Mid Sweden University

In 2017, Sweden experienced its first lethal first-hand terrorist attack. Although lethal terrorist attacks are regarded as rare, terrorism-related worry should be of substantial interest since politicians tend to translate worry about terrorism into public support for antiterrorism and security measures. Efficient actions need to be based on a better understanding of the underlying dynamics of the public’s worry. However, efforts to understand how the Swedish public’s worry about terrorism has been affected by the 2017 terrorist attack and the role of intersections of gender and native/foreign background in the disparity in the public’s worry have been limited. These concerns comprise the investigative aim of this study. Based on data from the Swedish National Annual Survey for the years 2016, 2017, and 2018, the findings suggest that the public’s worry about terrorism, in general, increased relatively sharply after the 2017 terrorist attack and then decreased due to the absence of similar attacks. The findings also suggest the importance of including intersections of gender and native/foreign background to understand the disparity in the public’s worry about terrorism. In conclusion, this study contributes valuable insights into the evolving landscape of public worry in the aftermath of a terrorist attack. By acknowledging the importance of nuanced intersections, policymakers can craft more informed and targeted strategies to address the specific concerns of different demographic groups within the Swedish population.

Based on earlier crises, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic might aggravate the already-wide employment gap between foreign (out-side Europe)- and native-born people, creating a long-term employment crisis. The aim of this paper is therefore to investigate how the pandemic has affected the labor market situation for foreign-born individuals in Sweden during 2019–2022. In the paper, we combine sociology and economics with an intersectional approach, which enables the identification of mechanisms and trends affecting the labor market for the foreign-born. We use a labor force survey (Labour Force Studies, LFS, collected by Statistics Sweden) to analyze the effects of the pandemic on the labor market situation for foreign borns. The preliminary results show that during the investigated period, the employment rate fell more for the foreign-born (out-side Europe) compared with the native-born. Furthermore, we found that within the foreign-born group, the employment rate fell more for foreign-born women than for native-born women. The results indicate that the labor market situation has worsened more for women than men and for the foreign-born than the native-born and that foreign-born women are most affected. By identifying the underlying discriminatory structures and the groups that are particularly vulnerable, the results can provide a basis for policy actions aimed at preventing a further weakening of the labor market situation for foreign-born individuals and creating essential settings for increased resilience in future crises.

We investigate whether terrorist activity abroad affects worry regarding terrorism in Sweden, and the possible mediating effect of news media. Terrorism uses violence to obtain political or social objectives: in addition to the impact on the immediate victims, terrorism affects a much wider audience emotionally by spreading fear and insecurity. Previous research shows that terrorist attacks in a country cause worry for the people in that country; however, little is known about the relationship between public worry and terrorist attacks abroad. This study draws from the Global Terrorism Database (GTD), the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (FFI), the Swedish press archive Mediearkivet, and the Swedish National Annual Survey (SOM), producing a theoretical model using Generalized Structural Equation Modelling (GSEM). The results show that public worry about terrorism co-varies with the frequency of terrorist activity occurring in the wider geo-cultural region, even if outside of the country of residence. It also shows that public worry is affected not only by single, impactful attacks – so-called ‘one-off’ attacks – but also by an increase in the number of total (even if less individually impactful) attacks in the region. Notably, media coverage ameliorates the impact of terrorism on public worry to some degree. For policy makers these results are particularly important since they show that even in countries free of terrorist events, public fear needs to be managed.

This paper investigates the impact of subjective job insecurity, past experience of crisis, and social exclusion on risk perceptions in Sweden. In particular, it explores the evidence of the so-called White Male Effect (WME). The paper builds on earlier research of the WME, which had shown that men or native (white) individuals were less concerned about personal and other risks than women and people of foreign background. Yet women and people of foreign background are frequently subject to discrimination and social and economic disadvantage. The present study hypothesises thatsubjective perceptions of objectively inequitable living conditions influence risk perception. More specifically, people who perceive their jobs to be insecure, who have experienced personal crises, or who feel socially excluded are more likely than others to feel personally threatened by a range of social, personal and environmental risks.

Previous research has shown that white males have a relatively low perception of risks, known as the “white male effect” (WME). Many of the explanations of this effect refer to the privileged position of this particular demographic group in society, adducing white males’ socioeconomic resources, sense of control, worldviews, etc. It can thus be argued that inequality leads women and ethnic minorities to have higher risk perception than men and the ethnic majority. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate the WME in a gender-equal country, Sweden, to see if the pattern is similar to previous studies from the comparably less gender-equal United States. The empirical analyses are based on a national survey (n=1,472) on the perception of risk conducted in Sweden in the winter of 2005. The results show that in Sweden there is no significant difference between men and women in risk perception, while people with foreign backgrounds perceive risks higher than native people. The chief finding is that there is noWME in Sweden, which we concluded results from the relative equality between the sexes in the country. On the other hand, ethnicity serves as a marker of inequality and discrimination in Sweden. Consequently, ethnicity, in terms of foreign background, mediates inequality, resulting in high risk perception. Equality therefore seems to be a fruitful concept with which to examine differences in risk perception between groups in society, and we propose that the “societal inequality effect” is a more proper description than the “WME.”

This paper analyzes the determinants of assortative mating by ethnicity and education for individuals with an immigrant background in Sweden, focusing on the role of individual, marriage market and parental characteristics. Results indicate that higher levels of host country specific human capital decrease the likelihood of ethnic endogamy and increase the likelihood of educational homogamy. Opportunity as measured by sex ratios and relative group size is found to be positively correlated to both types of assortative mating. Parental assortative mating (ethnic/educational), as a measure of group identity, is found to increase the likelihood of assortative mating. A comparison of marginal effects, by gender, suggests that the social boundaries defined by ethnicity and education in the marriage market are relatively more easily crossed by men with the accumulation of local and general human capital. Likewise, the influence of group identity appears to matter more for women when marriages are based on ethnicity but matter more for men when marriages are based on education.

Using a longitudinal dataset from the years 1995 and 2000, respectively, this study examines whether migration within the host country of Sweden generates higher total annual income for (two-earner) immigrant families. The empirical findings indicate that internal migration generates a positive outcome in terms of higher family income for newly arrived refugee-immigrant families. Further, with the length of residence in the host country, the monetary gain accruing from internal migration decreases. On the other hand, I could not find similar results for immigrant families from the Nordic countries, Europe and Asia.

Innehåll: Vad kan vi lära oss av samhällsvetenskapen när det gäller riskhantering, Risk, en definition, Riskforskning, Risker i ett heterogent samhälle

This paper sets out to investigate the impact of subjective job insecurity, i.e. expectations of job loss within the next 12 months, on general risk perceptions. The paper builds on earlier research of the so called White Male Effect (WME) showing that women and people with foreign background perceive risks higher than women and native people. It is well known that women and people with foreign background on an aggregated level have a more insecure labour market situation compared to native people. Hence, the assumption is that perceived job insecurity influence risk perception; people with a less secure employment situation will perceive risks as comparably higher than people with a more secure employment. The empirical analyses are based on a Swedish national survey (n=510) about risk perceptions conducted autumn 2008. The results indicate that there is a relation between perceived job insecurity and risk perceptions in general.