Anti-immigration Parties Impact on Immigration Policies. Fact or Fiction? -A Study on the Sweden Democrats effect on immigration policies in the Swedish Municipalities

Abstract

The electoral success of Anti-Immigration parties in Europe raises many questions. Even if the research on whether Anti-Immigration Parties has an impact on policy has been sparse, it is a questions that researchers have been unable to give a unanimous answer to. The most important issue for the Anti-immigration Parties in Europe is restrictive immigration-policies. This thesis will answer the question if Anti-immigration Parties do effect refugee-policies. Earlier researchers have used cross-country comparisons or single case studies to answer this question. These methods are problematic because of the differences between Anti-Immigration Parties in different European countries. In order to avoid these methodological problem this thesis will study the Sweden Democrats impact on refugee-reception in the 290 Swedish municipalities. This method helps to address the “small-n” problems of many other studies as it keeps important institutional and cultural factors constant. The analysis in this thesis show that, contrary to what most of the earlier research find, that the Anti-Immigration Party in Sweden effects refugee-reception in a negative way. The results show that effect of the Sweden Democrats does not depend on left-wing or right-wing political majority and when the Sweden Democrats are in balance of power they have an even stronger negative effect on refugee-reception.