Poland has long been a country of net emigration, though the country has received backlash in recent years for its xenophobic treatment towards asylum seekers from non-European countries, versus its treatment of Ukrainian asylum seekers. To explore this phenomenon, this research first asks, does Poland have a preferential migration policy? I first look at the restrictiveness and evolution of Poland's migration policy from 2003-2019. I find that the state's migration policies which specifically target EU member and Eastern European states are on average slightly less restrictive than the restrictiveness of the entire population of policies. In the following chapter I ask, how is this policy implemented, and how is it reflected in Poland's migrant workforce? To explore how these policies are implemented, I look at work permit data from 2010-2020, analyzing the differences in the number of work permits granted to each country of origin over time. I find that migrants from Eastern European and Central Asian states receive a disproportionately high number of work permits compared to other regions, and that within the region, Ukrainians receive the highest number of permits each year. Finally, to better understand this inequality, my fourth chapter asks, why Ukraine specifically? In this analysis, I hypothesize that proximity and cultural similarities, Poland's security interests, and both states' economic interests drive this special migration relationship. I find mixed support for this hypothesis, but ultimately find that these factors do play important roles in maintaining the relationship between Poland and Ukraine. / Master of Arts / Poland has traditionally been a country where more migrants leave than arrive, but in the past few years, it has faced criticism for its differing attitudes toward asylum seekers based on their country of origin, particularly in its welcoming stance toward Ukrainians as opposed to migrants from non-European countries. In exploring this phenomenon, my research examines whether Poland has a preferential migration policy. I analyze policy to understand this phenomenon of accused hypocrisy in order to understand if these inequalities are built into Poland's legislation, or if there are other factors at play. I first look at the evolution of Polish migration policies from 2003 to 2019 and find that the policies targeting EU and Eastern European countries are generally less strict than those aimed at other regions. However, the differences that I find in strictness are not drastic enough for me to argue that Poland has a discriminatory migration policy. To see how these policies are put into practice, especially in the workforce, I then analyze work permit data from 2010 to 2020. This data shows that Eastern European and Central Asian migrants, particularly Ukrainians, receive significantly more work permits than those from other regions. This trend raises the question: Why is Ukraine a special case? I hypothesize that geographical closeness, cultural similarities, Poland's security concerns, and mutual economic benefits are key factors that influence this unique migration relationship. Although the support I find for this hypothesis varies, I find that ultimately these factors highlight how important aspects of the states' relationship, like geography, culture, security, and economic interests, shape the unique bond between Poland and Ukraine. This study sheds light on the complexities and nuances of national migration policies and their real-world implications, especially in Central European EU member states.

The purpose of this study is to present populism as a political phenomenon and to impose focus on the rightwing populist parties that are active in Scandinavia. This essay begins with a presentation of the three rightwing political parties in Scandinavia. The rightwing populist parties have successfully developed their rhetoric and effectively influenced the political establishment in Sweden, Norway and Denmark. The parties that the essay focuses on are the Swedish democrats (SD), the Norwegian Progress party (FRP) and the Danish People`s party (DF). These parties are interesting in the sense that they share many opinions and are active in comparable political atmospheres, but also that they use approximately the same rightwing populist rhetoric as a way of exerting leverage on political policy. The theoretical segment is constructed on a descriptive historical background of populisms three different phases. It begins with the classic populism then the “dissatisfaction party” and in conclusion, today's rightwing populism. The theoretical segment also addresses populisms ideological foundations and its contents. This includes the country of birth, the people, welfare “chauvinism” on ethnic national grounds, targeted dissatisfaction, criticism against representative democracy, populisms dynamic structure, hostility to foreigners and stranger distrust. The empirical analysis of the political parties is based on seven starting points: basic values, views on peoples worth, most important unit in society, method for social change, political forms of managing, economic organization and utopia. To illustrate these points a comparison between the average parties is done, by examining their respective party agendas. The conclusion is drawn that there are few resemblances between the political parties examined; the differences considered are clearly stronger than the resemblances. The differences lie mostly in basis values, most important unit in society and political forms of managing. Furthermore are the resemblances only partial. The parties were most similar in relation to the family’s position in the society. SD and DF can be said to have similar ideologies while FRP’s ideology differs somewhat. SD and DF can be described as conservative nationalist parties, while FRP is a mixture of neoliberalism and conservatism. After studying each party’s principle agendas it can be established that all three parties utilize rightwing rhetoric. Keywords: rightwing populist parties, Swedish democrats, Norwegian Progress party and Danish People`s party, theoretical and analytical structure, empirical analysis.

Syftet med den här kvalitativa innehållsanalysen har varit att undersöka hur ett högerpopulistiskt nyhetsmedie kontra ett traditionellt nyhetsmedie gestaltar knivdådet på Ikea i Västerås samt skolattacken i Trollhättan som skedde med kort mellanrum hösten 2015. De båda dåden fick stor uppmärksamhet och den redan intensiva debatten om invandring blossade upp ytterligare. Detta på grund av att dådet i Västerås begicks av en asylsökande, och det i Trollhättan av en ung svensk man med högerextrema åsikter som valde sina offer utifrån deras etniska ursprung.Det teoretiska ramverket innehåller tidigare forskning om alternativmedier, populism och journalistik. Vi har valt att använda oss utav två betydande teorier inom medieforskningen. Först gestaltningsteorin, främst med Scheufele och Entmans forskning som utgångspunkter. Sedan diskurs, med forskning av Foucalt och Fairclough. Valet av metod till vår studie är kritisk diskursanalys. Detta för att metoden lämpar sig väl för att undersöka politiska budskap i texter och tyda gestaltningar och diskurser. Det studerade materialet består utav fyra stycken nyhetsartiklar, två för respektive nyhetshändelse. Två stycken artiklar från den högerpopulistiska nättidningen Fria Tider samt två stycken från den mer etablerade morgontidningen Dagens Nyheter. Dessa jämförde vi sedan med varandra i en komparativ studie. Diskurser i dessa nyhetsartiklar har brutits ut med hjälp av ett analysschema för att operationalisera vårfrågeställning. Resultaten visar på två helt skilda nyhetsdiskurser och olika sätt att gestalta händelserna. Fria Tider gestaltar händelser till förmån för sin invandringskritiska agenda medans Dagens Nyheter agerar som en slags motpol med en betydligt mer objektiv gestaltning av händelserna. Den här studien vill bidra till förståelsen för vårt polariserade medieklimat, samt den oberoende journalistikens viktiga roll i samhället i en tid av nedskärningar och mediekonvergens. Det behövs en öppnare samhällsdebatt om frågor gällande invandring och kriminalitet för att inte ytterligare öka polariseringen av medielandskapet. / The purpose with this essay is to study how a right-wing populist alternative news medium, versus a more mainstream news medium, reports on two different news events. First off is the stabbings at the furniture store Ikea in Västerås, second is the attack on students at a middle school in Trollhättan by a masked adolescent armed with a sword. Both of which took place in the fall of 2015 in Sweden. Both events gained much attention from the news media, and sparked the already intense political debate on immigration issues. This due to the facts that the perpetrator at Ikea in Västerås was a refugee seeking asylum in Sweden, and the masked assailent in Trollhättan showed interest in right-wing extremist content on the internet as well as targeting students and faculty of immigration background.The theoretical framework consists of earlier research on populism, alternative media as well ason traditional journalism. We chose to work mainly with two distinguished theories within media and communication studies. The first theory is framing, based mainly on research done by Scheufele and Entman. The second theory is discourse, as defined by Foucalt and Fairclough. The method used for the study is a critical discourse analysis. This method together with the twotheories have been proven useful when studying political discourses and framing in political news articles similar to the ones we picked for our essay. The material used for this study consists off our news articles of which two are linked to each news event or “case”. Two of the articles are published by Fria Tider, a right-wing populist alternative news medium, while the other two by Dagens Nyheter, a well established and more mainstream oriented morning news paper. Different frames and discourses have been revealed in the material after our analysis, based on our schematics in an attempt to operationalise.The results points towards two widely different news discourses and ways of framing the news content. Fria Tider portrait the events in favour of their agenda of critical views on immigration and immigrants, whereas Dagens Nyheter acts as a counterpart with far more objective framing of the events. This study seeks to build a better understanding of today’s polarised media landscape, as well as the importance of independent journalism and news media in a society where the mass media experience cutbacks and convergence. A more explicit and honest public debate regarding immigrational issues is needed, to avoid further polarisation of the media landscape.

This thesis aims to examine if performative populism exists within the Sweden Democrats and if the level of populism has changed over time. By using a gradational approach when conceptualising populism, it seeks to address a case of ‘mixed bags’. Furthermore, this paper address questions regarding how to measure populism and how to operationalise populism into context. Populism is conceptualised as a political style, according to Benjamin Moffitt’s work on populism. Thus, the performative side of the leader is central. This includes content, rhetoric, gestures and the theatrical side of the leader’s performance. By using a twofold methodological approach, a quantitative content analysis, followed by a qualitative one, both frequency of populist indications and how they relate to each other can be accounted for. Results indicate that populism exists within the Sweden Democrats, and that the level of populism seems to be increasing over time. Moreover, while the methodological approach is sufficient for measuring the level in terms of less and more, it cannot account for degree in terms of index.

This diploma thesis examines the suitability of generalization of the populist radical right parties (PRRP). In recent years, these parties have succeeded on the political scene of many European countries. Using the example of "new" Svoboda a přímá demokracie (SPD) political party and the established Danish People's Party (DF) it shows the differences in the party pre-election rhetoric and program, which are brought about by parties' age as well as by different historical developments in the respective countries. The historical context has affected contemporary political environment and, therefore, there are reasonable doubts about the generalization of the PRRPs. This is especially the case of post-communist countries, which, after years of oppression, had to go through a process of transformation that involved not only economic issues. This thesis is based on the Lipset's and Rokkan's cleavages theory, while it tries to confirm its existence in the given states, namely the economical, the religious, the center - periphery and the urban - rural cleavage. The inclusion of six tested factors in the analysis helps to do this. The multiple linear regression analysis tested which factors (the factors are socio-cultural, socio-economic, and demographic factors) have a statistically significant...

This study aims at exploring a new phenomenon labelled here as green populism. Building on modern theories of populism and green ideology, this case-study is focused on finding which elements of green populism are present, if any, in Greta Thunberg’s discourse. Using a Qualitative Content Analysis methodology and what is known as a coding process, it was possible to determine that all six subcategories of green populism, defined by this study as a) ecological crisis of cosmic proportion, b) victimisation of "the people", c) blame attribution to "the elite", d) green radicalisation, e) trust in science, and finally, f) intergenerational justice, can be identified in Greta Thunberg’s speeches. The analysis leads to the conclusion that Greta Thunberg is a populist actor which combines both populism thin-centred ideology and green ideology into a new phenomenon: green populism. / <p>Contact: ac222sd@student.lnu.se</p>

Do Populist Radical Right Parties have an impact on the attitudes of other parties? Despite drawing much attention from the general public as well as academics, there is no clear answer to this conundrum. In this paper I examine how mainstream political parties change their positions in parliamentary debates on immigration and refugees after Populist Radical Right Parties enter parliament. In order to do this, I use theoretical concepts such as discourse coalitions and storylines in combination with network methodology to map out how parties in the Swedish parliament relate to one another through their attitudes towards key themes in the debate on immigration and refugees. This paper focuses on the relations between parties through language by applying Discourse Network Analysis on parliamentary debates. Thus, it contributes with a new relational aspect and methodological tool on a relatively underutilised material. The findings indicate that there is a change in other parties’ attitudes towards immigration and refugees, with two mainstream right parties moving closer to the Populist Radical Right Party. However, the datatype does not support causal language and the findings are limited due to small amounts of data.

Through the lens of analyses of populist mobilizations informed by political sociology, this study offers a new perspective on tactics used by anti-gender campaigns. Specifically examining the Education Curriculum and the Enfoque de Igualdad de Género [Gender Equality Approach] in congressional debates in Peru in 2018 and 2019, this study uses a qualitative content analysis to identify central themes. The themes reveal tactics that sabotage feminist gains in educational reforms, spearheaded by Christian political actors. The argument is thus that Christian political actors use tactics such as coopting feminist concepts such as “gender” and re-framing it as “gender ideology”. This is an example of using “emotional epistemic loops” of information to achieve political goals, in this case advancing patriarchal Christian values and undermining feminist and gender equality gains.

The rise of right-wing populism has been identified as a major threat to multilateralism, and its negative consequences for climate policy have already materialised. However, its impacts on environmental policy have been less studied, especially so regarding policy outcomes. In this paper, I strive to narrow this research gap by investigating the impacts of right-wing populism on environmental protection expenditure. I employ a panel regression analysis to examine populist government participation in all European Union member states, and I also separate countries that have experienced a right-wing populist government to explore differences across the party family. The results show no profound effects, which is anticipated. Environmental concerns are more easily conveyed within the right-wing populist logic than climate change mitigation measures, and many European PRRPs express pro-environmental policy stances - they are so-called green patriotists. Based on previous studies, I expand on this concept. Finally, the results indicate green patriotism might be influential for policy outcomes, which is another contribution of this paper to the research field.

With the rising tensions and strains created by modern America, historians have sought diligently to discover the answers to industrial America's problems. One answer lay in American reform movements, and as the New Deal reforms came under fierce attack in the 1950's, liberal historians sought diligently to give to reform movements historical authenticity.