Labour immigration from third countries has been a public debated issue in Sweden since the beginning of the 2000s with two different political positions. One side – the Sweden´s bourgeois political parties and the Green Party with the Swedish Confederation of Enterprise (SN) – advocating for an open labour market for third-country nationals and one side – the Social Democratic Party (SAP), the Left Party and the Swedish Trade Union Confederation (LO) – opposing it.
The purpose of this thesis is to study the content of the two different political opinions on labour immigration and understand them based on aspects of the Welfare state as a theory. This is done through the use of creating ideal types derived from the theory. The chosen method for this thesis is therefore a qualitative content analysis of ideas.
The thesis will find that the then Sweden´s bourgeois political parties, SN and the Green Party advocated for a driven labour immigration policy due to their liberal ideas. SAP, the Left Party and LO on the other hand advocated for a government-based labour immigration policy due to their ideas being characterized by social democratic ideas, pro protectionist labour immigration policy.
While the two allies’ immigration policy is characterized by a liberal approach and a more protectionist approach, the similarities between them are that both allies see the demographic change in Sweden as a challenge and labour immigration as a part of the solution. Furthermore, the liberal side also tends to have the domestic labour´s interest at first.