Political Integration in Practice: Explaining a Time-Dependent Increase in Political Knowledge among Immigrants in Sweden

Per Adman,Per Strömblad

doi:10.17645/si.v6i3.1496

Abstract

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.

Highlights

A number of studies have found that immigrants in Western Europe tend to be less active in politics and tend to believe that they have less political influence than native citizens (Adman & Strömblad, 2017; Fennema & Tillie, 2001; González-Ferrer, 2011)
In light of this arguably unique combination of favorable opportunities and poor outcomes for immigrants, we argue that Sweden constitutes an interesting critical case for further examination of immigrant’s political knowledge and how it develops over time living in this country
Moving on with multivariate analyses, firstly we investigate whether there seems to be a genuine positive learning effect of living in Sweden on political knowledge when controlling for background factors

Summary

Introduction

A number of studies have found that immigrants in Western Europe tend to be less active in politics and tend to believe that they have less political influence than native citizens (Adman & Strömblad, 2017; Fennema & Tillie, 2001; González-Ferrer, 2011). This applies especially to immigrants from non-Western countries. When it comes to political knowledge, research is scarce. Limited political knowledge among immigrants should be disturbing if it is caused by a lack of abilities rather than a lack of motivation, i.e., not because they won’t but because they can’t (cf. Verba, Schlozman, & Brady, 1995)

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