“Ethnic policies” – remedy for between-group inequalities?
- WG Holzinger (International Politics and Conflict Management)
(2024): Beyond the obvious : a Nordic tale of the raveled relationship between political inequality and indigenous people’s satisfaction with democracy Ethnic and Racial Studies. Taylor & Francis. ISSN 0141-9870. eISSN 1466-4356. Verfügbar unter: doi: 10.1080/01419870.2024.2388677 |
Over the last decades, many democracies progressed in the political inclusion of Indigenous people and the recognition of their rights. Does this contribute to how satisfied Indigenous people are with how democracy works? Prior empirical evidence suggests it does. As yet, there is, however, little study of the underlying mechanisms and we should not assume a categorically positive correlation between political equality and satisfaction with democracy. Instead, Indigenous affairs need to be sufficiently politicized to matter for Indigenous people's satisfaction with democracy. I test this argument in the case of the Sámi people in Norway and Sweden. While political inequality is comparatively higher in Sweden, Sámi issues are less politicized. Using novel original survey data, I find that here, satisfaction with democracy is not correlated with Sámi ethnicity. Satisfaction levels among Norwegian Sámi, though, are significantly lower than among their non-Indigenous compatriots and strongly shaped by considerations of political inequality. Origin (projects) |
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(2024): Experience of discrimination in egalitarian societies : the Sámi and majority populations in Sweden and Norway Ethnic and Racial Studies. Taylor & Francis. 2024, 47(6), S. 1203-1230. ISSN 0141-9870. eISSN 1466-4356. Verfügbar unter: doi: 10.1080/01419870.2023.2243313 |
The Sámi people stand out as the only Indigenous minority in an egalitarian European context, namely the Nordic Countries. Therefore, inequalities that they may face are worth closer inspection. Drawing on the distinction between inequalities among individuals (vertical) and between groups (horizontal), we investigate how different types of inequalities affect the Sámi today. We formulate a series of hypotheses on how social, economic, cultural, and political inequalities are linked with discrimination experience, and test these with original data from a population survey conducted in northern Norway and northern Sweden simultaneously in 2021. The findings show that Sámi ethnic background increases the probability of experiencing discrimination. While individual-level economic inequality is also pertinent, this does not directly materialise as between-group inequality. Instead, minority language use is a strong predictor of discrimination experience, revealing the socio-cultural nature of ethnic inequalities. Cross-country differences are only reflected in the effect of minority language use. Origin (projects) |
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(2024): An efficacious remedy for status inequality? : Indigenous policies in Norway and Sweden Politics, Groups, and Identities. Taylor & Francis. ISSN 2156-5503. eISSN 2156-5511. Available under: doi: 10.1080/21565503.2024.2331726 |
Most states publicly support the recognition of Indigenous rights. Nevertheless, their domestic policies to address Indigenous rights issues vary considerably across countries. So far, research has not committed itself to investigating the consequences of different Indigenous policies on the peoples concerned and their social status. Do policy contexts that accommodate Indigenous rights firmly contribute to status equality between Indigenous people and the ethnic majority? I study this question in the case of Norway and Sweden. These countries host one Indigenous people – the Sámi – but pursue diverging Indigenous policies. Using new survey data, I show that, despite the absence of material inequalities, there is a clear gap in the social status perceptions between Indigenous and majority respondents in Sweden. In Norway, I do not find that Sámi’s perception of their social position is lower than the majority's. The results suggest that the Swedish policies governing the recognition of Sámi rights are less effective in resolving unequal status perceptions. Origin (projects) |
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(2024): ECMI Minorities Blog: Indigenous Inequalities in Egalitarian Societies : The Case of the Sámi People in Norway and Sweden ECMI Minorities Blog. Flensburg: European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI). Available under: doi: 10.53779/SBPL3716 |
Many Indigenous peoples live in firmly unequal societies and face substantial material disparities towards the ethnic majority populations. Yet, inequalities between ethnic groups are usually multidimensional and go beyond material status. But are they also present when economic inequality is absent? That is, what kind of inequalities do Indigenous peoples face in societies conventionally considered egalitarian? This blog post reports on new research about the situation of the Sámi people in Norway and Sweden. It indeed supports the proposition that the Sámi are on a material par with their non-Indigenous compatriots. Nonetheless, they are more likely to experience discrimination, and these experiences are strongly linked to how proficient Sámi are in their Indigenous languages and how frequently they use them. This shows that the Sámi face inequalities especially in the dimension of cultural status. Finally, the post points out potential further inequalities in the case of the Sámi that research has yet to address. Origin (projects) |
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(2024): Divided Attitudes Toward Rectifying Injustice : How Preferences for Indigenous Policies Differ Between the Indigenous and Majority Populations of Norway and Sweden The Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics. Cambridge University Press. 2024, 9(1), S. 1-25. eISSN 2056-6085. Verfügbar unter: doi: 10.1017/rep.2023.38 |
Most states acknowledge the significance of Indigenous rights to rectify past injustices. Yet, on the domestic level, the realization of these rights depends on national policies. For democratic societies, questions about public opinion toward Indigenous policies are thus of great interest but remain largely unstudied. To what extent does the ethnic majority support policies conducive to Indigenous rights realization? And how different are the Indigenous population’s policy preferences? I use original experimental data from a vignette study to investigate these questions in the case of the Sámi people in Norway and Sweden. I hypothesize that groups’ attitudes are shaped by policies’ potential to alter the social status hierarchy between the majority and Indigenous populations. The results provide a nuanced picture. The ethnic majority shows significantly less support for policies facilitating Sámi linguistic, self-governance, and territorial rights. While the Sámi have, in general, more positive attitudes toward such policies, their support seems to be less pronounced than the majority’s resistance. Moreover, as attitudes are surprisingly similar when compared between Norway and Sweden, a country’s existing policy context does not appear to be crucial in the formation of these preferences. Origin (projects) |
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(2024): Indigenous Policies and Inequalities : Sámi Rights and Sámi Realities in Norway and Sweden |
There is a broad international consensus about the importance of states recognizing Indigenous rights, and the number of them making respective policy provisions is steadily increasing. At the same time, across the world, Indigenous peoples still face considerable levels of inequality—in material, political, and social terms—in comparison to their countries’ ethnic majority populations. So how effective are states’ policies in realizing Indigenous rights, and what are the implications for the Indigenous people concerned? In my dissertation, I explore this question by analyzing the situation of the Indigenous Sámi people in Norway and Sweden. This constitutes a unique case of one Indigenous people living in two affluent welfare states renowned for their comparatively low levels of economic inequality. Furthermore, the two countries differ considerably in how their policies implement Sámi rights, as Norwegian Sámi policies are generally more advanced in this respect. In the first research article—An Efficacious Remedy for Status Inequality? Indigenous Policies in Norway and Sweden (accepted for publication in Politics, Groups, and Identities)—I ask whether these policy differences are linked to differences in social status perceptions. I argue that policies directed toward Indigenous people reflect the respect and esteem politics and society show for that group. Consequently, Indigenous people should perceive higher status inequality when policies advance their rights to a lesser extent. The empirical results show that in Sweden, significant gaps exist between the ethnic majority’s and the Sámi’s perceptions of social status. The latter have comparatively low perceptions of both their individual socioeconomic position and the Sámi’s collective cultural status in Sweden’s society. In Norway, by contrast, I find no evidence that having a Sámi identity is correlated with lower status perceptions. In the second article—Beyond the Obvious: A Nordic Tale of the Raveled Relationship Between Political Inequality and Indigenous People’s Satisfaction with Democracy (under review at Ethnic and Racial Studies)—I focus on inequality in the political dimension. As the recognition of Indigenous rights alters the relationship between Indigenous people and the state, stronger recognition provides Indigenous people with more collective political power. But does it also contribute to Indigenous people’s satisfaction with democracy? Based on conceptual research on how satisfaction with democracy is formed, I argue that it depends on whether Indigenous matters are politicized and play a relevant role in national politics. I assume that if Indigenous issues lack political relevance, questions about Indigenous people’s rights and political influence are less likely to feature in Indigenous people’s conceptions of how a democracy should ideally work. Hence, they should also be less likely to affect Indigenous people’s satisfaction with the actual state of democracy. Empirically, I find that Swedes with an ethnic Sámi background have virtually similar satisfaction levels as their ethnic-majority compatriots. In Norway, by contrast, there is a considerable gap in how satisfied the groups are with the way democracy works. Despite arguably facing less political inequality, Norwegian Sámi’s lower satisfaction levels are closely associated with their evaluations of Sámi’s political influence. In the third research article—Divided Attitudes Toward Rectifying Injustice: How Preferences for Indigenous Policies Differ Between the Indigenous and Majority Populations of Norway and Sweden (published in The Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics)—I use original survey vignettes to find out about people’s views on different Sámi policies. That way, I explore whether policy preferences differ between the Sámi and ethnic majority populations of the two countries. Intergroup relationship theories predict that the latter would be hesitant to support policies substantially advancing Sámi rights, for which the former should have strong preferences. In my analysis, I find that—on average—ethnic majority respondents prefer policies that realize Sámi rights only to a limited extent. Yet, they do not categorically oppose any recognition of Sámi rights. Sámi respondents, on the other hand, show the highest support for policies that would contribute to status equality between the two groups. Overall, there are hardly any differences between Norwegian and Swedish respondents’ preferences, suggesting that the countries’ actual Sámi policies do not play a significant role in their formation. These three studies extend the current state of research in various important ways. They contribute to the knowledge about Sámi’s social and political realities in Norway and Sweden and advance the research about Indigenous policies’ consequences—particularly regarding perceptions of inequality. Finally, for the literature concerning ethnic inequality in general, they provide a novel focus on the challenges of achieving between-group equality in advanced democracies devoid of ethnic conflict. Origin (projects) |
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(2023): Language Matters : Inequality amongst the Sámi Minority in Norway & Sweden In_equality magazine : Research Magazine of the Cluster of Excellence “The Politics of Inequality” at the University of Konstanz. University of Konstanz. 2023, 5, pp. 12-17. ISSN 2748-5404. eISSN 2748-5420 |
Members of the Sámi minorities in Norway and Sweden who identify with their native culture experience discrimination, especially when they use the Sámi language in public. While this is true in both countries, a comparison shows that specific minority policies affect the level of inequality. Spending more on the enhancement of Sámi language and culture—as Norway does—leads to a higher level of (self)esteem and equality Origin (projects) |
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(2023): Wie Sprache den Status prägt : Ungleichheitserfahrungen von Sam*innen in Norwegen & Schweden In_equality magazin : Das Forschungsmagazin des Exzellenzclusters „The Politics of Inequality“ an der Universität Konstanz. Universität Konstanz. 2023, 5, pp. 12-17. ISSN 2748-5404. eISSN 2748-5420 |
Angehörige der samischen Minderheiten in Norwegen und Schweden, die sich mit ihrer indigenen Kultur identifizieren, erfahren Diskriminierung, insbesondere wenn sie die samische Sprache in der Öffentlichkeit verwenden. Dies trifft zwar auf beide Länder zu, aber im Vergleich zeigt sich, dass die jeweilige Minderheitenpolitik das Ausmaß der Ungleichheit beeinflusst. Wenn – wie in Norwegen – mehr in die Förderung der samischen Sprache und Kultur investiert wird, führt dies zu einem höheren Maß an (Selbst-)Wertschätzung und Gleichheit. Origin (projects) |
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(2023): Why Language Matters : Inequality Perceptions among the Sámi in Sweden and Norway |
Every two weeks, one of the world’s estimated 7,000 languages dies. Yet what are the consequences of having to give up one’s native language? Speakers of minority languages worldwide face barriers to using their languages outside their homes, often with negative consequences for educational and economic success. A new survey of the Indigenous Sámi in Sweden and Norway suggests that language policies are key to perceptions of inequality. Speakers of the Sámi languages have lower perceptions of their societal standing than Sámi who have given up the language. Combined with insights from an in-depth study on Sámi language education, our findings suggest that policies should facilitate language maintenance in linguistic minorities. Supporting these languages may help to reduce feelings of discrimination. Origin (projects) |
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(2021): Kontakt(aufnahme)-beschränkungen : Oder: Wie die Coronapandemie ein Clusterprojekt auf sozialer Distanz hält In_equality magazin : Das Forschungsmagazin des Exzellenzclusters „The Politics of Inequality“ an der Universität Konstanz. Exzellenzcluster „The Politics of Inequality“, Universität Konstanz. 2021(1), pp. 42-45. ISSN 2748-5404. eISSN 2748-5420 |
Was tun, wenn die Feldforschung ausfällt? Eigentlich wollte der Politikwissenschaftler Fabian Bergmann für seine Doktorarbeit zu den indigenen Sámi in Norwegen und Schweden reisen. Dann kam Corona. Nun steht das Projekt vor der Schwierigkeit, Kontakte auf Distanz zu knüpfen. Origin (projects) |
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(2021): No contact : How the coronavirus pandemic forces a Cluster project to keep social distance In_equality magazine : Research Magazine of the Cluster of Excellence “The Politics of Inequality” at the University of Konstanz. Cluster of Excellence “The Politics of Inequality”, University of Konstanz. 2021(1), pp. 42-45. ISSN 2748-5404. eISSN 2748-5420 |
What do you do when your field research is called off? The original plan for political scientist Fabian Bergmann was to travel to Norway and Sweden to do research for his doctoral thesis on the indigenous Sámi people. Then the coronavirus hit. Now the project faces the challenge of making contacts at a distance. Origin (projects) |
Name | Finanzierungstyp | Kategorie | Project no. |
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F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG | right of use | right of use from license agreement | 49978519 |
Period: | 01.10.2019 – 31.12.2023 |