Immigration and the Nordic welfare state

A central academic and public discussion on immigration is how it affects social cohesion and support for the welfare state.

In this lesson, we will take a closer look at why the common school is supposedly a strong tool for integration as well as the notions about immigrant integration that affect what is taught in public schools in Scandinavian - especially the primary and lower secondary schools.  Finally, we will discuss how ethnic diversity in schools affect student’s trust and well-being.

In this lesson, we will discuss convergence among West European countries towards conditioning access to permanent residence and citizenship on meeting a range of integration requirements regarding language, employment, law-abidingness and knowledge of society.  Moreover, we will talk about the effects of such policies on immigrant integration.

This lesson examines, first, how the political debate about nationhood and national belonging differ between the Scandinavian countries and, second, the effect of anti-immigrant rhetoric and exclusionary notions about nationhood on the political belonging and acculturation attitudes of immigrants.

The course now turns from discussing migration patterns and theories to immigrant integration. This lesson, and the following four, look at factors that might affect the integration process of migrants who have received a right to stay in the host country.

In this introductory lecture, I will initially provide an overview of the course and its progression. Afterwards, we will talk about the characteristics of the Nordic welfare states, their historical background and the dilemmas, problems and opportunities that immigration and increasing cultural diversity pose to them. Moreover, we will discuss how the three countries have responded in terms of policy to increasing immigration – especially in relation to the migration/refugee crisis of 2014-15. Overall, this lesson provide important contextual knowledge that will inform discussions throughout the course.

A brief introduction to how the course is structured