Suchergebnisse

This thesis consists of three empirical case studies, originally published as MERGE- papers ('Papers on transcultural studies' published at MERGE, Centre for Studies on Migration, Ethnic Relations and Globalisation at the Department of Sociology, University of Umeå), brought together and framed by a lengthier introduction. The empirical studies examine Swedish refugee reception activities, including the experiences of refugees themselves, with a focus on organisational and inter-organisational matters, and, in this context, the suitability as well as problems, mechanisms and issues, of implementation. According to Swedish policy aims since the mid-70s, immigrants are guaranteed equality, freedom of choice and partnership in relation to social, political and cultural rights. Based upon this background, an ambitious institutionalisation of refugee reception and integration policy was initiated in 1985, implicating the setting up of a new reception system involving almost every Swedish municipality. However, this political reform came to meet with fundamental problems, such as the absence of clear political goals and a remarkably low priority in the work of local political bodies. As a consequence, the ability and the ambitions of civil servants to apply an integrated approach to the reception process, and to foster growing co-operation among relevant local institutions to improve services and opportunities for integration, have not materialised as intended. These deficiencies of local integration policies appear to be connected with implementation problems, issues and obstacles, such as a lack of developed inter-organisational co-ordination mechanisms, lack of a clear division of labour and responsibility among concerned parties, economic obstruction etc. In addition to this, the resources that local refugee receptions have had at their disposal have been a high degree varying and unstable, with the consequence that the reception's organisation, e.g. as immigrant bureaus, has been subjected to constant remoulding. Continuous initiatives for restructuring the reception procedures seem seldom have been well suited, and in addition to this, there has been a lack of opportunities for influence by the refugees themselves concerning conditions of reception and inroads into integration. The conclusion is, somewhat paradoxical, that many of the refugee reception's political-administrative problems are fabricated by and within the refugee reception system and immigrant policy itself. In the thesis, a general background for necessary improvements of the service for refugees is outlined, making possible a lot of reformistic suggestions. While the thesis lays bare the problems with refugee reception, its policy and implementation, it also acknowledges important positive achievements of Swedish refugee reception and its political-administrative ambitions and framework. The reason that the effects of these positive efforts and achievements haven't materialised in successful integration to a higher degree, is also due to 'external' factors, like exclusion from the labour market, social exclusion through segregation, marginalisation and discrimination, processes of racialisation etc. These kinds of ramifying 'external' factors can only to a limited extent be influenced by local actors alone. The conclusion is that a successful integration cannot be achieved solely through measures within the practical institutional setting of the local refugee reception system itself, but must be underpinned and enforced by a more generalised inclusionary or anti-exclusionary politics, a generally more decided political will and over-all more purposeful measures securing a higher degree of suited implementation. ; digitalisering@umu

The aim of this dissertation is to examine inter-ethnic relations between organizationally active people with different ethnic backgrounds. I focus on relations that are based on a mutual interdependence between parties, mutual respect, common procedural rules, real opportunities that expressly approve or reject a proposal in a decision or deliberation situation free from compulsion, where people, who have different ethnic backgrounds, strive after insight and understanding in their relations. In this dissertation I present three empirical cases about cooperation, consultation and participation as forms of inter-ethnic relations from the organizational fields in the society. These cases are examples of what I characterize as "organizing inter-ethnicity", or organizing people with different ethnic backgrounds around common concerns. Organizing inter-ethnicity is in turn a part of organizing and integrating diversity in society. Drawing on the results of three case studies, I distinguish between opportunities and barriers. My case studies clearly illustrate that the tensions that influence the patterns of and variation in opportunities and barriers have sources that reach well beyond ethnicity. Tensions between old and new organizations, between working immigrant organizations and refugee organizations, between organizations from same group or between organizations that have conflicts from their members' countries of origin provide some examples of the difficulties that generate barriers to broad interest constellations between organizations.

What is the political significance of affiliation with voluntary associations for people with and without foreign backgrounds in Sweden? Does associational affiliation offer an opportunity to influence the political decision-making process for those otherwise disfavoured in terms of political resources? Or does it rather aggravate the political marginalisation of people with foreign backgrounds? This thesis is based on two large-scale surveys that have been designed explicitly to deal with questions of this sort. It is shown that there are substantial differences in associational affiliation between people with and without foreign backgrounds. Interestingly, these differences are strongly correlated with patterns of ethnification and ethnic discrimination in Swedish society. Individuals who have migrated to Sweden from Western Europe and North America participate in voluntary associations to the same extent as native Swedes. In contrast, the levels of associational affiliation are consistently lower among people who have migrated to Sweden from other parts of the world, even controlling for age, education, occupation and other potentially important factors. The study supports the widely held notion that there is a positive causal relation between associational affiliation and political participation. However, this seems to be true only with regard to certain forms of political participation and only seldom to such an extent that differences in associational affiliation can be said to strongly affect the relative levels of political engagement of people with and without foreign backgrounds. In particular, the observed differences in associational affiliation seem to have little to do with the often debated marginalisation of immigrants in the electoral arena. ; Etnisk organisering och politisk integration i storstaden

Den här avhandlingen undersöker vilken inverkan styrning som "governance" och interorganisatorisk samverkan har på lokala integrationsprogram inom det svenska flyktingmottagandet. Fokus ligger på att studera hur organisationer på lokal nivå förhåller sig till ett institutionellt förändringstryck om att etablera ett interorganisatoriskt och arbetsmarknadsinriktat program. Syftet är också att bidra till den teoretiska förståelsen av "governancemisslyckanden" och den mångfald av processer som styrning genom icke-tvingande mekanismer och decentraliserat beslutsfattande kan ge upphov till på lokal nivå. Den empiriska studien bygger på intervjuer med företrädare för myndigheter och andra aktörer på olika nivåer inom integrationsområdet. Fallstudier av lokalt utvecklingsarbete har genomförts i fyra kommuner. Avhandlingen visar att styrningen baserad på icke-tvingande mekanismer hade svårt att få genomslag när den stod i konflikt med etablerade arbetssätt och professionella normer. Den har också inneburit vaga och svårförenliga riktlinjer för arbetet på lokal nivå. Inom det lokala flyktingmottagandet har utvecklingsarbetet karaktäriserats av erfarenhetsutbyte, jämförelser och en vilja till gemensamt lärande inom ramen för professionella nätvek. Denna typ av samverkan har bidragit till ökad likformighet, eller isomorfism, inom de lokala insatserna, vilket står i kontrast till målet om ett mer differentierat och flexibelt program. ; This thesis examines the impact and significance of governance and inter-organizational collaboration in the policy area of local refugee reception and immigrant integration in Sweden. The study focuses on how local actors respond to institutional pressures to engage in collaborative efforts in order to make service provision more differentiated and more orientated towards employment. The aim also is to contribute to the theoretical understanding of 'governance failure' and the multiplicity of outcomes that are possible when non-coercive mechanisms are applied rather than formal 'command-and-control'. The empirical study is based on interviews with representatives from agencies involved at different levels. At the local level, case studies of integration programme development were carried out in four municipalities. The analysis shows that the governance strategies, based on non-coercive mechanisms, had a limited significance because they were in conflict with professional norms and practices at the local level of service provision. They also failed to provide more detailed guidance on how the differentiated services should be realized in practice. Instead, programme development at the local level was characterized by collaborative learning and imitation in professional networks, or 'communities of practice'. This type of collaboration contributed to processes of increased homogenization, or isomorphism, which stands in contrast to the goal of a more de-standardized and flexible programme.

[Preface]This special issue of the journal Arkiv is the third volume in a series, Det vita fältet ("The white field"), that gathers Swedish and international research on the extreme or far right. Since the last volume (2013) the Swedish government has brought the disputed concept of "extremism" to the fore and turned it into practicable politics, the Swedish anti-immigrant party Sverigedemokraterna (the Sweden Democrats) has made their mark on and partly paralysed the national parliament, and a surge of Internet hate has affected the public sphere. The issue contains a critical examination of the concept of "extremism" by sociologists Adrienne Sörbom and Magnus Wennerhag. Economic historian Markus Lundström and political scientist Tomas Lundström introduces "radical nationalism" as an alternative conceptualization of right-wing extremism in their exposition of the political project's development during the last hundred years in Sweden. Dutch political scientist Cas Mudde then discusses the impact of right-wing populism as it spreads through Europe. American scientist Benjamin Raphael Teitelbaum points out shortcomings in research on Sverigedemokraterna and their ties to other parts of the far right. Finally, Daniel Köhler and Tine Hutzel discuss the causes of political violence from a German perspective in two articles.Publication history: Published original.(Published 18 April 2016)Citation: Deland, Mats, Paul Fuehrer & Fredrik Hertzberg (2016) "Förord", in Det vita fältet III. Samtida forskning om högerextremism, special issue of Arkiv. Tidskrift för samhällsanalys, issue 5, pp. 7–13. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.13068/2000-6217.5.F ; Det här specialnumret av tidskriften Arkiv utgör den tredje volymen i en serie, Det vita fältet, som samlar svensk och internationell forskning om högerextremism. Sedan den förra volymen kom ut (2013) har regeringen aktualiserat det omstridda extremismbegreppet och gjort det till praktisk politik, Sverigedemokraterna har präglat och delvis lamslagit det parlamentariska arbetet och en våg av näthat har drabbat offentligheten. Numret innehåller en kritisk granskning av extremismbegreppet, av sociologerna Adrienne Sörbom och Magnus Wennerhag. Markus Lundström och Tomas Lundström introducerar i stället begreppet "radikal nationalism" för att begreppsliggöra det högerextrema politiska projektet i en exposé över dess utveckling under de senaste hundra åren i Sverige. Vidare diskuterar den nederländske forskaren Cas Mudde omfattningen av den våg av högerpopulism som spridits genom Europa. Bristerna inom forskningen om Sverigedemokraterna, och deras kontakter med andra delar av den högerextrema miljön, behandlas av den amerikanske musikvetaren Benjamin Raphael Teitelbaum. Från tyskt perspektiv diskuteras förutsättningarna för ideologiskt betingat våld av Daniel Köhler och Tine Hutzel i två artiklar.Publiceringshistorik: Originalpublicering.(Publicerad 18 april 2016)Förslag på källangivelse: Deland, Mats, Paul Fuehrer, Fredrik Hertzberg & Thomas Hvitfeldt (2016) "Förord", i Det vita fältet III. Samtida forskning om högerextremism, specialnummer av Arkiv. Tidskrift för samhällsanalys, nr 5, s. 7–13. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.13068/2000-6217.5.F