Feeling fear in times of polarization: A systematic analysis of bureaucrats’ commentary about migrants.

• In Event: 3251 - Section on International Migration Refereed Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: 1. Anti-Immigrant Discourses

Abstract

Welfare services given to minorities are important to investigate in current times of polarization
and anti-immigration discourse. This paper aims at understanding bureaucrat’s perceptions
towards migration and migrants. While previous research mostly focuses on discrimination in
access to services, this paper attempts to add a dimension of understanding on how the current
discourses of polarization can be related to bureaucrat’s emotional uncertainty. A sample of
130 open-end responses that were part of a nation-wide survey directed towards bureaucrats
from two of the main Swedish welfare institutions was analyzed with Atlas.ti using directed
content analysis. Ontological security, the security of being and sense of order, served as the
theoretical embarkation point for the paper. Some of the main patterns that emerged were
responses reflecting feelings of threat due to migration but also frustration about existing
societal structures not capable of accommodating trends of migration. Bureaucrats demands of
assimilation of migrants was a way to mark boundaries, establish superiority and increase their
own feeling of security. Majority group respondents also expressed views of welfare
chauvinism and racialized expressions about migrants reflecting a debasement of migrants in
order to increase ontological security. Simultaneously, expressions of experienced racism by
bureaucrats belonging to a minority group reflected feelings of exclusion and ontological
insecurity.

Author

• Carolin Schütze, Lund University