Local Governments Under Pressure - Migration Policy Among Swedish Municipalities in the Wake of the European Migrant Crisis

During the so called European migrant crisis in 2015 Sweden, together with a few other member countries of the EU, were placed in the global limelight as recognized as final host countries for the massive flow of refugees particularly fleeing from the civil war in Syria but also from countries involved in other conflicts. Although Sweden has been internationally known as a popular destination country for years, the magnitude of this situation was something different. Consequences for Swedish local governments and its leadership due to the crisis were dramatic when immigrants were redistributed to the municipal sector. In the wake of the situation in 2015 there were several political consequences, that also affected the preconditions for local policy making. This study highlights the concept of local immigration policy that regulates and distribute the admission of immigrants into local societies. As a consequence of the migrant crisis, the voluntary system in which the admission of immigrants were decided by local governments were changed to a mandatory system in which the government were to assign immigrants to municipalities. This study, that represents one chapter from a forthcoming monography, will utilize the migrant crisis as natural cut-off point that will make it possible to conduct temporal comparisons and aims to study how such policy changes have affected Swedish municipalities. The theoretical starting point is taken in theories on governance perspectives accounting for both horizontal and vertical relations among involved actors that are combined with the emerging literature that propose how and why local governments take action in this issue. Empirically, this paper will draw from three comparative in-depth case studies that have the possibility to get closer to processes of how policies are perceived, implemented and what output they will deliver. The material is collected through interviews with politicians and public officials and complemented with documents. Several closely related topics is emphasized in the analysis that compromises how local discretion has been affected by the policy change, how the political leadership handles this issue, whether local immigration policy is politically contested and how relations between politicians and the administration is handled in this matter. From a comparative perspective, the findings indicate contrasting standpoints on how the cases have perceived and acted through these policy changes. Categorizations of both solidarity with and resistance to the government can be found together with how actions taken can either be classified as active or more passive.