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Migration background and attitudes towards military service: evidence from Sweden’s conscription system
Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Umeå School of Business and Economics (USBE), Economics. Department of Defence Analysis, Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI), Stockholm, Sweden.
2026 (English)Report (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

A deteriorating security environment has led to a renewed interest in understanding individuals’ willingness to fight for their country. This study examines how attitudes towards military conscription service differ between native-born youth and those with an immigrant background in Sweden, with a specific focus on differences between first- and second-generation immigrants. Using population-wide data linking responses from a mandatory survey with high-quality administrative registers, the analysis covers nearly all Swedish citizens born between 2000 and 2004. The results show that first and second-generation immigrants have very different attitudes towards military service. While first-generation immigrants are equally, or even slightly more, willing than natives to serve in the military, second-generation immigrants are considerably less positive. These differences persist even after adjusting for socioeconomic background and migration origin, challenging a common assumption in migration research that children of immigrants converge towards majority-group attitudes across generations. Further research is needed to understand the mechanisms behind second-generation immigrants’ lower willingness to serve.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Umeå: Umeå University, 2026. , p. 20
Series
Umeå economic studies, ISSN 0348-1018 ; 1041
Keywords [en]
military service, migration background, defence willingness, Sweden
National Category
Sociology Political Science
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-248620OAI: oai:DiVA.org:umu-248620DiVA, id: diva2:2029352
Available from: 2026-01-16 Created: 2026-01-16 Last updated: 2026-01-19Bibliographically approved

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Bäckström, Peter

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CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf