Arbetskraftsinvandring -en problemorienterad studie av SAP: s hanterand av arbetskraftsinvandringsfrågan

Sammanfattning: The aim with this paper is to investigate how the Social Democratic Party (SAP) deals with the question of economic migrants, or more specifically how the problem is represented by the Social Democratic Party, and how this representation has developed over time. The SAP's theory became recently contested by a competing theory that was caused by the predicted future demographic development in Sweden, combined with the EU's eastern expansion. The first factor contributed to the re-write of the theory, to a theory that saw economic migrants as a solution instead of a problem, in direct contrast to SAP's theory. The second factor was a direct threat to SAP's labour immigration policy. This leads to my second question, how did SAP respond to this pressure? The answers to these questions are achieved by using discourse analysis by applying a problem oriented theory on empirical material, constituting propositions, articles in mass media and parliamentary debates. This means that I de-construct the representation which enables me to show the hidden power structures behind the problem theory. The results suggest the SAP's problem representation through the decades constitutes of a theme where economic migrants are represented as a threat and a strain on the national resources, a representation that legitimizes a control and restrictive policy. SAP re-evoke this theme in order to defend there policy and the Union's power position.