The report’s overarching question concerns the character of immigration legislation in the Continental Nordic countries 2000-2022 (please note that the report does not discuss integration as a topic, i.e., any measures aimed at those people who have been allowed to enter a country). Moreover, while not purporting to provide any causal explanations the report relates the development of immigration legislation to three aspects that are often highlighted in previous research. These form the background to the report’s three additional research questions:

1.When have Populist Radical Right parties (PRR) been able to influence government policies (either directly via formal Cabinet membership or indirectly via a supporting party position)?

2. What has the level of voter support been for the Populist Radical Right parties?

3. What has the level of immigration been?

Some overall conclusions and recommendations:

  • As a general empirical conclusion, the report highlights the fact that the traditional mainstream parties have gradually adjusted their immigration legislation to stricter positions as PRR parties have grown stronger (both in terms of votes and in terms to closeness to government position).
  • The more traditional mainstream Nordic parties would be fully capable of developing and implementing such policies on their own – without any relation to PRR parties. Yet, between 2000-2022 this has only happened once, in Finland during the 2002-2011 Parliament. Still, which causal mechanisms that lie behind the developments is too early to say. That is something for future research to look into.

Jonas Hinnfors, Professor in Political Science, University of Gothenburg
Ann-Chatrine Jungar, ass.professor at University collge of southern stockholm