Reaching a State of Hope: Refugees, Immigrants and the Swedish Welfare Stat

International migration and migrants have long been among the most debated topics in Europe and around the globe. How do immigrant policies differ between different nation-states? How are migrants and refugees met? Conflicting opinions on migration are not new. History gives ample examples of varyin [...]
Visa längre beskrivning

International migration and migrants have long been among the most debated topics in Europe and around the globe. How do immigrant policies differ between different nation-states? How are migrants and refugees met? Conflicting opinions on migration are not new. History gives ample examples of varying solutions and views. In Reaching a State of Hope, the authors shed new light on refugee and labour immigration to twentieth-century Sweden. They focus on themes such as refugee policies, and refugee relief and reception. The discourse on the relation between refugees, labour migration, immigration, and the trade unions is another focus of this anthology. The essays are set against the background of the Swedish welfare state, from its first emergence before the Second World War until the 1990s. In 1930, Sweden had a population where only a fragment had foreign backgrounds, but seventy years later it had become a country of notable immigration.

This is the first time historians have taken up the challenge of presenting the Swedish experience to an international audience, with distinguished Swedish and international historians collaborating to put the Swedish case into a European context. Reaching a State of Hope is a significant contribution to the field of European migration history, and will make invaluable reading for scholars of history as well as anyone interested in migration politics and issues related to international migration and welfare states.