Open AccessHow anti-immigration views were articulated in Sweden during and after 2015
Author(s) -
Anders Hellström
Publication year - 2021
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Reports
DOI - 10.24834/isbn.9789178771936
Subject(s) - immigration , politics , immigration policy , sociology , political economy , political science , identity (music) , mainstreaming , national identity , newspaper , collective identity , gender studies , media studies , law , aesthetics , special education , philosophy
The development towards the mainstreaming of extremism in European countries in the areas of immigration and integration has taken place both in policy and in discourse. The harsh policy measures that were implemented after the 2015 refugee crisis have led to a discursive shift; what is normal to say and do in the areas of immigration and integration has changed. Anti-immigration claims are today not merely articulated in the fringes of the political spectrum but more widely accepted and also, at least partly, officially sanctioned. This study investigates the anti-immigration claims, seen as (populist) appeals to the people that centre around a particular mythology of the people and that are, as such, deeply ingrained in national identity construction. The two dimensions of the populist divide are of relevance here: The horizontal dimension refers to articulated differences between "the people", who belong here, and the "non-people" (the other), who do not. The vertical dimension refers to articulated differences between the common people and the established elites. Empirically, the analysis shows how anti-immigration views embedded in processes of national myth making during and after 2015 were articulated in the socially conservative online newspaper Samtiden from 2016 to 2019. The results indicate that far-right populist discourse conveys a nostalgia for a golden age and a cohesive and homogenous collective identity, combining ideals of cultural conformism and socioeconomic fairness.