The challenge of immigration has divided EU member states, political parties, media and academia as well as the electorate of EU countries, leaving political decision makers under tremendous pressure on both national and EU level. To alleviate the situation for highly burdened member states, the Commission has suggested a permanent relocation mechanism for refugees, but so far, many member states have been reluctant to accept higher shares of refugees. Some observers have labelled the situation a crisis of solidarity, challenging the idea of European integration, but also questioning the Union’s capacity to demonstrate solidarity between member states, and consequently its capacity to show solidarity with arriving refugees.   By looking at European Parliament debates, this paper examines the main differences between the European Christian Democratic and Social Democratic understandings of solidarity and how these differences become visible in relation to relocation of refugees and asylum seekers between EU member states. The findings suggest that while there is some convergence, Christian Democrats are more inclined to consider refugees as a threat and to advocate the need of securing external borders than their Social Democratic counterparts. Social Democrats also to a larger extent favour the idea of making relocation mandatory, while many Christian Democrats emphasize the importance of subsidiarity.   The findings can be associated with the foundational values of both party groups and their political understandings of solidarity. Most interestingly, however, this paper finds that the national level variance within these two party groups is frequently bigger, than between them – indicating that MEP’s understandings of solidarity are perhaps more strongly mediated by nationality than political affiliation.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the integration policy in Sweden. The nation is known for its generous migration policy, which is why a lot of people choose to move to Sweden.  It is paramount that the immigrants become accustomed to and integrated into the Swedish society. For that reason, it becomes relevant to investigate the view of integration policy of the two of Sweden's largest parties, namely the Social Democrats and the Sweden Democrats.  The various philosophies and principles of the parties hereby make it important to research the view of integration of the Social Democrats and the Swedish Democrats. By employing idea analysis in a comparative case study setting, we aim to analyze the integration strategies of both parties. Throughout the following work, focus lies on multiculturalism and assimilation. The aim is to investigate whether similar or different integration steps are being taken by the parties. The analysis uses the party programs of both parties, numerous party bills, and party congresses. The Social Democrats pursue a perspective of multiculturalism, while the Swedish Democrats follow a perspective of assimilation. Thus, the study concludes that the Social Democrats and the Sweden Democrats follow different views on integration policy.

The aim of this thesis is to analyze the ideological similarities and differences between the two Swedish conservative parties Sweden Democrats and the Moderate Party by study how the two parties basic ideological positions relate to liberal and traditional conservative values. The four dimensions view of human nature (pessimistic - optimistic), theory of society (collectivist - individualistic), view on moral values (collectivist - individualistic) and view on economic ideals (collectivist - individualistic) are used as the analytical instrument to study the two parties ideological positions on each dimension, where the pessimistic/collectivist positions represents traditional conservative values and the optimistic/individualistic positions represents liberal values. My result show that the Moderate Party express a predominantly optimistic view of human nature, a individualistic theory of society, a individualistic view on moral values and a individualistic basic position in their view on economic ideals. The Sweden Democrats express a pessimistic view of human nature, a collectivist theory of society, a collectivist view on moral vaues and a collectivist basic position in their view on economic ideals. My result thus shows that fundamental ideological differences can be discerned between the Sweden Democrats and the Moderate Party.

The purpose of this thesis is to describe the hard euroscepticism in two Swedish parties: The Swedish democrats and the Left party, by describing and comparing their arguments. I will mainly do this by examining if they have traditional features in their arguments and if they have an alternative system to the EU. I’m using a study by Van Bohemen et al and the Benchmark theory by De Vries to analyze the results. The arguments are found in their official party documents. By describing, comparing and analyzing the arguments I’ve found that both parties arguments have anti-institutional and protectionist features. The Left party also argues against economic inequality and the Swedish democrats arguments have ethnocentric features. Besides the traditional ‘arguments’ The Left party also argue that the union is unequal, neoliberal and disregarding the climate changes. Both parties also have an alternative system to the EU. The Left party wants to replace it with international organizations which works against for instance inequality and climate changes. The Swedish democrats wants a deepened Nordic collaboration, which would help the economy as well as protect the Nordic identity. My conclusion is that both parties have traditional Eurosceptic features and an alternative system. There are some similarities as well as differences in their arguments and the differences are mainly ideological.

The purpose of this thesis is to describe the hard euroscepticism in two Swedish parties: The Swedish democrats and the Left party, by describing and comparing their arguments. I will mainly do this by examining if they have traditional features in their arguments and if they have an alternative system to the EU. I’m using a study by Van Bohemen et al and the Benchmark theory by De Vries to analyze the results. The arguments are found in their official party documents. By describing, comparing and analyzing the arguments I’ve found that both parties arguments have anti-institutional and protectionist features. The Left party also argues against economic inequality and the Swedish democrats arguments have ethnocentric features. Besides the traditional ‘arguments’ The Left party also argue that the union is unequal, neoliberal and disregarding the climate changes. Both parties also have an alternative system to the EU. The Left party wants to replace it with international organizations which works against for instance inequality and climate changes. The Swedish democrats wants a deepened Nordic collaboration, which would help the economy as well as protect the Nordic identity. My conclusion is that both parties have traditional Eurosceptic features and an alternative system. There are some similarities as well as differences in their arguments and the differences are mainly ideological.

This thesis analyses the ideology of the Radical right-wing Populist Party, Sweden Democrats. The aim of the study is to see if and how the ideology of the Sweden Democrats has changed through its years of activity, by comparing the party in three periods. The focus in the analysis is put on the party's view on the Swedish national identity and on multiculturalism. The reason for analyzing the party's view on these two concepts is due to the fact that they can be seen as corner stones in a racist ideology. An explanation of the concepts will be presented in the theory chapter, which is later used in the analysis of the party. The study shows that the ideology of the Sweden Democrats has changed very little throughout its years of activity in terms of their view on the national identity and the multicultural idea. This as a result has led to a similar amount of change in the arguments that can be seen as racist, by the party.

The Sweden Democrats are very clear in what way they want to be described as; as the only opposition party in the Swedish parliament. Is it possible that Swedish media helps in creating that description? This essay examines in what way Swedish media are describing the Sweden Democrats in condition to the establishment. By doing a discourse analysis, the essay will find out which discourse that is dominating about the Sweden Democrats in the two Swedish newspapers Aftonbladet and Expressen. The results shows that the dominate discourse is describing the party as an outsider in relationship to the establishment, but that in the same time a normalization is going on in times where the elections are far away. It also shows that it's only in the question about immigration that this 7-to-1 picture is described, which also is the party’s main question. In other political questions, media shows a picture of a party that try to widen their politics to a direction towards both of the blocks.

A controversial party’s entry into parliament - a review of Expressen’s depiction of the Sweden Democrats (Sverigedemokraterna) The purpose of this essay was to study how Expressen presents the Sweden Democrats, as well as reasoning about the effects this depiction could have on the citizens’ opinion. Using a quantitative method I studied 122 articles, and through a qualitative method four of these could be further analyzed to reach a deeper result. The theoretical perspective that was applied in this study was primary agenda-setting and framing theory, to illuminate the power of media. The result showed that a prominent theme was to present Sweden Democrats as racists. Other recurring themes were to include the party misfortunate-, successful, crime-related scandals and as victims. It also showed that the Sweden Democrats rarely gets to speak in the articles and that the headlines and events are angled in an unfavorable way for the party.

The aim of this study is to describe ideas put forward by Sweden Democrats (Swedish: Sverigedemokraterna) about Christianity in Sweden and the Church of Sweden as a Folk Church, a church for a whole people, and how the political party uses Christianity as a part of constructing a Swedish identity. The investigation is based on official documents, newspaper articles, statements and political motions which are analysed using a form of text analysis called idea analysis. The theoretical frame of the investigation is founded on Claire Mitchell’s theory about religious content in ethnic identities and Einar Billing’s and Johan Alfred Eklund’s thoughts about what makes the Church of Sweden a Folk Church. The investigation shows, among other things, that the Sweden Democrats’ view of the Church of Sweden is similar to the thoughts of Eklund but they differ in their lack of references to theology. The investigation also shows that Christianity serves as an important marker for the Sweden Democrats in creating a Swedish identity.

The purpose for this study is to compare two major Swedish daily newspapers “Dagens Nyheter” and “Svenska Dagbladet” and their statements regarding the electors of Sweden Democrats attitude regarding immigrants and immigration policy during the autumn of 2013. The scope was to analyze medias interpretation with the electors of the Sweden Democrats statements and opinions regarding their immigration policy. I have used three different ques­tions to fulfill my purpose; the first one is to describe how media chooses to present the elec­tors of Sweden Democrats opinions regarding immigrants. The second question is to reflect and pre­sent the electors own opinions on immigrants and their immigration policies. The final area is to identify similarities and differences with medias interpretation and the electors own statements. The theory which will characterize my study is based on fram­ing, with the purpose to show how media presents the reality. The method I have used for this study is based on both qualitative and quantitative facts were the questions at issue is based on both analyses of released news articles and from gathered statistics. My conclusion is that the electors have more negative opinions against immigrants then the picture media presents.