Den högerpopulistiska paradoxen: Varför stödjer personer med invandrarbakgrund Sverigedemokraterna? En kvantitativ studie om härkomsten och medborgarskapets påverkan på stödet av radikala högerpartier bland invandrare

Abstract

During the last decade millions of people have migrated to Europe. Parallel to this development, we see that many countries are becoming more hostile towards immigration. The success of radical right-wing parties (RHP) has been accredited to natives within the receiving countries turning to RHP to reduce their perceived threat from immigrants. Paradoxically, the RHP-support has also increased significantly among the immigrant population given the common assumption that immigrants are in solidarity with regards to shared experiences of immigration. In this dissertation, I argue for the importance of considering the increased RHP-support amongst immigrants, something that has been neglected in contemporary research. Taking the diversity within the immigrant group into consideration, this thesis compares RHP-support depending on if the immigrant has Nordic, European or non-European origins and thereafter analysing how obtaining citizenship moderates the tendency for right-wing voting depending on origin. This study finds that the RHP-support were the highest amongst Nordic and European immigrants and distinctly lower amongst the non-European immigrants. Citizenship amongst Nordic and European immigrants has a slightly positive effect on the relationship between origin and RHP-support but with no statistically significant effect. However, amongst non-European immigrants, citizenship has a statistically significant negative effect on RHP-support. The results show the heterogeneous political behaviour within the immigrant group in supporting RHP and indicates that circumstances tied to the immigrant experience affect immigrant’s political behaviour differently.