The Political Participation of Iraqi Immigrants in Malmö-Sweden

Sammanfattning: This study aimed to analyze the factors that encourage or discourage the political participation of Iraqi immigrants in their host country - Sweden. The study was conducted in Malmö city and data were gathered through ‘focus group interview’ that involved 12 Iraqi immigrants who are living in Malmö (residents non-citizens and naturalized). The participants represented a diverse sample since they belonged to multi-ethnic and religious minorities within the Iraqi community. Data were analyzed using qualitative method whereas the concepts of political integration, political participation, and belonging were applied as the theoretical framework. The participants of the study assigned diverse meanings to political participation. According to the findings the factors that encourage or discourage Iraqi immigrants in political participation in Malmö, Sweden have various shapes. The results revealed that women are less likely to vote than men, and political participation decreases with the increase in income level, age, and education. On the other hand, the culmination of social and economic disadvantages can lead immigrants to have less desire to engage in both institutionalized and non-institutionalized forms of political activities in Sweden. Although Sweden has provided its immigrants with various political rights following the Treaty of Amsterdam (Council Tampere 1999) most of the participants criticized the Swedish government for not having a formal mechanism to educate them on their rights before and after the naturalization. In sum, the findings of the current study imply that there is a negative impact on the political participation of immigrants by their past political experiences in non-democratic countries. All Iraqi participants of this study might have been affected by their previous political experiences in Iraq. It may have caused a trauma, which in turn has discouraged them in political participation even after moving to a democratic country such as Sweden.