Going different ways? Right-wing parties and the immigrant issue in Denmark and Sweden

This contribution analyses centre-right parties' attitudes and positions on immigration and integration in Denmark and Sweden. Despite the two countries being socio-economically and culturally similar, there are some significant political and structural differences which help to explain why immigration has played a much more prominent role in Danish politics compared to Swedish politics. The article argues that this can be explained with reference to, on the one hand, the stability of bloc party politics and, on the other, the extent to which centre-right parties have exploited ‘the immigration issue’ as a profiling tool. The findings suggest that even though Denmark has adopted a much tougher stance on immigration and integration compared to Sweden, the political climate in the latter has also undergone a number of changes in the past decade which have allowed centre-right and radical right parties to use immigration to challenge the prevailing cross-party consensus on the issue by suggesting a more market-oriented integration policy.