"Diversiity and Solidarity in Denmark and Sweden"

Denmark and Sweden are countries with manifold features in common, notably a similar welfare state regime. Still they display highly divergent policy approaches on issues of immigrant integration. Whereas Sweden has become multiculturalism’s poster child, anti-multiculturalism seems to be a more appropriate characterization of the policy approach adopted in Denmark. How should we understand this situation? In this paper I suggest that the situation becomes less puzzling if we interrogate in what way the welfare state is believed to function as a source for national cohesion and solidarity. My argument is that national identity constructions in Denmark and Sweden represent distinctly different ideal typical views on how social solidarity is generated and maintained.  In Denmark, official political discourse and policy making processes indicates the working of a society-centered perspective, emphasizing social cohesion as a necessary precondition for public institutions to sustain. In comparison, in the Swedish political discourse the dominant idea is more oriented towards a state-centered approach, in the sense that the capacity of the political institutions – notably the welfare state – is typically emphasized as the core promoter of social inclusion and sense of national belonging. In the paper I give a historical account of the nation building processes in the two countries and show that crucial differences in political perceptions along these ideal types  are to be identified in the contemporary political discourses on immigrant integration in Denmark and Sweden.