Migracja, przestępczość i polityka: rozpad demokracji w Szwecji i Irlandii

By examining the current status of Sweden’s constitutional democracy, this book addresses two complex societal problems: forced migration and democratic decay. The interdisciplinary empirical approach finds a relationship between right-wing populism and non-Western migration to Sweden. Based on extensive qualitative research with Swedish residents, the book develops both the meta-concept of democratic decay and crimmigration theory. Significantly, the book challenges the prevailing notion that Sweden is exempt from the discussion on democratic decay. The Sweden Democrats (SD), an ideologically illiberal right-wing populist party, are capitalising on and conflating the salient political issues of immigration and violent crime to push for punitive and exclusionary policy that is emblematic of democratic decay in Sweden.    

This book highlights counternarratives to those of SD, introducing nuance to the crime-migration debate. This book is situated within the EU migration context, against the backdrop of growing interest in understanding the increase in support for anti-immigrant populist parties across the Western world, as international displacement continues to be a significant global challenge. Considering Sweden’s recent immigration history, and even more recent volte-face in immigration policy, it is a nation well placed for an analysis of how high inward migration over a condensed period of time can impact constitutional liberal democracies. This book urges us to look beneath the surface of seemingly well-functioning democracies by taking seriously the perspectives of the demos. It includes a comparison with Ireland, an EU member state also grappling with anti-immigrant sentiment but without a far-right anti-immigrant party in parliament (yet).    

Słowa kluczowe: Constitutional culture; Democracy; Migration