Abstract
The large numbers of refugees arriving in Sweden in 2015 put a great strain on the welfare system. Initially the reception showed that the idea of the retraction of the welfare state was an exaggeration. State, regional, municipal and civil society organizations all showed they had the faculty to deal with arising problems. The chapter discusses the reception process and its transformation, showing how what was feared would grow into a crisis for the welfare system, instead grew into an initial integration process but with growing tensions between civil society and the state.
The reception of refugees has brought moral questions into the political debate. The real crisis emerging from the great influx of migrants thus seems not to be the one linked to the refugees themselves, but rather to the changes in the relationships building social trust in Swedish society, i.e., the egalitarian base itself.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
The fieldwork was part of a research project, “Turmoil in the Welfare State”, financed by the Swedish research council Formas and run by the Swedish University for Agricultural Sciences. Field work was primarily executed by Arvid Stiernström, Cecilia Waldenström and Kjell Hansen.
- 2.
Closing is an exaggeration since Sweden still receives refugees although on a much smaller scale.
- 3.
Siljansnäs is a small village in Leksand municipality and the name of the organization translates into Siljansnäs Helps.
- 4.
Funding for this comes to the municipalities from the state.
- 5.
In formal language a person moves from being an asylum seeker to a new arrival when s/he receives a resident permit.
References
Aumann, Robert J., and Jacques Dreze. 2005. Assessing strategic risk. CORE discussion paper no. 2005/20.
Berggren, Henrik, and Lars Trägårdh. 2006. Är svensken människa: gemenskap och oberoende i det moderna Sverige [Is the Swede Human: Autonomy and Community in Modern Sweden]. Stockholm: Norstedts.
Berglund, Anna-Karin. 1998. Lokala utvecklingsgrupper på landsbygden. Uppsala Universitet, Geografiska regionstudier nr 38.
Beugelsdijk, Sjoerd, Henn L. F. de Groot, and Ton van Scaik. 2004. Trust and economic growth. Tinbergen Institute working paper no. 2002-049/3.
Brox, Ottar. 1966. Hva skjer i Nord-Norge? Studier i norsk utkantpolitikk. Oslo: Pax Forlag.
———. 1971. Avfolking og lokalsamfunnsutvikling i Nord-Norge. Bergen: Sosialantropologisk Institutt, Universitetet i Bergen. Stencil.
———. 1984. Nord-Norge: Fra allmenning til koloni. Tromsø/Oslo/Bergen/Stavanger: Universitetsforlaget.
———. 1988. Ta vare på Norge! Sosialdemokratiet under høyrebølgen. Oslo: Gyldendal Norsk Forlag.
Bruun, Maja Hojer, Gry Skrædderdal Jakobsen, and Stine Krøijer. 2011. Introduction: The concern for sociality. Practicing equality and hierarchy in Denmark. Social Analysis 55 (2): 1–19.
Coleman, James S. 1990. Foundations of social theory. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Dean, Mitchell. 1999. Governmentality. Power and rule in modern society. London: Sage Publications.
Delhey, Jan, and Kenneth Newton. 2005. Predicting cross-national levels of social trust: Global pattern or Nordic exceptionalism? European Sociological Review 21 (4): 311–327.
Esping-Andersen, Gösta. 1990. The three worlds of welfare capitalism. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Forsberg, A. 2010. Kamp för bygden. En etnologisk studie av lokalt uvecklingsarbete. Umeå universitet, Institutionen för kultur- och medievetenskaper.
Habermas, Jürgen. 1984a. The theory of communicative action. Cambridge: Polity Press.
———. 1984b. Legitimation problems in the modern state. In Communication and the evolution of society, ed. Jürgen Habermas. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Hardin, Garrett. 1968. The tragedy of the commons. Science 162 (3859): 1243–1248.
Horkheimer, Max. 2012 [1967]. Critique of instrumental reason. London/New York: Verso.
Hort, Sven E.O. 2014. Social policy, welfare state, and civil society in Sweden. Vol. 1, History, policies, and institutions 1884–1988. Lund: Arkiv förlag.
Putnam, Robert D., Robert Leonardi, and Rafaella Y. Nanetti. 1993. Making democracy work: Civic traditions in modern Italy. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Rothstein, Bo. 1996. The social democratic state. bureaucracy and social reforms in Swedish labor market and school policy. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.
Stenius, Henrik. 2010. Nordic associational life in a European and an inter-Nordic perspective. In Nordic associations in a European perspective, ed. Risto Alapuro and Henrik Stenius. European Civil Society. bd. 8. Baden-Baden: Nomos.
Westlund, Hans. (red). 2001. Social ekonomi i Sverige. Stockholm: Nordstedts tryckeri.
Zak, P., and P. Knack. 2001. Trust and growth. The Economic Journal 111: 295–321.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Hansen, K. (2018). Egalitarianism Under Siege? Swedish Refugee Reception and Social Trust. In: Bendixsen, S., Bringslid, M., Vike, H. (eds) Egalitarianism in Scandinavia. Approaches to Social Inequality and Difference. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-59791-1_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-59791-1_12
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-59790-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-59791-1
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)