Crisis of Solidarity? Changing Welfare and Migration Regimes in Sweden

Europe is in crisis. In recent years, there has been a rise of xenophobic parties in a number of European countries. While arguing that there is indeed a European crisis, this article focuses on the Swedish take on the crisis. The aim is to contribute to the understanding of migration, from a Swedish vantage point. This orientation has particular significance since Sweden has traditionally been extolled as defending human rights and multiculturalism by opening its doors to refugees – the so-called Swedish exceptionalism. Reality, however, is quite different and former policies are contested, raising the question whether this signals the end of this exceptionalism. In Sweden, ongoing processes are transforming the core social fabric of what was previously known as the Swedish model. It is potentially a bellwether for the transformation of a previously inclusive democratic society into something quite different, in which ‘the Other’ increasingly plays a defining role