(iPoster) Political Backlash of Immigrant Integration and Rise of the Sweden Democrats

• In Event: Poster Sessions: Frontiers in International Political Economy & Advanced Industrial Societies
  In Poster Session: Poster Session: Advanced Industrial Societies

Abstract

Does the integration of immigrants ease prejudice against them? While the short-term increase in immigrants may trigger anti-immigration attitudes among non-immigrants, many scholars argue that the contact between immigrants and non-immigrants will moderate these attitudes across time. However, it remains unclear why the negative attitudes toward some groups of immigrants do not improve over time. I hypothesize that increasing integration of immigrants in terms of employment, schools, or residences will strengthen the negative attitudes and the support for SD among conservative non-immigrants if their own economic situation has worsened, because they perceive immigrants as economic threats. If their economic situation has improved, decreasing integration will strengthen their support for SD because immigrants are considered a burden in this case. With data from Statistics Sweden, Swedish National Agency for Education, and the SOM Institute Cumulative Dataset, I run multilevel linear regressions. Most findings support my hypotheses. This research contributes to the study of immigration politics by showing that the effects of the integration of immigrants are conditioned by the economic situation of non-immigrants.

Author

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