Logo: to the web site of Uppsala University

The dramatic impacts of climate change presage an inevitable surge in mass migration; however, advanced democracies are ill-equipped for this impending crisis. Moreover, we know very little about how publics evaluate this group of prospective migrants, who are estimated to increase from 100 million to 200 million worldwide within decades. This study investigates American attitudes toward climate-related migrants in a conjoint experiment of more than 1,000 US adults, in which respondents evaluated fictional refugee profiles that varied across multiple attributes. Findings reveal that Americans (1) prefer political refugees over climate-related refugees; and (2) prefer climate- related and economic migrants to a similar extent, and that these preferences are not driven by concerns over climate-related refugees' integration into American society. Subgroup analyses indicate that younger individuals, those with high climate-change anxiety, and those who previously engaged in climate-related political activities discriminated less against climate-related migrants. Analyses of open-ended responses reveal that climate anxiety is a driver of positive evaluations of climate-related migrants.

Providers’ tendency to cream skim clients according to certain sociodemographic traits is widely believed to increase under marketization, and therefore also discrimination. However, due to a lack of experimental research, little is known about the presence of discrimination in marketized welfare services and of the potential drivers of such biased treatment. The lack of research is particularly evident in regard to socioeconomic status (SES) discrimination and publicly financed for-profit providers. Moreover, competition, an important aspect of marketization, has not been investigated. Focusing on the interesting case of the Swedish school sector, we aim to improve knowledge on these matters. In a field experiment, 3,430 elementary school principals were randomly contacted though e-mail by parents with Arabic- or Swedish-sounding names and in low- or high-socioeconomic professions. The fictional parents were interested in placing their children at the school. The Swedish school sector resembles marketized public services in several Western countries. The results show clear signs of ethnic as well as SES discrimination, particularly in regard to more qualitative aspects of the replies. However, we find no significant differences in discrimination between public and private/for-profit schools and depending on the degree of competition in the school market.

Interethnic contacts are generally assumed to reduce discrimination and prejudice. According to this optimistic view – and in conflict with Allport’s well-known theory – contacts have positive effects even when they are rather distant. However, findings of recent experimental field research indirectly cast doubt on this belief. To our knowledge, this is the first field experiment thoroughly investigating close as well as more distant contacts simultaneously. In a correspondence study (n = 3015), Swedish elementary school principals were randomly contacted by fictional parents with Arabic- or Swedish-sounding names asking school-related questions. The unique design also used registry data (e.g., on ethnicity). The results support Allport’s more pessimistic view: working closely with minority members of school management was associated with lower levels of ethnic discrimination regarding important qualitative aspects of the principals’ communication with the school parents, but no such pattern was observed for more distant workplace contacts with minority teachers.

Educated individuals are believed to be more tolerant towards ethnic minorities-a finding widely inferred from standard survey items. We propose a new approach that helps mitigate the risk of socially desirability bias (SDB), using a multifactorial survey experiment with name-based vignette dimensions. The experiment is strategically inserted into a question about a social dilemma not related to ethnicity. By embedding our experiment into an established survey-the Swedish part of the European Values Survey-we show that individuals with a high level of education are more tolerant towards ethnic minorities, even under a lower risk of SDB. The study strengthens findings in prior research and supports the hypothesis that education can further ethnic tolerance.

In ethnically diverse societies, are citizens treated equally by their political representatives? Several field experiments find that politicians discriminate in their daily communication with voters. However, these studies only focus on the USA and South Africa and may overestimate the degree of discrimination by ignoring sex and socio-economic status. We address these shortcomings by investigating ethnic discrimination in Sweden. In an email experiment, all 812 municipal commissioners were randomly contacted by voters with Arabic- or Swedish-sounding names. Our results do not show any clear signs of discrimination; thus, previous results might not be generalisable to Sweden or similar democracies.

Poor health is generally believed to cause political passivity. Prior studies that satisfactorily acknowledge the causality problems involved are mainly limited to considering turnout and the U.S.A., so we lack knowledge of how non-electoral participation is affected in other countries. This article considers Sweden, characterized by a generous welfare state and an extensive public health system. Using unique panel data, which allow more thorough analyses of causality, poor health was found to have a negative effect on voting but not on non-electoral participation. By primarily focusing on other countries than Sweden and the U.S.A., it is a task for future longitudinal research to show whether the belief that poor health lead to political passivity is incorrect—or whether Sweden is an exceptional case, due to the barriers to participation being particularly low there.

For some time been it has been hypothesized that involvement in civic associations creates generalized social trust. Yet, prior panel data studies, based mainly on data collected in Australia, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States, have found little support for the existence of such an effect. This article adds further empirical knowledge, focusing on Sweden. The evidence presented here is the first to provide support for the hypothesis using a survey that allows panel data models. In the conclusions, it is discussed whether the differing findings may depend on Sweden being a particularly favourable environment, considering its comparatively democratic and prosperous associational life; or if the reason is that the data at hand do not allow using exactly the same panel models as in some of the prior studies.

Scholarly findings suggest that immigrants in Western countries, in general, participate less in politics and show lower levels of political efficacy than native-born citizens. Research is scarce, however, when it comes to immigrants´ knowledge about politics and public affairs in their new home country, and what happens with this knowledge over the years. This article focuses on immigrants in Sweden, a country known for ambitious multicultural policies, but where immigrants also face disadvantages in areas such as labor and housing markets. Utilizing particularly suitable survey data we find that immigrants, in general, know less about Swedish politics than natives, but also that this difference disappears with time. Exploring the influence of time of residence on political knowledge, the article shows that the positive effect of time in Sweden among immigrants remains after controlling for an extensive set of background factors. Moreover, the article examines this political learning effect through the lens of an Ability-Motivation-Opportunity (AMO) model. The findings suggest that the development of an actual ability to learn about Swedish politics - via education in Sweden, and by improved Swedish language skills - is an especially important explanation for the increase in political knowledge.

This paper empirically evaluates the idea that individual level political tolerance is influenced by the overall tolerance in a given society. The expectation is that more tolerant attitudes would be developed as a consequence of exposure to a social environment in which people in general are more inclined to accept freedom of speech, also when a specific message challenges one’s own values and beliefs. A theoretical learning model is formulated, according to which more broad-minded and permissive attitudes, from a democratic point of view, are adopted as a result of (1) an adjustment stimulated by mere observation of an overall high-level of political tolerance in society (‘passive learning’), and (2) an adjustment due to cognition and interaction within important spheres in society (‘active learning’). Using survey data, we explore empirically how length of residence among immigrants in the high-tolerance country of Sweden is related to measures of political tolerance. Further, we examine to what extent a time-related effect is mediated through participation in a set of ‘learning institutions’—focusing on activities related to education, working-life, civil society and political involvement. In concert with expectations, the empirical findings suggest that a positive effect of time in Sweden on political tolerance may be explained by a gradual adoption of the principle that political rights should be recognized. Importantly, however, such an adoption seems to require participation in activities of learning institutions, as we find that passive learning in itself is not sufficient.