Shedding new light on the issues concerning refugees and immigration in 20th-century Sweden, this analysis examines the implications of its immigration policies. On what grounds were refugees admitted? Where did they come from? How did the Swedish state aid its new citizens? What differences were there between refugees and the imported labor that was essential to Swedish industry? A group of established Swedish and international historians answer these questions against the background of the eras passed: the Second World War, the Cold War, and the labor movement that shaped the national characteristic of Sweden so deeply. Reaching a State of Hope contributes to the wider field of research on political and administrative practices around refugees historically and places the Swedish refugee and immigration experience in a European perspective.

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements and general background
• I PERSPECTIVES ON SWEDISH REFUGEE POLICY, 1933–45
  • Introduction I
    • 1. Sweden and the refugees, 1933–45
    • 2. A foreign element within the nation
• II THE AGENTS OF REFUGEE POLICY AND RECEPTION, 1933–50
  • Introduction II
    • 3. The politics of Jewish refugee aid and relief work in Sweden
    • 4. Social-democratic solidarity
    • 5. The last bastion of Swedish refugee policy
    • 6. Raoul Wallenberg and Swedish humanitarian policy in Budapest
    • 7. Swedish Jews and the Jewish survivors
• III REFUGEE POLICY IN THE SHADOW OF THE COLD WAR AND SWEDEN’S LABOUR SHORTAGE
  • Introduction III
    • 8. From contract workers to political refugees
    • 9. Ethnic encounters, narratives, and counter-narratives
    • 10. Controlling the untrustworthy
• IV DISCOURSES AND PRACTICE, 1960–2000
  • Introduction IV
    • 11. Union solidarity in exchange for adaptation
    • 12. LO and refugee immigration, 1973–82
    • 13. Beyond Swedish self-image
• V INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES AND CONCLUSION
  • Introduction V
    • 14. The agenda of British refugee policy, 1933–48
    • 15. Pre-1945 refugee policy as a reference point for post-1945 policy
    • 16. Sweden’s exceptional ability to organize its immigration
• Abbreviations
• About the authors