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Photo: Sámediggi | Saamelaiskäräjät | The Sámi Parliament

“Ethnic Policies” – Remedy for Between-Group Inequalities?

Project Description

Aims and Central Research Question
We investigate ethnic policies towards the Sámi in Norway and Sweden, addressing recognition and self-governance, territorial rights, language, and education. Our main interest are the consequences of such policies on perceived inequalities and their effects on language proficiency, and feelings of discrimination. Do we still find perceived inequalities and discrimination after a long phase of assimilation policies? What are the effects of different policies in Norway and Sweden?

Background
The Sámi are an Arctic people inhabiting the Sápmi area in the North of the Fennoscandian peninsula, with larger populations in Norway and Sweden. After a long history of assimilation policies, Sámi rights started to be recognized from the 1950s onward. Sámi were granted more autonomy, and their language became a school subject in the 1970s. Since the 1980s, political rights, and social, economic, language and educational policies have developed differently in Norway and Sweden. Norway is commonly considered to provide a more favorable political-legal environment for the Sámi.

Data Collection
We conducted our Nordic Peoples Survey in several municipalities in northern Norway and Sweden, in which a significant share of the inhabitants is Sámi. The survey covers various topics in the areas of ethnicity, discrimination, socio-economic and -demographic aspects, political opinion, and Sámi language use and skills.

It was conducted in two stages in 2021 in collaboration with Respons Analyse AS (Norway) and Norstat Sverige AB (Sweden). The first stage consisted of a computer-assisted telephone interview (CATI). A total of 2396 respondents from Norway and 3020 from Sweden participated, corresponding to 21.5% (Norway) and 48.2% (Sweden) of all individuals that could be reached by phone and matched the target profile. Of, these, 21.9% (Norway) and 11.6% (Sweden) self-identified as Sámi.

After the telephone interviews, participants were invited to the second stage, an extensive online (or paper) questionnaire, which included a web-based assessment of language proficiency. A total of 1440 respondents participated in the second stage, of which 26.6% (Norway) and 11.5% (Sweden) self-identified as Sámi.

Results
The survey yielded a unique dataset giving an account of the opinions, experiences, and perceptions of the diverse populations in Sweden’s and Norway’s northern regions. The Nordic Peoples Survey dataset is publicly available - in a fully anonymized form - at the Harvard Dataverse. Using these data, our project team has produced several individual studies on a variety of topics and issues (please see the section “Publications” below for a complete list of the project’s publications).

Experience of discrimination

This study provides a general introduction to the Nordic Peoples Survey dataset. In addition, it examines answers to the survey questions about discrimination experiences in detail. The results show that respondents from Sweden are more likely to report having experienced discrimination in the past two years. Moreover, in both countries, participants with an ethnic Sámi, immigrant, or national minority background experience discrimination more often than ethnic majority participants. The respondents reporting experiencing discrimination most frequently are those who regularly speak Sámi in public. [1]

Language vitality

This study contrasts Norway’s and Sweden’s policies addressing the Sámi languages. Based on a policy analysis, we conclude that the Norwegian policies are more favorable for promoting and protecting the Sámi languages. As a next step, we analyze survey responses on how well and how frequently participants speak a Sámi language and their scores in our North Sámi vocabulary task. In accordance with the more favorable policy environment, our results show that Sámi language use is comparatively more frequent and widespread in Norway. Yet, the share of highly fluent speakers is also small there. In addition, the non-Sámi population of both countries has hardly any Sámi-language knowledge. In both countries, more policy efforts are needed to promote Sámi languages. [2]

Status perceptions

This study deals with Sweden’s and Norway’s state policies addressing Sámi matters, asking whether the countries’ general differences regarding their implementation of Sámi’s Indigenous rights are mirrored in people’s perceptions of their societal status. The results show a clear gap in Sweden between respondents who self-identify as Sámi and those who do not. The former report lower perceptions of their individual and collective standing in society. In Norway, by contrast, status perceptions are pretty equal. [3]

Policy preferences

This study investigates respondents’ preferences toward policies in the areas of Sámi language and education, self-governance, and territorial rights. Despite considerable differences between Norway’s and Sweden’s actual policies in these areas, the analysis finds no differences in policy preferences between the two countries. Norwegian and Swedish respondents who do not identify as Sámi are equally skeptical toward policies facilitating Sámi self-determination. On the other hand, self-identifying Sámi respondents from both countries express more positive attitudes toward such policies. [4]

Disciplines

Political Science, Linguistics

Duration

October 2019 – December 2023

Project Partners

Henrik Gyllstad

Henrik Gyllstad is an Associate Professor in English Language and Linguistics at the Centre for Language and Literature at Lund University, Sweden. His research interests include Second Language Acquisition, Language Testing and the bilingual lexicon. Find more information about Henrik Gyllstad here.

Øystein Vangsnes

Øystein Vangsnes is Professor of Scandinavian Linguistics at the Department of Language and Culture at UiT The Arctic University of Norway, and Professor II at the Western Norway University of Applied Sciences. His research interests include bilingualism, multilectalism, literacy, Sámi language revitalization, and language planning. Find more information about Øystein Vangsnes here.

Publications

Articles in peer-reviewed journals

[1] Yasar, R., Bergmann, F., Lloyd-Smith, A., Schmid, S., Holzinger, K., & Kupisch, T. (2024). Experience of discrimination in egalitarian societies: The Sámi and majority populations in Sweden and Norway. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 47(6), 1203–1230. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2023.2243313

[2] Lloyd-Smith, A., Bergmann, F., Hund, L., & Kupisch, T. (2023). Can policies improve language vitality? The Sámi languages in Sweden and Norway. Frontiers in Psychology, 14, 1059696. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1059696

[3] Bergmann, F. (2024). An efficacious remedy for status inequality? Indigenous policies in Norway and Sweden. Politics, Groups, and Identities, online first. https://doi.org/10.1080/21565503.2024.2331726

[4] Bergmann, F. (2024). Divided attitudes toward rectifying injustice: How preferences for Indigenous policies differ between the Indigenous and majority populations of Norway and Sweden. Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics, 9(1), 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1017/rep.2023.38

Bergmann, Fabian. 2024. “Beyond the Obvious: A Nordic Tale of the Raveled Relationship between Political Inequality and Indigenous People’s Satisfaction with Democracy.” The Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics forthcoming.

Gyllstad, Henrik, Tanja Kupisch, and Anika Lloyd-Smith. 2024. “Development and Initial Validation of a Yes/No Vocabulary Test for North Sámi.” International Journal of Applied Linguistics online first. https://doi.org/10/gt558z.

Lloyd-Smith, A., & Kupisch. T. (2023). Methodological challenges in working with Indigenous communities. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, 13(1), 65–69. https://doi.org/10.1075/lab.22071.ll

Bormann, Nils-Christian, Yannick I. Pengl, Lars-Erik Cederman, and Nils B. Weidmann. 2021. “Globalization, Institutions, and Ethnic Inequality.” International Organization 75 (3): 665–97. https://doi.org/10/gt55b3.

Outreach & non-academic publications

Bergmann, F. (2024). Indigenous inequalities in egalitarian societies: The case of the Sámi people in Norway and Sweden. ECMI Minorities Blog, https://doi.org/10.53779/SBPL3716

Kupisch, T., Lloyd-Smith, A., Bergmann, F., & Yasar, R. (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, 5, 12–17.

Lloyd-Smith, A., Bergmann, F., Sapir, Y., Yasar, R., & and Kupisch, T. (2023). Why language matters: Inequality perceptions among the Sámi in Sweden and Norway. Policy Papers / Cluster of Excellence “The Politics of Inequality”, 11.

Bergmann, F. (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, 1, 42–45.