The drastic increase of refugees from wartorn areas in the world has put Swedish society to the test when it comes to arranging safe and decent living space for asylum seekers and people with resident permits. In Östersund, a municipality with 58 000 inhabitants, the municipal housing agency decided to construct 100 small cabins (25 m2) on temporary building permits to house these newcomers. The cabins were built across the urban area as well as in the outskirts of Östersund, in close connection to established housing areas, both apartment houses and detached areas. In some of these areas, the establishment of these houses led to protests, with claims that parks were destroyed, housing prices would fall, and local residents would fear firebombs and vandalism. However, protests did not come up in all areas located close to the cabins which created an interesting puzzle. This raises questions about whether protests can be linked to xenophobic views among local residents or to the Nimby (Not In My Back Yard) phenomenon, when residents are not opposed to developments, only just not in their immediate vicinity.
This presentation focuses the experiences of local residents in areas where cabins for refugees have been built, and draws on both a quantitative survey and follow up interviews with respondents from the quantitative survey. In the survey respondents, those living close to areas where the cabins where built, were invited to answer questions on their opinions on the cabins, questions about their political views on immigration, as well as a number of general background questions. As the cabins are built in residential areas of different character, one of our main questions was to see whether there were socio economic determinants connected to the respondents’ opinions on immigration in general and on the cabins in particular.