Swimming against the tide: Why Sweden Support Open Door Labour Migration Policies in Sweden and within the EU

• Across Europe, regulating migration remains one of the most pressing issues for national governments, not least in the current context of economic crisis and welfare state challenges. Vast academic interest has been directed towards understanding restrictive refugee and labour immigration policies of destination countries, including the impact of growing anti-immigrant parties. But so far, less attention has been directed towards analysing countries’ liberal migration policy preferences. Contrary to recent developments in many EU member states, Sweden has witnessed a dramatic liberalisation of the rules governing the entry of third-country labour migrants. The new Immigration Law of 2008 liberalised immigration policy and made it more employer-driven. These changes have been called a ‘slight revolution’. Sweden is also one of few EU countries to actively take initiatives to promote greater harmonisation of labour migration policy within the EU. Moreover, Sweden was one of only three Member States (along with the UK and Ireland) to immediately open its doors to citizens from the EU accession countries of 2004 and 2007. This paper analyses the preferences and strategies of the main Swedish political actors in order to explain why Sweden has been backing such open/liberal policies. It draws on the examination of media coverage, party programs, official documents and elite interviews.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Annan samhällsvetenskap -- Internationell migration och etniska relationer (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Other Social Sciences -- International Migration and Ethnic Relations (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Statsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Political Science (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Statsvetenskap -- Statsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Political Science -- Political Science (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

EU

migration

Sweden

policies

parties

Publikations- och innehållstyp

vet (ämneskategori)

kon (ämneskategori)