THE FRAMING OF IMMIGRATION AND INTEGRATION IN SWEDEN AND NORWAY: A Comparative Study of Official Government Reports

Abstract

This paper presents an overview of the landscape of immigration and integration policies in Sweden and Norway. The study sheds light over differences and similarities between these countries, based on an analysis of official government documents in the period 2010–2018. Empirically, a variety of topics concerned with immigration and integration policies are analyzed, how immigration influences the welfare state, integration issues, policy plans, and different integration measures. Furthermore, the study explores how problems are defined, the source of the problem, who is responsible, and what are the kinds of solutions that are suggested. The findings show that although there are many similarities, some distinct differences are observed in the framing of immigration and integration policies. Not only do the countries focus on different topics but they also have different evaluations of problems and solutions. As the analysis shows, these differences were quite consistent during the eight-year period.