4 - Nordic States

Summary

The Nordic societies share liberal social values, generous welfare states, sunny hedonism as a kind of secular faith, efficient public institutions, greater equality among classes than in most other Western democracies, high ratings in global surveys of popular happiness, and, until recently at least, a kind of cosmopolitan idealism baked into their respective national identities. Also until about the 1990s, they were more or less culturally homogenous. But in public and electoral attitudes toward Global South, largely Muslim migrant families, they diverge. In Denmark the governing coalition includes a far-right party, and particularly since the notorious affair of Danish cartoons satirizing Muhammad, the government has strongly discouraged asylum-seekers from approaching its doors and does not exert itself to make the settled Muslim population feel at home. In proportion to its population, Sweden took in far more refugees even than Germany during the great surge of 2015, but, despite a well-funded effort, has encountered serious integration problems recorded by liberal and conservative observers. Discourse and policy have become less welcoming. In Norway, smaller and more economically buoyant, the political backlash to Muslim migration is more muted, but integration remains a work in progress.