Can tolerance be forced? Olle Hammar on Swedish values and integration
Can tolerance be defended by forcing people to adopt it? In a new opinion article in Dagens Nyheter, CMIR researcher Olle Hammar challenges the tendency to frame homophobia as an 'immigrant values' problem, drawing on Sweden’s own history and evidence that attitudes change through integration.
Photo by Rob Maxwell on Unsplash
A recent survey on migrants' values, presented by the Swedish government, found that nearly one in two participants in Swedish for Immigrants (SFI) considered homosexuality unacceptable. The results have prompted renewed debate about homophobia, values, and integration.
Hammar does not dispute the findings or the concern they raise. Instead, he asks how the debate changes when Sweden's own recent history, and the differences that remain within Swedish society today, are brought into the picture.
Sweden was not always tolerant
Sweden today stands out in international surveys for its highly individualistic and secular values. But those values are not as firmly rooted in the past as public debate can sometimes suggest.
In 1990, 65 percent of Swedish respondents to the World Values Survey considered homosexuality unacceptable, while more than one-third said it could never be justified. At the time, only 9 percent of Sweden’s population was foreign-born. Until 1979, homosexuality was also officially classified as a mental illness by the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare.
And attitudes are not uniform today either. Drawing on the latest World Values Survey, Hammar highlights considerable differences within Swedish society, including according to political preference.
Values can change over time
Hammar also points to evidence that values integration is already taking place. Acceptance of homosexuality among SFI participants is significantly higher than the average in the countries from which they have migrated.
Findings from the Migrant World Values Survey tell a similar story. Over time, migrants’ attitudes toward homosexuality, abortion, and divorce gradually move closer to those of the wider Swedish population.
For Hammar, this evidence shows that values are not fixed attributes separating one group from another. It also brings the debate back to a central tension: attempts to impose tolerance may undermine the very openness and freedom they are intended to defend.
As he concludes: “Anyone who wishes to defend Swedish values should begin by not forcing them on anyone.”
Read the full opinion article (in Swedish): Olle Hammar: Att prata om invandrares homofobi är att kasta sten i glashus (Dagens Nyheter)
