/L. Furthermore, the link between taxonomic similarity between species and lowest MIC was weak. This work provides estimated upper boundaries for selective concentrations (lowest MICs) and PNECs for resistance selection for all common antibiotics. In most cases, PNECs for selection of resistance were below available PNECs for ecotoxicological effects. The generated PNECs can guide implementation of compound-specific emission limits that take into account risks for resistance promotion.
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