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No nordic model: Understanding differences in the labour migration policy preferences of mainstream Finnish and Swedish political parties

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Comparative European Politics Aims and scope

Abstract

This article examines labour migration policy formation of Finnish and Swedish mainstream parties concerning rules governing non-EU citizen entry, and the debate over transitional arrangements related to the 2004 EU enlargement. In both cases, Sweden stands out as the liberal case. In 2008, Sweden left its previous strict non-EU labour migration policies and implemented Europe’s most relaxed regime. Moreover, the country was one of only three EU members not applying any 2004 transitional arrangements. The Finnish experience is markedly different. Strict non-EU citizen immigration policies remain and transitional enlargement arrangements were implemented. Despite this policy variation, the migration policy dividing line among mainstream parties is remarkably similar. Finnish and Swedish Centre-Left parties tend to oppose less restrictive policies, while Centre-Right parties and Greens advocate less restrictive measures. To explore the sources of policy differences, we underline the need to account for ideology in relation to strategy, institutions and national context.

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Notes

  1. Two notes on terminology: (1) in this text we apply the term ‘mainstream’ for all parties other than the anti-immigration True Finns and Sweden Democrats. Mainstream is not ideal as such. It connotes ‘non-extremist’ ideology but of course radical ideological elements may be found in the other parties as well. It connotes ‘established’ in the sense that government parties are established. All Finnish and Swedish parties except the True Finns and the Sweden Democrats have indeed been part of either formal government coalitions or of informal government support groups but then parties such as the Danish People’s Party or the Austrian Freedom Party would have to be labelled mainstream as well. For want of a better term we use ‘mainstream’ to signify parties that do not particularly focus on anti-immigration in their ideological tenets. (2) We use the terms ‘socialist’ and ‘non-socialist’ throughout the text. As for ‘socialist’ the term is slightly unfortunate as some would dispute whether social democracy is socialist. We have opted for a pragmatic stance in the sense that both the Swedish and the Finnish Social Democratic Parties belong to the Socialist International. ‘Non-socialist’ is perhaps less equivocal but would of course technically include the True Finns as well as the Sweden Democrats. Here, we apply an equally pragmatic stance by not including the anti-immigration parties under the non-socialist label. The Greens might be trickier. In Sweden the Greens have openly supported a socialist government. Still, the party’s ideology is decidedly non-socialist. Throughout the text we treat the Greens as a separate entity neither included under the socialist nor the non-socialist label.

  2. For details on the composition of the Finnish and Swedish party systems, the percentage of votes received by parties in recent parliamentary elections, and the parties comprising coalition governments in each setting, please see Table 1. Please note that in both cases, all governments included in this analysis have been either formal or informal coalition governments. Further, some of these informal coalitions have been on an ad hoc basis, sometimes involving cooperation among different parties on different policy issues.

    Table 1 Finnish and Swedish political party spectrums, per cent support in parliamentary elections, and parties comprising governing coalitions (as indicated with asterisks)
    Full size table

  3. Please note that in spite of the Social Democrats’ resistance, Sweden did in fact not implement any restrictions on labour migrants from new EU member states. Non-socialist parties plus the Greens and the Left Party formed a parliamentary majority and backed an open line.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Public Administration, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden

    Gregg Bucken-Knapp

  2. Department of Political Science, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden

    Jonas Hinnfors & Andrea Spehar

  3. Department of History of Ideas, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden

    Pia Levin

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  1. Gregg Bucken-Knapp
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  2. Jonas Hinnfors
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  3. Andrea Spehar
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  4. Pia Levin
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Correspondence to Gregg Bucken-Knapp.

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Bucken-Knapp, G., Hinnfors, J., Spehar, A. et al. No nordic model: Understanding differences in the labour migration policy preferences of mainstream Finnish and Swedish political parties. Comp Eur Polit 12, 584–602 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1057/cep.2014.22

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