This paper investigates the factors that influence Swedish welfare workers’ attitudes towards migrants and how these attitudes are associated with their encounters with migrant users. Due to increased migration over the last decade, Sweden is now considered an immigrant nation. Migrants with the right to reside in Sweden are included within the larger welfare system. This paper argues that preconceived notions about migrants can affect the welfare services that they receive. Results from an online survey with a sample of 1,319 welfare practitioners reveal that welfare workers’ attitudes play a significant role when it comes to how they perceive their encounters with migrant users. The findings demonstrate that more favourable attitudes towards migrants were predicted mainly by personal contact with migrants and that different organisational contexts result in different experiences of encounters with migrant users. Less favourable attitudes towards migrants were primarily predicted by a strong ethnic national identity. Most importantly, the findings show that welfare workers’ who have more favourable attitudes towards migrants are less likely to perceive their encounters with migrant users as difficult. This paper contributes to welfare and migration research in two ways. First, this study provides additional support for previous claims from qualitative research by supporting the assumptions that preconceived negative ideas about migrants have meaning for practical welfare work. Second, this paper integrates two streams of research—attitude formation theory and street-level bureaucracy theory— thus expanding existing assumptions about what determines welfare practices with migrants. (Less)

中文翻译：

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态度很重要——瑞典的福利工作和移民

本文调查了影响瑞典福利工作者对移民态度的因素，以及这些态度如何与他们与移民用户的遭遇相关联。由于过去十年移民的增加，瑞典现在被认为是一个移民国家。有权在瑞典居住的移民被纳入更大的福利体系。本文认为，对移民的先入为主的观念会影响他们获得的福利服务。一项对 1,319 名福利从业人员进行的在线调查结果显示，福利工作者的态度在他们如何看待与农民工的接触方面起着重要作用。研究结果表明，对移民更有利的态度主要是通过与移民的个人接触来预测的，并且不同的组织环境会导致与移民用户接触的不同体验。对移民的不利态度主要是由强烈的民族认同所预测的。最重要的是，调查结果表明，对移民持更积极态度的福利工作者不太可能认为他们与移民用户的接触是困难的。本文对福利和移民研究有两个方面的贡献。首先，这项研究通过支持关于移民的先入为主的负面想法对实际福利工作有意义的假设，为先前定性研究的主张提供了额外的支持。第二，本文整合了两种研究流派——态度形成理论和街头官僚主义理论——从而扩展了关于什么决定了移民福利实践的现有假设。（较少的）