ABSTRACT
Nordic countries have been for a long time hailed as exceptional and exemplary tolerant societies in terms of how they deal with issues of social exclusion, deviance, crime, and disorder. For much of the post-war period, their generous welfare states and high levels of social solidarity have been seen as an antidote to the more exclusionary and punitive neoliberal social orders in countries such as the UK and the US (Pratt and Eriksson 2012). This chapter aims to modify this perception. By answering this book’s call to look for specifically Nordic traditions of hospitality, it argues that, when it comes to global migration, Nordic societies have opted for a growing reliance on the use of penal power to control and restrict migration. Institutions such as prisons, the police, and criminal courts are increasingly used to regulate migratory flows and make these societies appear less hospitable for unwanted migrants. These developments have been accompanied by a heated public debate on immigration and growing social and political divisions.
