The Swedes are exceptionally positive about migration
The years before the refugee crisis 2015 is usually described in right-wing rhetoric as a time when the traitor Reinfeldt joined the ranks of the Green Party and opened both borders and hearts for terrorists, parasites and gang criminals. And of the Social Democrats as a “naive” period “we will never go back to”.
But in the population, the spirit of 2014 now prevails again. It shows a new survey of public opinion on immigration issues between 2012 and 2025 from Institute for Future Studies.
It is not fun reading in either Rosenbad or on Sveavägen. Here, they have invested everything they have in inciting immigrants for eleven years, and now it turns out that people don’t think so.
The report uses several various surveys that have asked similar questions for a long time, the SOM Institute, Gallup, the European Barometer and the European Social Survey. It is about things like whether you should accept more or fewer refugees, whether immigration is a threat to the economy or culture, how you view labor immigrants and whether you can imagine having a foreign-born as a neighbor, and more.
In connection with the large influx of refugees in 2015, the Swedes’ concern about immigration and their negative attitudes clearly increased. It was primarily an effect of the signals that the government sent when it turned around in the autumn and began to regard the refugees as a problem.
But in almost all cases it was a very temporary shock effect. Soon Svensson returned to thinking as before the refugee crisis. No, the country’s economy and culture are not under attack, the immigrants contribute positively to society. Have a foreigner as a neighbor? Who do you take me for, some overmatched race-pig?
The view of labor immigration was not at all affected by the refugee crisis and has become more and more positive over the years. And throughout the period, there have been more people worried about xenophobia than about immigration.
Just on the question of whether Sweden should accept more or fewer refugees, a much more negative attitude was established that still persists. But even that can be nuanced. Very few, around 5–10 percent, believe that Sweden should accept “few or no” refugees or that we should not help refugees at all. The right-wing radical core group is not bigger than that.
It is no less remarkable because it comes at a time when concern about gang crime has exploded in the population and the government has done its best to turn immigration and crime into synonyms. Just this week, they have pushed through a new rubber law on so-called behavior requirements and a light reporting law, both of which serve the purpose of creating mental connections between immigration and crime.
So see one political failure out: the right has been pounding holes in our heads that a large immigration has led to bombs and grenades, but only their own voters believe them.
Perhaps you can say that the right and the Social Democrats managed to use a kind of shock therapy after 2015 to change the laws. But the talk from above about a policy at “the EU’s minimum level” today has no resonance in public opinion. The Institute for Future Studies makes an international comparison and states that “Sweden still stands out as a country with exceptionally positive attitudes towards migration”.
This gap between the public and the government has been exposed time and time again, first with the huge protests against the whistleblower laws, now this spring when they were forced to backtrack on the teenage deportations. Because the political establishment mistook noisy right-wing radicals for the will of the people, they miscalculated the number of racists in the country and went too far.
The Moral Majority – a concept formerly associated with the conservative right – does not want to see children deported and refuses to link nurses and food delivery drivers with gang shootings.
Petter Larsson is a journalist and author. His latest book is called “Rigged: How belief in meritocracy reduces the chance of a class trip”.
