In Finland the tone of the immigration debate has changed dramatically over the last year. The topic has moved from being a marginal discussion to become one of the central debates in Finnish politics.

Now, 60 percent of the Finnish are against an increase in the number of immigrants arriving in the country – a number that has increased considerably compared to previous years, according to a survey by Finnish daily Helsingin Sanomat.

However, despite the Finnish general elections set for next spring, the anti-immigration debate has already started to fade out. The same goes for Sweden which is facing its next general election this September.

Just a year ago, the anti-immigration party – Sweden Democrats (Sverigedemokraterna) – was a small and unknown party. But it soon started making provoking anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim statements, becoming well-known and gaining significant support – especially in areas with high unemployment.

However, Sweden Democrats’ rise to fame has been notorious for being nothing else but Islamophobe and the party’s fall in support has been almost as fast as its rise. Despite the party’s mobilising, Swedes are now more positive towards immigration than ever, according to a recent and extensive study from the University of Gothenburg.

In Norway the populist right wing wave seemed to have ebbed out considerably. Following the polemic with the caricature drawings of Mohammed a few years back some political parties were accused of being soft on Muslim fundamentalists for supporting a close dialogue with the Muslim immigrant community. Consequently, the parties took on a stricter tone in the immigration debates.

In one of the debates there were talks of introducing a ban on the use burqas and niqabs in public places, but once in the parliament it was finally seen as a breach against human rights and the measure was discarded by all parties except the extreme right-wing Fremskrittspartiet.

In Denmark, on the other hand, critics say that the far-right party has won the anti-immigration debate. Danish politics has changed dramatically over the last decade and supporters of the change argue that it was needed while critics say the change has been a submission to populism.

The rise of far-right parties

The ground the anti-immigrant parties have gained in the Nordic region over the last few years could be linked to a number of facts, according to Nordic reports.

Firstly, the number of asylum requests has increased in most Nordic countries during the 1990s. Immigrants have arrived mainly in the Scandinavian countries while Finland has received somewhat less and Iceland only very little immigration from non-European Union states, according to numbers from Nordic statistics.

Secondly, the power vacuum left by political infighting and internal splits in the traditional political parties has also boosted the rise of populist anti-immigration parties along.

Thirdly, although many of the right wing parties have been around for a long time, they have previously been marginal due to their links with Nazism and other extreme political views. However, in the past few years they have done a thorough clean-up within their ranks.

In Sweden, for example, the Swedish Democrats party discarded former criminals and Nazi members and has now become more accepted among the mainstream population.

Fourth, the current global economic crisis has also played its part in the increase of xenophobic attitudes among the Nordic people. In Finland there is a growing discontent with not only immigration but also with the European Union (EU) and the Euro – another topic widely used by populist parties to gain support.

Also in Iceland there has been a rise in the population’s mistrust of the EU as well as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which is closely cooperating with the Icelandic authorities on the country’s economic recovery.

Voting for a laugh

However, compared to the rest of the Nordic countries, the picture is somewhat different in Iceland when it comes to populist politicians. On the North Atlantic island, the people have been so disillusioned with their traditional politicians following the country’s economic collapse, that the Icelandic people turned to a popular comedian when they went to the ballot boxes in May.

Jón Gnarr and his semi-serious party named The Best Party was the big winner in Iceland’s latest local elections. Following a recent hard-hitting report about the facts behind Iceland’s economic crash and the political links to the banks, local elections were held in an atmosphere of much distrust of mainstream parties, politicians, incumbents and bank directors.

The Best Party’s general message is anti-politician and Mr Gnarr notably promised a cocaine-free parliament by 2020, free towels at swimming polls and a new polar bear for the zoo in Reykjavík during his election rally. Experts argue though, that the Icelandic people did not really vote for Mr Gnarr but rather against the traditional political parties as a punishment for their failure to prevent the financial collapse in Iceland.

Language is cruder

The populist and often xenophobic politicians introduced and still lead the anti-immigration debates in the Nordic region – often highlighting issues with a very provocative language.

All across the Nordic countries the idiom in immigration debates have become coarse. Political statements with a previously unthinkable language are now used on a regular basis.

In Sweden, the Sweden Democrats wrote in a debate article that “the Muslims are our greatest threat – as a Swedish Democrat I see this as our greatest foreign threat since the Second World War and I promise to do all within my power to turn this trend when we go to elections.”

In Denmark, Peter Skaarup from the far-right Danish People’s Party (Dansk Folkeparti) said that “if non-western immigrants and descendents worked to the same extent as the Danes, then the economic situation would immediately be 24 million Kroners [3.2 million Euros] better, the sustainability problem would be solved and the growth in the Danish economy would explode.”

He added that his party would continue a “socially balanced policy that will press more immigrants to find a job, take an education or maybe go home if it doesn’t work out for them staying here in the country.”

Few politicians in power dare to stand up against this kind of wording from the extreme right parties. Many politicians have even altered their statements to align themselves with the latest polls, which often suggest xenophobic and anti-immigration tendencies in public opinion.

In Norway, for example, traditional political parties have become more rigorous in asylum policies and less tolerant in their integration policies, resulting in far-right parties remaining marginal in Norwegian politics.

In other cases, mainstream politicians need the support of the anti-immigration parties. In Denmark, the centre-right government depend on the parliamentary support of the Danish People’s Party when legislating.

This has also led to the fact that the recently introduced Danish economic recovery plan is focussed on cuts in areas that hit the immigrants in Denmark the most, critics argue. Child allowances, for example, have been cut which hits families with more than two children, and so has funding for translation services used, for example, in hospitals.

One of the few to stand up against the newly rhetoric is former Member of the European Parliament and now Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb. In March this year he protested against the change of tone in the language used in Finland over the last few years.

“Lately, I have seen far too few people saying that immigration is something good for Finland”, Mr Stubb said, adding that he found the prevailing immigration debate for repulsive.

A change of politics

The rise of the populist politics is a sign of how politics have changed in the Nordic region, as with many nations in Europe where populist and demagogue rhetoric has gained ground during election time. The consequent change in the right-wing language and policy now being adopted by traditional mainstream parties has led to a change in the way immigration policies are conducted.

There are, however, tendencies of people pushing in the other direction as in Sweden, for example, where recent polls show that the acceptance among the Swedes towards immigrants and immigration is increasing. Also in Norway there is a wind of change as the authorities have chosen to remain in close dialog with the Norwegian Muslim communities to stamp out potential cultural clashes.

But despite this, Nordic countries are sending a clear message to the world saying that immigrants can no longer easily enter the Nordic countries and receive Nordic welfare benefits without contributing to the society they join.

The message they are sending is working. In Denmark, for example, the number of asylum requests has dropped more than 85 percent between 2000 and 2008 – a period in which the centre-right government, with the parliamentary support of the Danish People’s Party, has been in power.

Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg has succeeded in his ambition of curbing the strong increase of asylum seekers in the last few years, sending a signal of firmness both to potential immigrants abroad and to his electoral supporters.

The change of traditional politics towards increasing demands of integration for immigrants in some of the Nordic countries has had an effect on the extreme right-wing parties: Although the fast rise and vast media attention of these parties, as well as a growing interest from the electorate, they still only have limited support on the days that the Nordic voters go to the polls.

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