Citizenship, Participation and Belonging in Scandinavia: Results from a survey among young adults of diverse origins in Norway, Sweden and Denmark

While immigration and integration are heated topics in public debate across Scandinavia, and citizenship and naturalisation policies have increasingly come into the limelight, we know very little about how people actually conceive of citizenship and its importance. The purpose of this 2018 survey is to uncover the ways in which inhabitants of Norway, Denmark and Sweden experience, perceive and reflect upon the citizenship institution. The three countries are frequently compared with one another, but they have developed strikingly different approaches to immigration, integration and citizenship over the past two decades. Based on existing knowledge about immigration, integration and citizenship in Scandinavia, we would expect these differences to be reflected in the experiences, values and perceptions found among populations. However, the striking and overarching finding from this Scandinavian survey among young adults on the issues of citizenship, participation and belonging is the high degree of similarity found, across the three Scandinavian countries, and between groups (native majorities, immigrants and descendants of immigrants).