The influence of personal recommendations on decision-making is well-established. To date, however, most research appears to have focussed on decisions of less importance. This study explores how place recommendations may have an impact on internal migration. Drawing on extraordinarily voluminous survey data, based on approximately half a million responses in Swedish municipalities between 2010 and 2018, the analyses of this paper are focused on the extent to which people would recommend friends and acquaintances to move to their respective municipalities, on the locational features influencing such recommendations, and on the relationship between recommendations and net-migration. Contributing to research on the role of social networks in migration research, the results reveal both a widespread tendency among inhabitants to give positive place recommendations and a very strong positive association between place satisfaction and place recommendations. In addition, a tentative analysis suggests that highly recommended municipalities benefit in terms of net-migration and, hence, population growth.

Notions about the ideal place to live have long provided impetus for local and regional planning. However, little is known about how locational ideals correspond to perceived realities. This paper draws on Swedish survey data, in which respondents rate features of their current place of residence and compare their location with that of their ideals. The empirical results suggest that primary features of local environments are, unexpectedly, not more important for place satisfaction than secondary features. In addition, accounting for municipality-level qualities, findings indicate that more peripheral places in general are perceived as more proximate to Utopia.

This report describes the design and realisation of the Neighbourhood Survey 2020, within the research program “The Neighbourhood Revisited: Spatial polarization and social cohesion in contemporary Sweden”, directed by Bo Malmberg at the Department of Human Geography, Stockholm University. The program, in which the survey is one of the main information sources, is funded by the Swedish Foundation for Humanities and Social Sciences (Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, RJ), grant registration number M18-0214:1. 

The overarching aim of the survey was to provide the program’s research team with recent tailor-made data, to enable empirical investigations of how spatial polarization may lead to a society that is increasingly divergent in terms of attitudes, values and lifestyles. To this end, the survey was based on a stratified sample of individuals (age 18–80) in 10 different types of residential areas in Sweden. This predefined geographic demarcation of the sample—in the report referred to as the ‘neighbourhood clusters’— stems from an empirically grounded classification developed earlier in the research program. The survey was administered by Statistics Sweden, and 4,784 residents completed the survey (either online or on paper), corresponding to a total response rate of 24 per cent. 

This report details the background of the survey, as an integrated and integral part of the overall research program. Methodological details concerning the neighbourhood clusters are also provided, whereby the linkage between identified clusters and the sampling frame is elaborated. Furthermore, the construction of the questionnaire is described, along with the actual implementation of the survey. Importantly, the quality of the data obtained is also assessed in terms of measurements, coverage, and non-response.

Immigrants in Western countries in general participate less in politics, and show lower levels of political efficacy, than native-born citizens. Research is scarce when it comes to immigrants’ knowledge about politics and public affairs in their new home country, and about what happens with this knowledge over the years. This paper 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 positive influence of length of residence on political knowledge, the paper shows that the positive effect of time in Sweden among immigrants remains after controlling for an extensive set of background factors. Moreover, the paper 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.

This chapter analyses the institutional preconditions of political entrepreneurship for EU migration and integration policies. The main focus of this chapter is to identify the potential roles that European political entrepreneurs may play. In addition, this study also explores Europeans’ attitudes towards migrants along with cross-national institutional differences in focus. The authors argue that immigration and migration to Europe are necessary to handle Europe’s demographic challenges. However, the large influx of refugees in 2015 created political overload on individual member states, resulting in the reintroduction of territorial border controls and restrictive migration policies. As a consequence, EU institutions have acted entrepreneurially to assist member states with improving the integration of potential labour migrants and refugees in Europe. Further, this study also argues for the importance of changes in European mindsets, leaving this study to identify necessary top-down and bottom-up changes to promote European integration.

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.

This paper empirically evaluates the idea that individual level political tolerance is influenced by the overall tolerance in a given society. The expectation is that more tolerant attitudes would be developed as a consequence of exposure to a social environment in which people in general are more inclined to accept freedom of speech, also when a specific message challenges one’s own values and beliefs. A theoretical learning model is formulated, according to which more broad-minded and permissive attitudes, from a democratic point of view, are adopted as a result of (1) an adjustment stimulated by mere observation of an overall high-level of political tolerance in society (‘passive learning’), and (2) an adjustment due to cognition and interaction within important spheres in society (‘active learning’). Using survey data, we explore empirically how length of residence among immigrants in the high-tolerance country of Sweden is related to measures of political tolerance. Further, we examine to what extent a time-related effect is mediated through participation in a set of ‘learning institutions’—focusing on activities related to education, working-life, civil society and political involvement. In concert with expectations, the empirical findings suggest that a positive effect of time in Sweden on political tolerance may be explained by a gradual adoption of the principle that political rights should be recognized. Importantly, however, such an adoption seems to require participation in activities of learning institutions, as we find that passive learning in itself is not sufficient.

This paper presents and empirically evaluates the idea that individual level political tolerance is influenced by the overall tolerance in society. Hence, the expectation is that more politically tolerant attitudes would be developed as a consequence of exposure to a social environment in which people in general are more inclined to accept freedom of speech, also when the message (or the messenger as such) challenges one’s own values and beliefs. The theoretical base of the analyses is a learning model, according to which more broad-minded and permissive attitudes, from a democratic point of view, are adopted as a result of (1) an adjustment stimulated by mere observation of an overall high-level of political tolerance in society (‘passive learning’), and (2) an adjustment due to cognition and interaction within important spheres in society (‘active learning’). Using surveydata, we explore empirically how length of residence among immigrants in high-tolerance Sweden are related to attitudinal measures of political tolerance, and to what extent a time-related effect is mediated through participation in ‘learning institutions’ of education, working-life, civil society and political involvement. In concert with expectations, the empirical findings suggest that an observed positive effect of time in Sweden on political tolerance may be explained by a gradual adoption of the principle that political rights should be recognized. Such an adoption, however, seems to require participation in activities of learning institutions, as we find that passive learning alone is not sufficient.

This article presents and empirically evaluates an analytical experiment in which we seek to translate individual-level explanations of differences in political participation to an organizational level. Utilizing the Civic Voluntarism Model, we analyse the consequences of voluntary associations’ politically valuable ‘resources’, ‘motivation’, and ‘recruitment networks’. Using data from a survey of ethnic associations in Stockholm, Sweden, results suggest that the overall logic of how associational-level political participation is encouraged resembles corresponding mechanisms on the individual level. We conclude that both our theoretical argument and empirical findings merit further analyses of civil society actors’ political participation with the approach taken in this study.