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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.

Background Migrants face structural, socio-political barriers in their resettlement processes that negatively affect their health. Migration also adversely impacts resources such as social capital and health literacy that are of importance for health and integration into society. Hence, there is a need for health promotion in the early post-migration phase. In Sweden, newly settled refugee migrants who have received a residence permit are offered an Introduction programme including a civic orientation course. The program is intended to facilitate access to the labour market and promote integration. The aim of the study was to explore participants' perceptions and experiences of a civic orientation course with added health communication. Methods We performed six focus group discussions: two in Arabic, two in Farsi and two in Somali. The discussions were facilitated by native speaking moderators. Participants were 32 men and women recruited from civic orientation classes in the county of Stockholm. We used an interview guide with semi-structured questions. The data were analysed using a method for content analysis for focus group discussions. Results Three main categories were identified: (1) 'The course gives valuable information but needs adjustments', which includes that the civic and health orientation is needed earlier, during the asylum phase, and that planning and course content need adjustments. (2) 'The health communication inspired participants to focus on their health', which includes that the health communication was useful and inspired uptake of healthier habits. (3) 'Participation in the course promoted independence and self-confidence', which includes that the course gave insights into society and values in Sweden, and promoted independence and new social contacts. Conclusion This study adds knowledge about the users' perspectives on the potential of civic orientation to promote the health and integration of newly settled migrants, describing ways in which civic orientation with added health communication promoted health and empowerment. However, the content and delivery of the course need adjustment to better fit the migrants' life situations and varying pre-existing knowledge.

The purpose of this article is to examine the experiences of two generationsamong the Kurdish diaspora in Sweden: those who migrated as adults andthose who were born and/or raised in Sweden. The focus will be on issuesof identity, home(land) and politics of belonging with regard to generationaland temporal aspects. We will argue that there are significant differencesamong the older and younger generations with regard to their experiences thatdemand different theoretical and analytical conceptualisations.

This article estimates the causal effect of residential concentration of co-ethnics (ethnic enclaves) on the probability to start a business among refugees in Sweden. Results indicate that the share of self-employed co-ethnics in the port of entry municipality increases refugees' probability of entry into self-employment, while the actual share of local co-ethnics has no effect or, in some cases, a negative effect. The results support the conclusion that skills and resources within the local ethnic enclave, particularly skills relevant for self-employment, are crucial for generating new entry into self-employment for refugees, while simply more co-ethnics, plausibly increasing an ethnic market's size, are of less importance. Moreover, the results suggest that being placed with a larger share of self-employed co-ethnics is negatively related to refugees' long-term disposable income; however, assuming there is no or little selection of high-ability refugees into self-employment, this negative relationship can be counteracted by the choice of self-employment. The study adds new knowledge on the arguably crucial topic of socio-economic integration of an important group of international migrants - namely, refugees.

We study the migration behavior of the native Swedish population following refugee immigration, with a particular focus on examining whether there is support for an ethnically based migration response. Using rich geo-coded Swedish data, we account for possible endogeneity problems by combining policy-induced initial immigrant settlements with exogenous contemporaneous immigration as captured by refugee shocks. We find the same flight among all natives, irrespective of their parental foreign background. This suggests that "ethnic distance " to the new immigrants is not the dominant channel causing natives' flight behavior. Instead, refugee immigration seems to lead to more socio-economically segregated neighborhoods.

This chapter discusses the concept of vulnerabil- ity in the case of the forced displacement of Yazidis in the aftermath of the 2014 genocide perpetrated by ISIS. 

During 2020 and 2021, a migration crisis has been developing on the Canary Islands in Spain. Large numbers of African migrants have made the dangerous journey from West Africa to the Canary Islands, risking their lives on the Atlantic Sea. Humanitarian aid organizations, like the Spanish Red Cross, are working intensively to handle the humanitarian needs of the migrants on land and on sea.

The purpose of this thesis is to analyze why the migration crisis on the Canary Islands occurs. The migrants originate from different African countries with different reasons why they choose to migrate. In some countries, there are ongoing wars and conflicts, like in Mali. In other countries, people migrate because of poverty, climate change and displacement to seek a better life. This thesis will answer why Senegalese people choose to migrate on this dangerous route on the Atlantic Sea.

The study is based on interviews with three Senegalese migrants and two representatives of humanitarian aid organizations. The analysis has been made from different migration theories. It shows that an important reason why the Senegalese migrants choose to migrate is that it is no longer possible to make a living by fishing and provide for their families. This works as an important push factor to migrate. Another push factor is the lack of trust in the Senegalese government. An important pull factor are the success stories from migrants who have made the journey through the Canary Islands. According to the aspiration and capabilities theory, the aspirations to migrate increase when a country goes from being very poor to richer. This is because the knowledge about the surrounding world and the opportunities increase.

The study shows that migrants are well aware of the risks when crossing the Atlantic Sea, but they choose the route because there are almost no legal ways for them to migrate.

Throughout this thesis, the conceptualization of human trafficking is discussed, specifically from two theoretical perspectives and with a particular emphasis on trafficking occurring in migration flows. The first perspective is from a legal framework, specifically transnational criminal law, through which the concept of trafficking in persons is explored through the legal/illegal binary. This binary is specifically used as a lens when examining the occurrence of trafficking transnationally at border-crossing points. The juxtaposing theoretical perspective is the continuum of exploitation, through which the human rights aspect of trafficking is the focus. 

Using these two concepts, the thesis explores the complexities of trafficking in human beings in a complex migration context and the overlapping crimes trafficking is frequently mistaken for. These two theoretical concepts are used to analyze both the flaws and efficacy of victim identification and the implications of each concept. Furthermore, there is a discussion on how the theoretical concepts interact with one another in the sphere of migrations. 

‘What’s past’, as the famous line in Shakespeare’s The Tempest has it, ‘is prologue’. Just as this edited volume is being compiled in 2021—some six years after the 2015 refugee emergency—developments in Afghanistan and the Polish–Belarus border appear once again to be leading to a new migration emergency.

This volume takes up the challenge of providing a comparative understanding of migration regimes and practices and their consequences for ­political systems and the people who have fled their homelands due to conflict, war and poverty between 2011 and 2020. Empirically, the chapters included in this volume are based on an impressive amount of empirical material gathered in 11 countries (Iraq, Lebanon, Turkey, Greece, Italy, Hungary, Austria, Poland, Germany, the UK and Sweden) within the framework of the Horizon 2020 project, RESPOND.

RESPOND – Multilevel Governance of Mass Migration in Europe and ­Beyond (2017–2021) was funded by the European Commission to study migration holistically at the macro, meso and micro levels in order to understand the connections between policies, practices and experiences. The chapters in this volume provide a unique contribution to our understanding of the trends of re­nationalization and externalization in migration and asylum policies in the aftermath of the ‘migration crisis’ of 2015, as well as the reasons behind the failure of migration governance at both national and ­international levels. Just as importantly, the volume offers an anthropo­logical gaze on overlooked aspects of refugee agency, well-being, psycho­social health and belonging in post-migration processes.

This paper examines the relationship between societal exposure to conflict and support for nationalist parties in the 2018 Turkish parliamentary election. In a qualitative small-n within-country study, two provinces, Gümüşhane and Kars, are examined by using a structured focus comparison. Based on previous research, I argue in my hypothesis that support for nationalist parties should be higher in societies that have been exposed to high levels of conflict violence. However, contrary to my hypothesis, the results of this paper show that support for nationalist parties is lower in societies that have been exposed to higher levels of violence than in societies that have been exposed to low levels of violence. 

In this thesis, I have studied the United Nations concluding observations on Sweden in relation to international human rights obligations. Specifically, in regards to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).  The Committee on the Rights of the Child have, in their Concluding Observations from 2023, expressed a deep concern about continued racism and discrimination of many children in Sweden. Meanwhile, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has recommended Sweden to take immediate measures for the purpose of eliminating all forms of racial discrimination. 

In terms of critical analysis, the aim of this thesis has been to study how the Swedish state's international human rights obligations for the purpose of eliminating racial discrimination relates to the implementation of children's rights according to the principle of non-discrimination. According to my study, it is necessary for the Swedish state to promote and respect the human dignity inherent in every child, to be able to guarantee every child within the jurisdiction the rights under the CRC. A central example is the child's right to education in alignment with general human rights principles. Therefore, it is required for the state to prevent the normalization of racism in Sweden, in accordance with the international human rights obligations under the ICERD. This includes, for example, the prohibition of racist organizations in national law, for the purpose of eliminating racist hate speech, and the elimination of racial profiling by national law enforcement. Many children's living conditions and access to the rights under the CRC are affected by racism in several ways, through structural and everyday racism, when they themselves are exposed to racism and when people in their close surroundings experience racism. This has led me to the conclusion that active and immediate measures by the Swedish state, for the purpose of eliminating racial discrimination, are necessary for the possibility of guaranteeing the children who are victims of racism their rights in alignment with the CRC. 

Since the fall of the Soviet Union, scholars researching ethnic politics have approached the South Caucasus as a testing ground for theories of separatism and conflict. But the 2003 Rose Revolution brought a new generation of politicians to power in Georgia. President Mikheil Saakashvili distanced himself from the ethnic nationalism of the past, which had poisoned relations between Georgians and their Armenian and Azerbaijani compatriots. The incoming authorities instead sought to foster an inclusive nationalism, wherein belonging hinged on speaking the state language and all Georgian-speakers, regardless of origin, were to be equals.

This thesis investigates this nation-building project and its influence on the integration of Georgia's Armenian and Azerbaijani borderlands. I first examine the mode through which these peripheries were incorporated into post-Soviet Georgia. Since Armenians controlled "their own" domain to a greater extent than the Azerbaijanis, I infer that the former were absorbed along integralist and the latter along colonial lines. Moving to the time-period after the Rose Revolution, I next explore if Georgian officials and Georgian adolescents were tolerant towards Georgian-speaking minorities. With the help of elite interviews and a socio-linguistic experiment (n = 792), I reveal that officials and adolescents were open to integrated Armenians and Azerbaijanis alike. I then proceed to inspect the centre's nationalising agencies and their efforts to incentivise minorities to interact with Georgians, and to use the state language during these contacts. Last but not least, I turn to the reactions this nation-building project elicited in the borderlands. On the basis of interviews with local elites and a socio-linguistic experiment involving Armenian and Azerbaijani adolescents (n = 434; n = 483), I discovered sharp differences: Armenians reacted with defiance and Azerbaijanis with compliance.

These findings augment our knowledge of ethno-linguistic stereotypes in the Caucasus. They also demonstrate that inclusive nation-building projects can inspire minorities to integrate – despite adverse circumstances – but hint at one condition conducive to this end. Armenians perceived the state language as a battering ram against "their own" domain, while Azerbaijanis saw it as a tool to escape their isolation. This within-country comparison suggests that similar nation-building projects can trigger different reactions in integralist and colonial borderlands.

The PARSE journal issue on Migration inquires into the embodied, affective, performative, material, visual, and spatial politics of cross-border human mobilities, through arts/design as well as other disciplines and practices. It concerns all the actors involved in these mobilities: the remarkable proliferation over recent years of heterogeneous human migration formations, including labour migrants and people seeking asylum, the border enforcement infrastructures that arise in response to these mobilities, as well as how these infrastructures incorporate market-based migration industry actors.

The journal issue is an encounter between artists and migration scholars as we believe that both address and struggle with a crisis of representation when it comes to migration, which should not be confused with over-simplified discourse regarding a "crisis" of borders and migration. We believe that both fields can have a vital role to play in counter-narrating and counter-visualizing dominant discourses and forms of representation of migration.

Research into post-independence identity shifts among Kazakhstan’s Russian-speaking minorities has outlined a number of possible pathways, such as diasporization, integrated national minority status and ethnic separatism. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with young people in Almaty and Karaganda, I examine how Russian-speaking minorities identify with the state and imagine their place in a ‘soft’ or ‘hybrid’ post-Soviet authoritarian system. What is found is that Russian-speaking minorities largely accept their status beneath the Kazakh ‘elder brother’ and do not wish to identify as a ‘national minority’. Furthermore, they affirm passive loyalty to the political status quo while remaining disinterested in political representation. Russian-speaking minorities are also ambivalent towards Kazakh language promotion and anxious about the increasing presence of Kazakh- speakers in urban spaces. This article argues that two factors are central to these stances among Kazakhstan’s Russian-speaking minorities: the persistence of Soviet legacies and the effects of state discourse and policy since 1991.

We describe data collected among 138 migration experts about the repercussions of scenarios of social change on migration between the Middle East & North Africa and Europe, during the period 2021-2030. Scenarios include changes in the cultural, demographic, economic, and political determinants of migration in sending and receiving countries. Assessments focus on the change in the number of family, work, and return migrants, the number of refugees, and the likelihood of achieving safe, orderly, and regular migration. Experts were at the moment of the survey active in European research centers or European (supra-) national governmental or civil society organizations. The survey features a factorial design, which allows for identifying a causal relationship between the experts' assessments and the scenarios of social change. Our data may be used to estimate projection models of future migration flows, map out what experts consider as critical migration issues for the region, and identify areas of agreement or disagreement between them. As such, our dataset may illuminate decision-making regarding migration policies in Europe and beyond.

This chapter analyses refugee integration and psychological health in light of the macro-level conditions of post- 2015 policy changes.

Freely available healthcare, universally accessible to the population of citizens, is a keyideal for European welfare systems. As labor migration of the twentieth century gave wayto the globalized streams of the twenty-first century, new challenges to fulfilling theseideals have emerged. The principle of freedom of movement, together with large-scaleforced migration have led to large scale movements of people, making new demandson European healthcare systems which had previously been largely focused on meetingsedentary local populations’ needs. Drawing on interviewswith service providers workingfor NGOs and public healthcare systems and with policy makers across 10 Europeancountries, this paper considers how forced migrants’ healthcare needs are addressedby national health systems, with factors hindering access at organizational and individuallevel in particular focus. The ways in which refugees’ and migrants’ healthcare accessis prevented are considered in terms of claims based on citizenship and on the humanright to health and healthcare. Where claims based on citizenship are denied and thereis no means of asserting the human right to health, migrants are caught in a new formof inequality.

The start of the 2022 Russo-Ukrainian war intensified the domestic expressions of different forms of Russian nationalism, from extremist circles and nationalist intellectuals to policy, public debates, and media spaces.

The link between religion and migration has not received enough attention in academia but plays an increasingly important role in today’s hostile immigration regimes. Religion can be of profound importance in the lives of refugees, both as a coping-mechanism and as a migration strategy. This study discusses the role of religion, particularly Christianity, in the lives of four young Afghan asylum seekers in Sweden. The data was collected in the month of April 2018 through semi-structured, in-depth interviews, and reveals how the Church of Sweden performs multiple roles in the lives of the informants. It is simultaneously a space for psychosocial support, refugee politics and the continuation of colonial history wherein the imagined dichotomy between the Muslim ‘particular’ and the Christian ‘universal’ is reinforced. The study contributes to the understanding of what role religion can play for migrants in an age of globalisation and encourages humanitarian actors to reflect on the nature of their outreach to refugees. 

This thesis aims to study what are the current protection challenges faced by Palestinian

refugee children and their families in the context of the protracted crisis in the occupied

territories of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Furthermore, this study will also look at

how different factors influence on children's well-being, enabling or impeding to build

their resilience under the ongoing adversarial circumstances. In addition, it will also

analyse what mechanisms and strategies ensure the inclusive participation of Palestinian

refugee children in their communities.

Therefore, this thesis will use a mixed method approach, combining the outcomes of

interviews that have been conducted with UNRWA personnel and the review of

secondary sources. Two main theories will be used for the analysis of the research

findings: Transactional-Ecological model and Social Ecology of Protection. The aim is

to gain a better insight into how supportive environments and factors can be

strengthened. As a consequence, it encourages Palestinian refugee children's ability to

build resilience towards their social integration, which allows them to become actors of

their own protection and be empowered.

Artikeln är en översikt av den tysk-judiska invandringen till Sverige från 1770-talet och framåt. Till en början skedde invandringen till stor del i form av kedjemigration från Mecklenburg. Många i pionjären Aaron Isaacs släktkrets invandrade, likaså i släktkretsen kring hans kompanjon Abraham Aaron. Under 1800-talet fortsatte frivilliginvandringen men nu i mindre form av kedjemigration och med mer differentierad geografisk bakgrund än tidigare. Så småningom kom invandringen från Tyskland numerärt att överflygas av den så kallade östjudiska invandringen; av de judar som bodde i Sverige 1880 var bara åtta procent födda i Tyskland och 1920 mindre än fem procent. Många tysk-judiska invandrare vid denna tid, såsom bankmannen Louis Frænckel, gjorde betydelsefulla insatser i det svenska industriundret. Trots den restriktiva invandringspolitiken på 1930-talet kom ett antal tysk-judiska flyktingar till Sverige, såväl individuellt som genom särskilda kvoter. Många blev betydande aktörer i olika sektorer av samhället, och några blev internationellt kända namn som författaren och Nobelpristagaren Nelly Sachs och kärnfysikern Lise Meitner. Många flyktingar fick dock inte arbete som motsvarade deras utbildningar. Bland ”1945 års räddade” fanns tämligen få från Tyskland.

This chapter presents the various degrees of refugee agency in three areas—the journey, civic participation, and health— and seeks to answer the question of the extent to which refugees exhibit agency against a backdrop of unfavourable external structural conditionings.

A quantitized dataset based on interview material from RESPOND-project.

This study aimed at describing the general health situation among Assyrian-Syrian refugees (n = 171, 70.2% males, mean age 31.08) in Istanbul, during two separate time periods. Measures included The Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ), The Brief R-COPE, The General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSE), The Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC), The Primary Care Post Traumatic Disorder Scale (PC-PTSD), together with a number of additional health items. The results showed that among the 52.4% of those who were found to have experienced some kind of trauma, 23.4% met the criteria for PTSD. Ratings of one’s own physical health (p < .001), one’s own psychological health (p < .05), and PHQ were statistically significant with PTSD. Females rated their own physical health (p < .01) and own psychological health (p < .01) worse than men. A paired-samples t-Test showed a significant increase from Time 1 to Time 2 for Positive R-COPE (p < .08), a decrease for Negative R-COPE (p < .05), and an increase for the GSE (p < .05). A paired-samples t-Test showed a significant gender difference for the PHQ (p < .01) and GSE (p < .01). A mediation model, using a Sobel Test, showed that positive religious coping strategies reduced symptoms in male participants by improving their evaluations toward their own psychological well-being (p < .001).

This report explores the experiences of Syrian migrants in Sweden in the areas of border crossings, refugee protection, reception, integration, and their psychological health conditions. The survey was conducted in Sweden between June 2019 and May 2020 and focuses on Syrian migrants, aged 18 years or older, arriving in Sweden in 2011 and upward. The sample of this survey study included 639 respondents and the questionnaires were filled on paper (n=464) or via a web survey (n=175), both in Arabic. The study used convenience sampling in smaller strata locations, while trying to elicit answers from a diversified group of Syrians. The geographical distribution of the questionnaires took place in five regions: Stockholm region (Stockholm 130, Södertälje 47); Malmö region (Malmö 176, Trelleborg 29, Eslöv 14); Göteborg region (Göteborg 77); Middle region cities (77); and Small region, towns, and villages (86).

The report aims at mapping both the history of migration in Germany since 1945 and giving an overview of current asylum law, application procedures and overall legal status of Foreigners in Germany as well as the political organization and the constitutional entrenchment of the principle of asylum and immigration law. It depicts the reception of guest workers, the aftermath of the reunification and the New Act on Migration. The report gives a quantitative overview over migration since 2011 until 2017 and presents the different application procedures as well as the institutional organisation of asylum. 

This report is about Germany's integration system. Germany is a “reluctant” immigration country. Despite its post-World-War-II history of immigration, Germany has never adopted a coherent strategy or policy of integration. Immigration was considered a transitory phenomenon as the notorious term “guest workers” suggests. Considering the expected return of immigrants to their countries of origin, integration policy making has long remained implicit. Recent processes of refugee immigration have opened a policy window for a more proactive approach to immigration and integration. However, the formulation and implementation of integration policies are situated in a setting of double complexity. First, integration is a crosscutting policy issue which connects to the responsibilities of various federal ministries. Second, it is a multi-level system in which policy making and monitoring largely take place on the federal level. However, the actual implementation is mainly realized on the level of regional states and municipalities.

At least since 2016, integration measures (as those stipulated on Asylum Package II for example), point to the competing and paternalistic logic of retaining control over refugees. This is accomplished by the imposition of restrictions on movement and the expansion of value education as part of the integration courses. It is also supported by a logic of human capital, which privileges refugees as to their economic value whilst restricting basic rights, such as the freedom of movement. Individuals applying for asylum in Germany live highly restricted lives subject to accountability, compliance and punitive measures.

While the “Asylum Packages” and the “Integration Act” have mainly focused on structural integration through labour market inclusion, the “Migration Masterplan” has emphasized sociocultural aspects, such as identification and acculturation. It’s obvious that most initiatives respond to an alleged public expectation of refugees smoothly fitting in the society rather than to the actual demands of support and participation which they may have.

Refugees are often perceived as a homogeneous group and defined by their present conditions; the diversity of their social histories is thus overlooked. (Dis)Integrating Families explores the extent to which the backgrounds of Kurdish refugees from Syria shape their encounters with education in Sweden, as the key vehicle of state-led integration.

The thesis breaks with the mainstream perspective on integration by emphasising refugees as products of their social histories. Family interviews are used to analyse parents’ backgrounds based on their individual, family, and social background, including the Syrian context. The focus is on Kurdish refugee families arriving in Sweden from Syria after the war in 2011 as parents encounter the constraint to further educate themselves and their children. Kurds in diaspora work hard at keeping their past alive, despite lacking a Kurdish education system and the disruption of migration. This particular case provides sociological insight into how individuals’ social histories shape their response to constraints from ‘receiving societies,’ drawing on Abdelmalek Sayad’s holistic view of immigration as determined by emigration in critique of ‘State thought,’ and Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of habitus.

This thesis helps understand how forced migration challenges parents’ former dispositions. While in some respects, class background determines their strategies in Sweden, in others, their social status as refugees blurs the differences related to class and reinforces their national identity, which they relate to their sociopolitical history of oppression and statelessness. Their present status thus challenges family dynamics in terms of generation and gender, thereby highlighting the constraints they face in Sweden. While acknowledging the weight of these constraints on parents, the thesis shows how their engagement with education is shaped by their social histories and how their Kurdish identity becomes a source of unity beyond class.

In contrast to the normative view that integration is the ultimate goal for refugees, this thesis reveals a constant process of negotiation between present and past social ties; between integration and (dis)integration. This suggests that integration in specific domains of social life in Sweden entails the (dis)integration from past identities previously internalised as ways of existing in the world. In summary, the dynamic between integration and (dis)integration can be seen as habitus clivé in the making.

The mobilisation of assets from one national field to another is a topic that has attracted significant sociological attention. In this paper, we investigate migrant physicians who obtained their medical degrees outside the EU/EEA and trace the process of validating their degrees in Sweden. The study is inscribed in Bourdieu’s sociological tradition and is based on a questionnaire and interviews with physicians. Analysing the mobilisation of cultural capital across national borders, we emphasise the importance of distinguishing its different states in the context of migration. Based on our case, we argue that the time physicians spend in the ‘waiting room’ challenges their ability to maintain and perform their medical craft. We show that the time it takes to institutionalise assets and accumulate capital in another national context can lead to the risk of losing its embodied state.

Immigration is a debatable topic, and Sweden offers a unique context due to its long-established liberal immigration policies and recent political shifts, making it an ideal case study for understanding broader European trends. The current study explores changes in public attitudes toward immigrants in Sweden from 2012 to 2020 using data from the final five waves (from 2012 to 2020) of the European Social Survey (ESS). Employing multi-group analysis and structural equation modeling (SEM), this research aims to identify how attitudes have shifted over the study period and to analyze significant demographic (age, gender, domicile) and socioeconomic (income, education) influences on immigration attitudes. The results reveal a shift from generally positive to more negative perceptions, particularly between 2018 and 2020. Older age groups and individuals from rural areas exhibited more negative attitudes, while females generally displayed more positive attitudes than males. Moreover, females with higher education and higher income levels also demonstrate more favorable attitudes. These findings are crucial for policymakers, as they highlight the need for strategies that address demographic influences and suggest specific areas where interventions can help reduce negative views and improve social cohesion.

Previous research on climate change impact regularly considers conflict outcomes, thereby disregarding cooperative behaviour such as altruism. Drought has the potential to fuel inter-ethnic cleavages, thus contributing to conflicts. Yet this runs against resilience arguments suggesting people who experience environmental hardship are more cooperative. Here we examine altruism in survey experiments in a natural setting among refugees from Syria and Iraq. We match survey responses to observational data on drought and socioeconomic variables. Our findings speak to both arguments. First, we show that drought exposure is associated with decreased altruism for survey respondents generally. We further show how group identity moderates the relationship between drought and altruism. Our results suggest a decrease in altruism due to drought is much larger when the target of altruism is presented as a member of an antagonistic ethno-religious outgroup.

The average time for an individual to be located in a refugee situation is 17 years. That people are fleeing for such a long period of their life means that a large part of their human rights can easily be neglected. This study examines the humanitarian organizations MSB’s and UN- HCR's implementation of refugee camps and how they allow refugees to play a part in this process. This essay intends to examine the policy the organizations adhere to, namely the in- ternationally recognized handbooks Handbook of Emergencies and The Sphere Project. Em- pirical material is based on a qualitative interview method where a comparison between poli- cy and practice is investigated. Employees of organizations and experts on refugee camp de- sign, management and urban planning have served as respondents in this study. The city planning theory collaborative rationality is used to examine the empirical data to answer how organizations work with refugee camps, if a dialogue processes occur between organizations and refugees, and what benefits the theory can provide. This is followed by a discussion re- garding the human rights of the refugees and whether these are considered in the implementa- tion of the camp. A question raised in the discussion is whether a clarification of the concept could help the organizations' employees to meet the human rights of the refugees. The aim of this thesis is to create an interdisciplinary understanding across disciplinary boundaries. The idea is that the amalgamation of disciplines can improve the humanitarian organizations’ work and aid refugees living conditions. This study highlights a discrepancy in the relation- ship between policy and practice in relation to the procedure manuals, but also in relation to refugees and the satisfaction of human rights. A majority of the respondents testify a wish that a dialogue should be conducted between the organization and the recipients of humanitar- ian aid but that issues such as time pressure, ignorance and power relations complicates this process. What is needed for an improvement of dialogue processes is that the organizations need to take clearer positions on how the practical implementation should play out which would more easily control their employees to execute their work. States need to review their approach to refugees and to take responsibility for the people who need help. Last but not least, the concept of human rights and Nussbaum's definition of it is offered as a suggestion as to how UNHCR and MSB could simplify their work to accommodate that the refugees are treated within the realms of the human rights legislation.