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Ethnic minority Representation in

Local Administration

Do ethnic minority administrators in Swedish local administration

perceive themselves as representatives of an ethnic group or interest?

By Nazem Tahvilzadeh PhD-student

School pf Public Administration, Göteborg university

Paper for the ECPR Joint Sessions of Workshops, #21 “Migration and Representation

in Parliamentary Democracies”; Helsinki 7-12 May 2007

Abstract

The theory of representative bureaucracy suggest that the ethnic background of administrators affect their values and opinions which influence their administrative behavior. In this order decisions made in the policy process will mirror the interests of ethnic minorities in democratic societies. The question proposed in this paper is whether ethnic minority administrators perceive themselves as representatives of an ethnic group or interest, and in what way they perceive that this representation can be manifested in their duties? The study is based on qualitative interviews with senior administrators in the Swedish municipal administration. The conclusions suggest that ethnic minority administrators do perceive themselves as representatives. Mainly the administrators feel that they are acting for and/or standing for ethnic minority groups in different aspects. The actions of representation can be proactive, regarding matters of anti-discrimination and recognition, or reactive regarding matters of redistribution. The ethnic minority administrators can act sole in their line of duty or their actions can be directed towards the policy-outputs of the local government in line with the interests of ethnic minorities. The actions are in different ways perceived to be responsive to the interest of the minority communities, either if the sole administrators uses their personal and professional experience or if they create different forums for the interaction between minorities and local government actors.

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Background

In Sweden, the discussion about the participation of immigrants in the political process is basically focused around three main areas; their electoral participation, their representation in political assemblies and their associational involvement. In all three areas it can be concluded that despite the existence of formal and legal rights that enables equal participation in the democratic society, there is an obvious problem concerning to what extent ethnic minorities1 exercise these political rights. The under-representation of immigrant groups in the democratic process is a fact in Sweden and in other countries (Bäck and Soininen, 1998b:, Bäck and Öhrvall, 2004:, Strömblad and Borevi, 2004:, Soininen and Etzler, 2006). Political representation in local political assemblies has recently been examined in studies focusing on the extent to which immigrant representatives are able to affect the local political process and their reflections on and other evidence of the obstacles decreasing their opportunities of equal participation in local politics (Johansson, 2002:, Dahlstedt, 2005:, Rodrigo Blomqvist, 2005). One result of the latter study, focusing on the ambitions of Finnish minority groups to establish Finnish school education in a sample of Swedish municipalities, is the conclusion that the Finnish political representation in the assemblies was not insignificant. However, the presence in the local bureaucracy as administrators, teachers and school staff was as important for the success of their cause (Rodrigo Blomqvist, 2005:209). This conclusion has also been drawn in earlier studies of immigrants and minorities in local political processes. Observations of the “ethnic minority bureaucrat” as an agent for the successful administration of the immigrant “cause” in the bureaucratic process has been pointed out as a factor not only leading to the fact that local government can meet the demands of their ethnic minority citizens, but also that their sole commitment is an insurance for the existence of immigrant and minority politics in the municipalities (Bäck and Soininen, 1998a). To understand the scope of the representation of immigrants in parliamentary democracies it is evidently essential to consider representativeness of the public administration. While pointing out the importance of the presence of women and “racial”/ethnic minorities in political assemblies Ann Phillipps (1995) raises a warning and emphasizes the importance of presence in all government bodies where there is a concentration of power within the hands of “technical expertise”. “Civil servants, for example, are not normally regarded as representatives”, she writes, “but we are still entitled to ask whether their perceptions, of the available options are affected by their own more personal information” (Phillips, 1995:185). The concept of politics of presence, according to Phillipps, can lend itself to the administrative sector, arguing that the gender, “race”/ethnicity and related experiences of the sole bureaucrat can have a “decisive impact on what they propose as desirable or possible” (ibid:186).

1 The term “ethnic minorities” is used in this paper to address both immigrants and the Swedish born children of immigrants. Usually the term includes national minority groups with a certain minority status. In this paper it is mainly the aspect of immigrant groups that is relevant.

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Representative bureaucracy: public administration matters

Already in 1944, Kingsley introduced the concept of representative bureaucracy, stressing that all social groups have a right to participate in their governing institutions in proportion to their number in the population. Kingsley pointed out that in a democratic society, the social harmony is much dependant of the representation of the different social classes in the civil service; “competence is not enough, the public service must also be representative if the state is to liberate rather than to enslave” (Kingsley, 1944:185). Since Kingsley’s contribution, a number of scholars have developed the concept from different perspectives in both normative and empirical aspects, with the main issue being if the bureaucracies can be representative for the public in terms of policy preferences, interests, ideologies, characteristics such as race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality and social class or other dimensions? (Mosher, 1982:, Krislov, 1974:, Long, 1952:, Dolan and Rosenbloom, 2003). One common objection against the concept of representative bureaucracy is the normative perspective of bureaucracy as a neutral agent in a representative democracy. The normative dichotomy of politics and administration has since the times of Woodrow Wilson, who agitated that administration “is a part of political life only as machinery is part of the manufactured product.” (Wilson, 1887), put a heavy shade over the recognition of the power that administration wields over politics. Similar to the Weberian ideal type of the bureaucracy as an impersonal, rational and effective organization without scorn and bias, dehumanized from all “love, hatred, and all purely personal, irrational and emotional elements which escape calculation” (Weber, 1943:55). The notion that bureaucracy is in the hands of its master is disputed (Waldo, 1948:, Simon, 1947:, Premfors, 2000), specially in the process implementation and street-level bureaucracies (Pressman and Wildavsky, 1984:, Lipsky, 1980). Guy Peters puts the thoughts well into words:

...we can view bureaucracy as being in a powerful position in competition with its ostensible political masters. Having control over information and of the instigation of policy alternatives, having an expert knowledge of the subject matter, and having a ministerial or departmental ideology concerning the control decisions actually adopted by the partisans at the top (…) Within its purview, each agency remains supreme and consequently can dominate or influence its own political masters. (Peters, 2002:24)

Lessons learned from the research of administrative discretion is mainly that we cannot exclude bureaucracy and bureaucrats as (a) political actor(s) in the policy processes with power to define, suggest and assess policy alternatives in one hand, and with the power over implementation processes and the different means to execute a political decision. Now, the question that proponents of representative bureaucracy often ask is whether the values, opinions and attitudes of the general public are adequately shared and reflected by the members of the public administration? Does the social background of administrators affect their values and opinions and does this affect their administrative behavior which in its turn influences the outputs and outcomes of the policy process?

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Since we know that administration has a significant influence over the shape of government actions and that there has been evidence on representation of ethnic interests amongst minority bureaucrats in Swedish local government there is need for further analysis on this matter. Maybe earlier research has been too narrow-sighted in its ambitions to explain the impact of immigrants’ participation in political life by focusing on elections, politicians and associations? What is the consequence of ethnic representation in public administration? Questions and purpose

The purpose of this paper is to create a deeper understanding of the ethnic representation in Swedish public administration and in what way this presence of immigrants might affect policies formed in local governments. Specifically, the focus will be on the sole administrator and his or her perceptions of being a representative. The question proposed in this paper is whether ethnic minority administrators perceive themselves as representatives of an ethnic group or interest, and in what way they perceive that this representation can be manifested in their duties?

Immigration and ethnic relations in Sweden

The ethnic landscape of Sweden is a rather complex picture of many fragments. The cycles of migration to Sweden can be divided into four different phases. The first (1940-1971) is marked by refugee immigration from neighboring countries while the second phase (1949-1971) mainly contained labor immigrants from Finland and southern Europe. The third phase (1972-1989) is characterized by family reunification and refugee immigration from third world countries, the latter mainly from south America. The fourth phase, beginning in 1990, mainly consisted of asylum seekers from Balkan and the Middle East (Westin, 1993). Since the 1990´s, the immigration to Sweden is divided mainly into the refugees and family reunification and into the third millennium the latter constitutes the greater part of the immigration (Dahlström, 2004). Altogether the Swedish immigrant population crosses over 200 nationalities and constitutes nearly 12 percent of the total population, and a further 4 percent with foreign background2 (Integrationsverket, 2006a). The 10 largest immigrant groups constitute nearly 60 percent of the entire immigrant population, and these come, in order of size, from: Finland, Iraq, Yugosalvia, Iran, Bosnien-Hercegovina, Poland, Norway, Denmark, Germany and Turkey. The external categorization of “ethnicity” or “ethnic minorities” is a problematic task related to the problems of self- or group identification or the categorization of others (Jenkins, 2000). The externally-oriented categorization of others cannot be separated from power relations in modern society. The way terms and boundaries like “ethnicity” or “culture” is perceived in politics and science also reflects, and is closely tied to, the contemporary dilemmas of nation-states, ethnocentrism and racism (Balibar and Wallerstein, 1991). “The effective categorization of a group of people by a more powerful Other is thus never ‘just’ a matter of classification (if there is any such thing as 2 Foreign background is defined as a person born in Sweden with two foreign-born parents.

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‘just classification’)” writes Jenkins, “[A]s an intervention in that group’s social world it will, to an extent and in ways that are context-specific, change the world and the experience of living in it; in other words, it has consequences” (Jenkins, 2000:22). The consequences of ‘creating’ the social group, or category, of “immigrants” containing over 200 different ‘nationalities’ and countless of internally-oriented identifications is unquestionably negative in some aspects. The mark of “immigrant” symbolizes first and foremost otherness, the pejorative antithesis of swedishness. The alienation and the idea of difference that has risen around the term and the being of “immigrant” is, according to some scholars, a significant reason behind the social exclusion in Swedish society (De los Reyes and Kamali, 2005:, Dahlstedt, 2005). In this paper, the externally-oriented category of “foreign born” and “with foreign background” will be used regarding the statistics. Otherwise, the term “ethnic minorities” will be used. My arguments are two. First, there is a social and political aspect of immigrantship relevant for the study of political participation. Despite the aims of “equal rights, responsibility and opportunity for all, regardless of ethnic or cultural background” in the integration policy, in a number studies it can be seen that the practice of these rights do not live up to the ambitions, regarding foreign born individuals (Integrationsverket, 2006b). Regardless of the different backgrounds of immigrants ranging from Europe to Asia and Africa, there is a common ground in the otherness of immigrantship. Although we must keep in mind the thorough differences within the category based on skin-color, religion, language, social class, gender and so forth, all of which have a genuine impact on the social, material and political life of the individuals 3. Second, statistics being used leave no other option of categorization. In some aspects it does, so as long as the statistical data admitting I will try to nuance the large group of foreign born individuals by splitting them into relevant categories such as Nordic, EU, Non EU within Europe and other than European. Municipalities in Sweden

The Swedish local government can be divided into two tiers; 290 lower tier authorities (municipalities: kommuner) and 20 upper tier authorities (county councils: landstingskommuner). The dominating task of the county councils is to deliver health care services while the municipality administrates other welfare services such as

3 Regarding the Swedish labor market Neergard (2002) shows the existence of a racialised segmentation and an ethnic hierarchy where the probability of unemployment is greater and work related safety is worse in African, Asian and south American groups than in others. Racialisation is a concept created by Robert Miles meaning that: ”…in certain historical conjunctures and under specific material conditions, human beings attribute certain biological characteristics with meaning in order to differentiate, to exclude and to dominate: reproducing the idea of ”race”, they create a racialised Other and simultaneously they racialise themselves. (Miles 1993:44)”. Rodrigo Blomqvist (2005) has also shown this tendency in municipal politics where the specific ethnic background of the sole politician has a more powerful effect than other factors determining your status in party politics, and in some aspects also individual opinions, perceptions. Immigrants are racialised in different levels, and the more “visible” the immigrantship being, for example considering skin color and religiosity, the more social, material and political impact will the racialisation have (Andersson 2002, Molina & de los Reyes 2002). The hierarchal ethnic categories suggested is mainly to separate between the European, western origin and the non-western.

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childcare, primary and secondary schools, eldercare, assistance for disabled, personal welfare and culture and recreation (Bäck and Johansson, 2006). The inter-governmental relations are characterized by a high degree of decentralization with local autonomy over taxation and other highly relevant spending priorities giving different political contexts in comparison. The party politics in both elections and local decision-making also ties the relationship to the political system and the state level (Ibid). The comprehensive growth of administration in the municipalities during the last five decades is noteworthy. The municipalities account for nearly 25 per cent of the total employment in Sweden, being pretty much the largest employer in an average municipality (ibid). Most of these positions are on the production side of the municipal administration working with services mainly in school, child-, and healthcare. About 9 per cent of the municipal employees work within the frame of administration4 (Svenska kommunförbundet, 2005). The municipal government shapes policies relevant for immigrants in different aspects. In general Bäck (1989) suggests three different aspects of “integration”-policies affecting immigrants;

1) Policies relevant for the ethnic group: these are cultural interests such as language, traditions, religious and other cultural activities relevant for the particular ethnic group.

2) Introduction policies: concerning matters of the orientation of the newly arrived individual ranging from language education, housing and information about the social, institutional and political background of Sweden.

3) Policies relevant for the social category of the ethnic group; immigrants are members of other social groups in society such as women, youth, children, social class etc. implying that these matters of interest could be categorized as integration policies even though they are in the question matter not specifically “ethnic“ (Bäck, 1989).

One dimension that should be added to these three aspects are the policies aimed at preventing the rise of the new class and ethnicity related social problems in Sweden. 4) Social exclusion; In the suburbs of the big city a certain set of problem definitions

could be encircled, addressed for the most part to immigrant groups. (Dahlstedt, 2005).

The main aim of the integration policy in Sweden is to create “participation on equal terms for everyone irrespective of background” (Integrationsverket, 2006).

4 Administrative duties are separated from manual labor, in principal being assignments related to the planning and organizing of staff and material resources, leading and initiating activity, motivating members of the organization, coordinating proceedings and controlling results and performance (Norell 1989)

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Bird-eye view of representativeness

The numbers of ethnic representation in local administration are necessary to consider before we dive into the life of the individual administrators in the field. Research in this front is relatively thin, nevertheless pointing only in one direction. A representative bureaucracy is a bureaucracy that reflects the social origins of its inhabitants, giving us reason to consider the demographic aspects of the 290 different municipalities in Sweden. Looking at how each ethnic minority is represented in the local administration is not at the moment possible due to lack of data, but it is possible to separate the ethnic backgrounds in larger categories5. Table 1. Sample of ethnic representation rates (%) in different municipal occupations 2005

%

Foreign born total

of which from Nordic

EU (25)

Non-EU Europe

Outside Europe

sum

Inhabitants

12.4

24.4

16.2

16.9

42.4

100

Total municipality 11.2 27.5 13.8 18.3 40.4 100

Occupation

Cleaners 21 % 23 8.6 29.7 38.7 100

Other health care pers.

16.3 21.3 11.7 5.0 44.6 100

Assistant nurse 14.3 27 11.1 20 41.9 100

Health care support 14.1 24.2 10.7 4 49.4 100

Welfare secretaries

10.7 38.3 12.5 14 35.3 100

Administrative officials

6.9 37.2 18.9 16.8 27 100

Engineers 5.2 26.4 24.7 17.5 31.5 100

Managers 4.4 59.3 18.2 7.2 14.8 100

School principals 3.4 56.3 24.3 8.3 11.1 100

Firemen 2.0 59.8 17.1 6 17.1 100

Comments: Numbers of “total” presented are not the total of the figures in the table but all occupations in the

municipalities (SKL, 2006, integrationsverket 2007). Consider the occupations in this table as samples of the total

picture. To mirror the population, the municipalities should have at least a representation of 12 percent foreign born individuals and about 16 percent with foreign background. The numbers from 2005 show a percentage of 11.2 foreign born and 13 with a foreign background working in the municipalities (Svenska kommunförbundet, 2006). Not a full match but quite close. Penetrating the data we can see that there is a great variation 5 Developed by the Central bureau of statistics (SCB) and the Swedish association of local authorities and regions in 2005.

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depending on which sector you choose to study. Table 1 shows the variation in a sample of top high and low representation rates in different occupations, pointing at a vast un-representativeness in more qualified positions such as administrative officials, school leaders and managers, and a high concentration at production and service occupations.

The picture darkens as we look closer into the more specific country-origin of the foreign born, noticing a higher representation amongst non-European immigrants in the service and production sectors than in the administrative branch. Within the latter we can generally conclude that the farther from the Nordic country the origin of the immigrant is, the less they will be represented in leading positions in municipal government. Thus, not only immigrant background, also country origin is a highly relevant factor in the probability of presence in municipal administration. Surprisingly, the fire-brigades show the lowest representation figures of all sectors, something that may be related to similar figures in the military organizations (Arbetsgivarverket, 2006).

Trying to nuance these figures we must bear in mind that each municipality has different demographic conditions. The sole most important factor determining representation rates in the municipalities is the amount of immigrant inhabitants within it (Pearsons R= .90 with >99% significance)6. To see how each municipal administration mirrors its habitants (foreign born) we create a Representation index (RI), by dividing the foreign born group’s proportion in the public administration by its proportion in the municipal society (Dolan and Rosenbloom, 2003:42f). An RI rate of 1 means that the administration mirrors the population concerning the foreign born. A RI rate of 0.5 exposes a 50 % under representation and RI=1,5 the opposite. Table 2 gives us the numbers comparing the three sectors production and service, professionals and managers7 and adding the RI of politicians. Table 2. Representation index of municipal workers, administrators and politicians

Production& Service Professionals Chief administrators Politicians

No.of individuals 440 704 245 176 17 405 42 200

RI mean .92 .70 .42 .78

Minimum .18 0 0 0

Maximum 2.45 2.21 5.22 2.00

No.Municipalities 290 290 259 290

It is clear that the representativeness is very varied between the municipalities, looking better at the production and service side than higher up in the administration where, of

6 Correlation analysis of data from 2004, SCB and SKL, see Tahvilzadeh (2007) 7 Regarding the three groups of occupations these are the categorizations; Service production: cleaners, cantine staff, janitors, blue-collar workers, office staff, special student pedagogues and assistants, work leaders in care, health care staff, medical orderlies, recreation leaders, child nurses, kindergarten staff, other recreation, culture, health care, technical staff, recreation pedagogy staff. Average wage SEK: 19 100SEK. Professionals: pre-school, primary-, high-school and other teachers, firemen, engineers, administrative officials, nurses, work leaders pre-schools, Welfare secretaries, library personnel. Average wage: 23 700 SEK. Chief administrators: executive managers and School principals. Average wage: 35 000 SEK (SKL och SCB 2004) (1 Euro is approximately 9 SEK).=

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course, the political power is evident. Not to neglect the importance of a representative municipal service production since the unemployment is a problem amongst foreign born, which, particularly in the longer run, has an essential influence on integration and political participation (Bäck and Soininen, 1998b). But the trend is obvious: the more status in the occupation – the less ethnic representation. It is noteworthy that the representation amongst local politicians is almost twice as high as amongst chief administrators. The service and production sector tends to have the most even spread around a representative work force while the representativeness in the managers sector is concentrated below RI = 0.2 in over 100 municipalities (Tahvilzadeh, 2007). This ought to be a clear warning regarding the lack of ethnic representation in Swedish municipal administration. The situation is not only present in the municipalities. Also the numbers in counties and the state-level authorities and departments confirm the under-representation of immigrants amongst chief administrators (Arbetsgivarverket, 2006). ====

Minority administrators- A close up picture

The question launched earlier was whether ethnic minority administrators perceive themselves as representatives of an ethnic group or interest, and in what way they perceive that this representation can be manifested in their duties? This paper intends to answer the question through a preliminary series of semi structured long qualitative interviews with a selection of minority administrators in Swedish municipalities8. The aim as mentioned earlier is to create a deeper understanding of the ethnic representation in public administration and in what way this presence of immigrants might affect policies formed in local governments. The need for representative institutions can be explained by using Hernes’ three arguments in terms of justice, experience and interests. The first argument for women in politics is the claim to equal participation regardless of the results of the decisions made; it is “based on the assumption that all groups in a society should have the right to participate in decisions that concern them” (Hernes, 1987:22). The second argument focuses on the losses of resources that society or an organization suffers when women do not participate in political life, stressing the different experiences and values that they might have. This argument also stresses the absence of other groups from politics as a waste of complementary resources since there is a big human capital potential being lost due to the absence. The third argument stresses that women and men have different and often conflicting interests in politics. Hence, the presence of women will lead to changes and create a more just political system “in accordance with the interests of women” (Hernes, 1987:23). To these argument we can also add the importance the presence of different social groups in all political institutions have for the legitimacy of the democratic political system (Phillips, 1995:40). The promise of the representative bureaucracy has carried different versions of these normative arguments as its underpinnings. The most controversial claim is that the

8 More detailed description of the method can be found in the appendix.

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gender or ethnical composition of a public administration affects policy outputs. In this case the mind of the single administrator is the most relevant unit of analysis, since their social background and life experiences as “minority” or “immigrant” is not only expected to influence their attitudes and values but also their administrative behavior. It is proposed and also proven that minority administrators or bureaucrats are able to influence public policy outputs in favor of a minority interest (Dolan and Rosenbloom, 2003:114ff, Meier and Stewart, 1992). But this seems to be dependent of different settings of factors and circumstances giving different results depending on the actual policy area, type of institution and ethnic or minority group chosen to study (Saidel and Loscocco, 2005:, Meier, 1999:, Hindera and Young, 1998).9 The research in this field is also restricted to the American context, leaving many questions open worthy of exploring in other times and places. Perception of a representative role

While cutting the pieces of the concept of ‘ political representation’ apart, Hanna Pitkin found two sides of the coin worth mentioning here. Representation has a descriptive and a symbolic meaning not demanding any specific performance from the representative other than “standing for” the people he och she represents. On the other side there is the meaning of a substantive representation implying that representation also means “acting for” someone. This activity of representing others, she stresses, “must be defined in terms of what the representative does and how he does it” (Pitkin, 1967:143). In the literature of representative bureaucracy the concept of “standing for” is called “passive” representation and the substantive “acting for” is equivalent to “active” representation (Mosher, 1982). The absolute meaning of being an active representative in a bureaucracy, however, is complicated and not precisely defined by theories, usually depending on the comprehensive definition of when civil servants advocate the interests and the desires of groups sharing their social origin or acting in accordance with a certain group’s preferences or interests (Selden, 1997:, Dolan and Rosenbloom, 2003). This behavior is supposed to influence “not only public policy outputs but also public policy outcomes in predicted ways” (Meier and Stewart, 1992). An important link between the administrators’ social origin and their active representation of minority interests is by Coleman et. al. (1998) found to be their role perception as “minority representatives” or “trustees” taking “responsibility for making a positive difference in policy outcomes for minorities and increasing their access to the policy process” (Coleman et al., 1998:721). Hence, the questions that are to be answered in this paper are:

• Do the ethnic minority administrators perceive themselves as representatives of an ethnic group or an interest and how can this perception be characterized?

• If they perceive themselves as representatives, in what way do they act for this group and interest?

9 These circumstances are among others individual characteristics, organizational and other institutional contexts designed to measure the impact of ethnicity in the priorities and decisions of administrators.

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While a politicians mandate is fundamentally based on the concept of representation, the administrators’ is not. The mandate of the administrator is merit, competence and expertise. Dedicated to the ethics of impartiality and strict moral codes dissociating from fraud, corruption, the abuse of power and being loyal to the state and the general interest (Lundquist, 1998). Referring to “representation” the administrators may, due to these professional ethics automatically reject the question without further notice. Hence, the two questions asked to the administrators are:

Q1: Do you think or feel, or have you ever thought and felt that you are a trustee (företrädare) for a certain group in society. Q2: Do you act, or have you ever been acting in accordance with a certain group or interest in your duty? If so, whose interest and why?

Neutrality?

The first impression of the administrators is a strong contrast to the general ideal of the Weberian bureaucrat; impersonal without scorn and bias. On the contrary, they appear as being well aware of and involved in the current political debates of immigrantship, ethnicity and social exclusion, expressing values, opinions and visions of the ideal society in their mind – and the ideal method to achieve this society. Reflecting about their administrative behavior, they include other personal roles such as political and civil society activists, party members, earlier occupations, spokesmen for occupational groups and so on, proving it wrong to assume that they are acting in a social vacuum. Being “neutral” seems only relevant in terms of not explicitly taking side for a certain party program or political standpoint related to a specific party in the organization. This does not mean that the administrators will not develop interests conflicting with political and administrative officials. As they perceive it, they are the activists, advocates and spokesmen of the ethnic perspectives and matters within the organization. But it is not always a role chosen by themselves.

Minority Representatives?

The role perceptions of the administrators centers around two main categories. There are those who explicitly perceive themselves as minority representatives, in terms of trustees, feeling an obligation to represent the interests of the “immigrant community” as a whole. The administration is viewed by these administrators as a platform for implementing their visions, ideas and engagement for the “immigrant cause”. The other group is more reluctant to identify themselves as representatives “acting for” someone or some interest, even though they strongly feel that they are representatives in the eye of their fellow administrators. They are symbolic representatives “standing for” for a certain group or immigrants at large in their organizations. The ethnocrat as a professional representative

Starting with the outspoken representatives, this should be modified somewhat. The Snowball method leading my way to these ethnic minority administrators mostly put me in the offices of the integration or diversity units. I therefore interviewed administrators with foreign background working explicitly with ethnicity, diversity, anti-discrimination

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and integration policies. This is probably not a coincidence, it is hard to believe that chance is the only factor in this case. There are strong indications that ethnic minority administrators, the few that has struggled their way through the hierarchy of municipal administration to the top levels, are given or strategically choosing the carrier path as ethnocrats, professionally dedicated to the ethnic cause. The term ethnocrat refers to an actor in the public administration appointed for the purpose of working with ethnic relations and equality, disregard its own ethnic background. It is closely related to the concept of femocrats, coined in the Australian bureaucracy, referring to the strategy developed by the members of the Australian women's movement entering federal and state bureaucracies as a way of bringing feminist concerns onto the public policy arena in quest of social change. In their role as “inside agitators” these administrators have helped to put the feminist issues on the political agenda (Eisentstein, 1996). The similarities between the femocrats described in the literature and the ethnocrats observed in this study are striking. The ethnocrats main tasks are to develop, implement and evaluate ethnic diversity policies in the municipal organizations, mostly even being responsible for all equality policies related to women, children, homo-, bi- and transsexual individuals, disabled people etc. Besides they are also function as internal consultants for matters of diversity and equality, arranging seminars, conferences and educations internally for the municipal organizations. Sometimes they are also acting as representatives of the municipality, working towards local NGO’s and the private sector as experts of ethnic relations and equality. These ethnocrats do not necessarily feel that they are trustees for a certain ethnic minority group, but they are certain that they are acting in the interest of the ethnic minority population. They are professionally representatives of the “immigrant cause”. Some even referring to themselves as “immigrant ministers” of the municipality: Some people call me the immigrant minister of our municipality. Many identify themselves with me. Many say that I am their spokesman. That is what I hear from many groups. And that is thanks to my ways of working. I have built a mutual respect and good relations with all groups; among Albanians, Muslims, Persians…well everyone (Int3). It is also obvious that the administrators are sometimes reluctant to perceive themselves as representatives for a specific ethnic group, since their professional code of equal treatment to all people forces them to a “neutral attitude” in that sense. The burden of representation

It is obvious that the administrators perceive the role as “trustees” differently. The other category of administrators that were expressed feelings of being symbolic representatives “standing for” immigrants were some what more skeptical. The non-representative administrative organizations in which these administrators are effective, gives them the role of a representative, whether they want it or not. The stigma that ethnic minority politicians might suffer as political alibis for the non-representative10 Swedish parties is well documented by Dahlstedt (2005) and Rodrigo Blomqvist (2005). The same

10 Meaning non-representativeness regarding social background

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tendencies can be outlined in the administrative organization, when the administrators clearly expressing reluctance of being perceived as a representative; If there is anyone that I represent it is myself. I don’t want to be some kind of representative because then I will fall into the trap of; “yes, here we have our blatte11, the house slave, clever and so on”. Then you will fall into that role (Int1).

On the other hand, some consider the symbolic dimension to be a positive role since they are given the opportunity to spread information and clarify common misunderstandings about their ethnic, religious and cultural characteristics. They feel that they can speak for and spread information to their fellow administrators about their ethnic minority group. A task that may not always be self chosen, but always considered to be of great value for the organization. How then, can this be describes as a burden? The fact is that the administrators feel that they are standing for immigrants and this is perceived as a burden per se, since their fellow ethnic majority administrators carry a fixed notion of immigrantship that is associated with negative expectations. The expression that “I have now stopped being a typical immigrant in their eyes” is a common way of describing this frustration. The other side of the burden of representation is connected to the ethnocrat role. The respondents express a frustration of being the one responsible for the ethnic perspective in the organization. This frustration seem to be related to their personal view of their profession, since it seems not only be a job, but “a way of living” (Int6). The ethnocrats express a difficulty disconnecting themselves from their jobs because they tend to get too emotionally involved in their professional role. This engagement seems to result in an exhaustion and in the long run separation, or a longing separation, from the ethnocrat position. It does not seem to be rare that ethnic minority administrators sooner or later in their carrier must walk through the ethnocrat profession, “being ethnic policy” as one respondent put it (Int6). It can be discussed whether this phenomenon is related to their genuine dedication to the “immigrant cause” or if it is a mere carrier strategy, creating or being forced to create, a competency advantage out of their ethnic minority background (Göransson, 2005).

Acting for whose interest?

The administrators that perceive themselves as symbolic or/and substantive representatives for a certain group or interest, have different ways of defining the question of whom they represent. One way is to express their dedication for the common good, meaning that they are acting in line with the interest of the community in whole. And since this community is multi-cultural they make sure that the interests of ethnic minorities are kept alive in the public administration. Event though some of the administrators identify themselves very strongly with one specific ethnic group, they also feel that all ethnic minority groups have a common interests in Sweden. There are also administrators that feel obliged to act in the interest of their specific ethnic group. This

11 ‘Blatte’ is considered a pejorative expression of someone who is, looks like or acts like an immigrant or someone one with other ethnic background than Swedish.

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seems to correlate with the characteristics of this group, its position in the local community, and the interests that they might have at the moment. And of course dependent on how strong the sole administrator identify him or herself with the group. Generally the administrators consider their actions being in the favor of not one certain ethnic group, but rather the immigrant group at large. The ethnocrats feel that these actions are natural consequences of their professional obligations. The non-ethnocrat administrators refer to their moral obligation and personal interests, answering why they act in accordance with immigrants interests.

Acting for what?

So in what ways do ethnic minority administrators act for certain groups and interests in their line of duty that other fellow administrators do not? First we might ask what an “interest” is and what the administrator actively must do to represent it? Is it when the administrators do what the majority of “their” group wants or does active representation occur when administrators promote the “real interests” of their group regardless of what group members wants? (Thompson, 1976). This dilemma has been solved by letting the administrators themselves identify and define what interests they feel that they are acting for. Addressing the question of how to define the perceptions of “interests” of ethnic minorities it is obvious that there is a separation between the problem of bias as handing “personal favors” and the matter of “immigrants interests”. Some of the administrators have in the capacity of persons that through their personal contacts or networks in earlier occupations considerable connections with members of ethnic minority groups. For many citizens they are the natural informant of bureaucratic and administrative procedures helping individuals with their daily matters with the public sector. But reflecting over this as creating opportunities for minority groups and not other citizens in terms of “bias” or “partiality”, they describe this as rather a reaction of responsiveness to poorly informed citizens. Consequently, they perceive that their actions are creating equal opportunities for all. To give a structure to the combination of the different actions I have sorted the examples mentioned in the interviews in three categories of “ways acting in the interests of ethnic minority groups”: 1. Anti-discriminatory actions, 2. Acting for recognition 3. Acting for redistribution. The results are of course not related to how the administrators in fact act, but to the way they perceive their actions giving us clues for future research focus. 1. Anti-discriminatory actions The desire to change the negative view of immigrants among the Swedish community and the municipal organizations runs like a spark through the interviews;

First and foremost I act in capacity of an immigrant. Secondly as an administrator. The ambition to change the image of immigrants lies within me somehow, that is something I am very eager to do of course. It is a part of me to try and change the negative focus on immigrants and to try to create something positive. It is my driving force (int5)

This should be described as the main immigrant interest defined by the administrators; fighting against stereotypical, discriminating and racist standpoints within the

15

community, organization and in the outputs of administrative and political decisions. Acting against intolerance and negative attitudes toward ethnic minorities the mission of the administrators is to change policies within the local government in favor of an anti-discriminatory practice. This action is in fact a proactive action in order to prevent problems of this sort in the activities of the government. 2. Acting for recognition Public policies toward ethnic minorities creates and shapes its own logic of immigrant identity and interests not always correlated to what the minorities feel or want (Soininen and Etzler, 2006:20). One argument for the politics of presence is consequently the right of under-represented groups to define what their identity is and what lies within their interests. It is the political recognition of the ethnic minorities and the matters related to them that is what the administrators define as one of the interests behind their actions. Related to each administrators field of business and ethnic identity it is observed that the specific issues might vary. One dimension is the recognition of the identity that specific groups have in the community. This is much related to the discussions of “politics of recognition” (Taylor and Gutmann, 1992). The other dimension of “recognition” is here uses as the “power of definition”, of not only identities but also the problems and interests of minorities. Recognition in these terms can be an ethnic minority administrator investing the primary schools in the municipality might pay extra attention to matters of home language. Or an information secretary might find it relevant to spread information to the citizens in other language than Swedish, or influence the organization to create policies of a multi-language website depending on the composition of the ethnic minority groups. An ethnocrat might be able to nuance the over-representation of immigrants in the criminal statistics, analyzing the reason behind the crimes to be socioeconomic issues rather than ethnic or “cultural”. This quote from one of the ethnocrat respondents highlights the importance of the power of definition;

In our work we never say that immigrants are this and that. The problem is not that the immigrants can not speak the language nor that they do not know about the Swedish culture. The problem is that the majority creates obstacles that shuts the immigrants out. It is not the minority that should be changed, it is the majority. In this way we change the perspective on the questions of integration. (Int1)

The matters of recognition are more symbolic than redistributive, they do not necessary lead to actions more than redefinitions and different forms of proactive analysis. The ethnic minority administrators are agitators in the sense of being the ones challenging prevailing definitions and misrecognitions of what the ethnic minority groups are and what they might, or might not want. Making the minority identities and interests more than a mirror for the notion and interest of the majority; and with their position, reach and knowledge of the bureaucratic engine and the logic of the organizations they differ from politicians and citizens. They might be of more value representing ethnic minority interests in local politics. 3. Acting for redistribution

16

The ethnic minority administrators tell different stories about the un-responsiveness of the redistribution of resources and the production of services related to the demands and needs that the ethnic minority populations have in the municipalities. In order to turn this unbalance right they perceive their role being the bridge builder between the responsible actors in the municipal organization and spokesmen of the ethnic minorities. The demands and needs can be categorized in the four categories mentioned earlier: 1)Policies relevant for the ethnic group, 2) Introduction policies, 3)Policies relevant for the social category of the ethnic group and 4) Social exclusion. Some examples mentioned in the interviews are multicultural perspectives in education, home-language education, language and cultural issues in elder care, different aspects of religious and cultural issues such as means for building mosques, churches etc. The support to ethnic associations for different forms of activities is one of the main interests manifested in the municipalities. It should also be added the more comprehensive issues of social exclusion; political participation, crime prevention, poverty reduction etcetera.

They do not shape the activities good enough with regard to the needs and the ideas that the immigrant groups’ have. They are shaped seen from other conditions. Would the immigrants themselves to a greater extent participate and influence the activities that are directed to them (…) I think it would be better. On the whole the municipal and public sector should to a higher extent be adjusted to the specific target groups. (Int5)

It is important to add that these actions are more than symbolic. To be redistributive they need to involve more than words and symbolic actions. Redistributive measures involve resource allocations and the production of services aimed towards matters of minorities, depending on the needs and demands present in the community. Therefore, distributive actions are reactive, solving problems when being identified.

The problem of responsiveness

If the minority administrators are supposed to be representatives of ethnic minorities in the public administration, the creation of responsiveness is the key variable. The administrators can in their positions be responsive to the interest of ethnic minorities, but this means nothing more than the actions of the sole administrator. The other way of creating responsiveness is to change the behavior of the system, in this case the local government, resulting in policy-actions. These two dimensions of responsiveness, the administrator and the system, is noteworthy. The theory of representative bureaucracy suggests that the actions of the minority administrators are more responsive to the interest of minorities than other administrators’. The findings in the study imply that administrators can act in a both proactive and reactive way to represent the interests of minorities. They can perceive them selves as responsive to the demands and needs of ethnic minority groups giving three different reasons: a) Identity: they are members of the ethnic minority community having personal experiences “being” an immigrant which affects their opinions and attitudes

I believe that with the specific cultural background that we have, we can understand and contribute to these questions better than those with a pure Swedish perspective. No doubt about it. I don’t

17

find that odd. In that sense you are in some kind of a representative, regarding what you know. We have another understanding. (Int2)

b) Experience: they have professional experiences working with minorities or with ethnic related issues, giving them heads up on what the problems and solutions might be. And c) Ambition: due to the reasons above and the fact that they are keen on the ethnic issues they have developed contacts with ethnic minority associations and have therefore a lot of inputs on relevant matters. It is not rare that they even assist and participate in the establishment of associations creating forums for the minority groups. Another issue is however to make the political system, meaning other administrators and politicians responsive. One way is of course to influence the policy-processes with their own attitudes and opinions since they are “standing for” ethnic minorities. Another way is the creating of different forums for interaction, like “immigrant councils” and “integration forum”, where representatives of local minority associations and political and administrative representatives from the municipality have the opportunity to regularly meet and create a dialogue. The organizing of these forums often lies within the interest of the minority administrators, especially the ethnocrats, since it increases the participation of minority groups in the local political processes. These are actions creating responsiveness in both proactive and reactive ways. Toward a model for representative actions

In different ways the administrators participate in the creation and implementation of the policies directed or relevant to immigrants in the local government, on the hole keeping it alive on the agenda. Within the municipal administration they can be agitators of the ethnic interests acting proactively for anti-discrimination and recognition, and reactively for redistribution. The actions of the ethnic minority administrators can be sole actions in their line of duty, ethnocrats and others, affecting their own responsibilities along with an ethnic interest. The actions can also be directed towards the policy-outputs, directing the decisions of the local government in line with the interests of ethnic minorities. Sorting these actions, this paper suggests the following model. This scheme can help us define the ways that ethnic minority administrators “act for” ethnic minorities in the public administration. Responsiveness to the ethnic minority interest is the main ingredient in the representative role, assuring representation between the minority interests and the administrative behavior of the sole administrators, and the policy-outputs of local government.

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Table 3. A scheme over different categories of actions taken by ethnic minority administrators and local governments in favor of ethnic minority interests.

Responsiveness

Conclusions: servants with a cause

This paper was aiming to answer the question whether ethnic minority administrators perceive themselves as representatives of an ethnic group or interest, and in what way they perceive that this representation can be manifested in their duties? To sum up the results, it can be concluded that ethnic minority administrators in the Swedish municipal administration do perceive themselves as representatives. But it differs. Mainly the administrators feel that they are acting for and standing for ethnic minority groups in different aspects. Some administrators express an ambition of acting for immigrants, but this might not only be a consequence of their ethnic background. This study has identified the ethnocrats as professional representatives of the ethnic “cause” in the public administration. The ethnocrats main administrative task is to implement diversity and equality policies, being responsible for the ethnic and integration units and policies within the organization. The ethnocrat does not necessarily need to have other ethnic background than Swedish, but the probability of finding immigrants within the chief administrative positions is high in the ethnocrat positions. To symbolically stand for the immigrant group at large is not always in the interest of the single administrator, implying the burden of being a representative. The unrepresentative public administrations might have a tendency of creating alibis and stigmatizing the minority administrators as the immigrants of the organization. This passive representation can be expected, although, to have some spill-over-effects in the organizations whether the sole administrators are intentionally acting for a certain groups interest or not. These effects should not be underestimated in the analysis of the effects that the presence might have on the activities of local government. Generally the administrators consider their actions being in the interest of not one certain ethnic group, but rather the immigrant group at large. There are also administrators that

Actions

Minority

administrator

Local

government

Proactive

Anti-discriminatory Actions / Actions for

recognition

Anti-discriminatory policies / Politics of

recognition

Reactive

Actions for redistribution

Politics of redistribution

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feel obliged to act in the interest of their specific ethnic group. This seems to correlate with the characteristics of this group, its position in the local community, and the interests that they might have at the moment. The actions of representation can be proactive, regarding anti-discrimination and recognition, or reactive regarding redistribution. The ethnic minority administrators can act sole in their line of duty affecting their own responsibilities along with an ethnic interest. Or their actions can be directed towards the policy-outputs, directing the decisions of the local government in line with the interests of ethnic minorities. The actions are in different ways perceived to be responsive to the interest of the minority communities, either if the sole administrators uses their personal and professional experience or if they create different forums for the interaction between minorities and actors government actors. The factors that might increase responsiveness to the ethnic minority community can be the identity, experience and/or the ambitions of the administrators. Proponents of a representative bureaucracy emphasize the arguments of justice, experience and interest while describing the need for the representation of ethnic groups in the public administration. As it has been observed, so do the ethnic minority administrators themselves. As public servants they perceive themselves being representative of an ethnic cause related to all immigrant groups, acting and sometimes even struggling to achieve justice and responsiveness in the activities of the public administration. To what extent this representation has a substantive effect on local government activities and policy outputs is a question for future research, now that we know that even servants have a cause.

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Appendix

Method

The method used in this study is long qualitative interviews with a semi-structured design giving each respondent freedom to openly express themselves in matters that they find relevant for the questions. Qualitative long interviewing is a suitable method for studies such as this, where there is need to explore “the mental world of the individual” (McCracken, 1988:16). The aim is to find out what we are talking about, concerning administrators that might or might not represent the interests of certain groups in society. Also the interviews might give me inputs and ideas for further studies and questions. The interviews that lasted between 60-120 minutes were recorded and transcribed before analysis, and the talks were led by an interview guide with themes to direct them. Except for the questions focused on here, questions were asked about the respondents perception of the administrative role in the municipal government, their discretion and potential to have influence on the politicians and other administrators, how they reflect about their ethnic background and identity and their general attitudes and beliefs on immigrant related political issues. Each administrator was promised total anonymity and it is believed the answers were frank and open-hearted. The selection of administrators was guided by two main principles. The first was to concentrate on municipal societies where the ethnic issues were “hot”, in that they have had or have situations relevant for immigrant related issues, such as how political demands from immigrants have been raised and discussed or if nationalistic parties have won success in the elections 2006. The administrators were then found through a snowball sampling method, which basically means that the respondents were found and chosen based on the referring of different officials in the municipalities. The most important principle however, was to get a wide distribution of factors relevant for the administrators such as gender, specific ethnic background, age, the size of the municipality and administrative rank. The focus has been on senior officials in the sample, letting the rule slide only if the referring is directed by someone to someone else that they find relevant for the questions. In that order there is also a few street-level bureaucrats12 in the sample.

12 See the list of respondents in the appendix.

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List over respondents

Nr Title

Kommun Gender Born in Year of

birth

1 Planeringsledare,stadskansli Storstad Etnokrat Man Iran (armenier) 1961

2 Kvalitetschef, stadskansli Mellanstor stad

Byråkrat Man Iran 1961

3 Integrationskonsulent, Social & arbetsmarkn.förv.

Mellanstor stad

Gräsrots-etnokrat

Man Jordanien (armenier)

1951

4 Kommunstrateg /integration, stadshuset

Mellanstor stad

Etnokrat Man Serbien 1960

5 Kommunchef Mellanstor stad

Byråkrat Man Chile 1962

6 Informatör, fd.etnokrat Stadskansli

Storstad Gräsrot Woman Turkiet (assyrier/syrian)

1972

7 Chef, demokrati & integration avdelning. stadshus

Storstad Etnokrat Man Chile 1972

8

Handläggare, kultur och integrationsförvaltning

Storstad Woman Kvinna Ungern (bott i sverige i 3 år)

1957

22

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