An efficacious remedy for status inequality? Indigenous policies in Norway and Sweden

Figures & data

Table 1. Participation numbers by country and survey stage.

	Norway	Sweden
Available telephone numbers	17,096	22,073
Individuals reached via telephone	11,135 (65.13%)	6265 (28.38%)
Participants telephone interview	2396 (21.52%)	3020 (48.20%)
Participants questionnaire	502 (20.95%)	918 (30.40%)

Note: Percentages in parentheses relate to the preceding row.

Table 2. Descriptive statistics of dependent and control variables.

		Norway		Sweden
		Sámi self-identification
		Yes	No	Yes	No
Individual socioeconomic status perception(10-point scale)^2	Mean	6.20	6.03	5.57	5.93
	n	114	317	91	717
Sámi’s sociocultural status perception (10-point scale)^2	Mean	6.01	6.56	5.18	6.34
	n	117	310	91	694
Other minority roots: Yes (base level: No)^1	Ratio	36.26%	37.19%	27.14%	39.98%
	n, total	524	1839	350	2579
Household income decile (10-point scale)^1	Mean	6.41	6.49	4.88	5.05
	n	439	1532	299	2221
Education level (5-point scale)^2	Mean	3.46	3.47	2.84	2.91
	n	119	321	92	720
Welfare benefits: Yes (base level: No)^2	Ratio	31.09%	31.33%	1.09%	1.81%
	n, total	119	316	92	718
Fairness wealth distribution (10-point scale)^2	Mean	5.74	5.76	3.56	3.99
	n	119	324	87	693
Financial situation: Positive (base level: Negative)^1	Ratio	95.58%	96.83%	92.26%	94.74%
	n, total	497	1832	349	2565
Left-right self-placement (10-point scale)^2	Mean	4.58	4.70	4.63	4.76
	n	108	305	90	686
Satisfaction with democracy (10-point scale)^2	Mean	6.29	6.53	5.30	5.77
	n	120	321	93	725
Gender: Male (base level: Female)^1	Ratio	51.81%	44.99%	42.36%	45.73%
	n, total	272	1845	147	2589
Age^1	Mean	52.34	54.91	52.83	53.56
	N	524	1845	350	2604
Household size^1	Mean	2.61	2.53	2.53	2.35
	n	525	1845	342	2508

¹ Variables based on survey items from telephone interview.

² Variables based on survey items from questionnaire.

Table 3. Linear regression on perceptions of individual socioeconomic status.

	(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)	(5)	(6)
	Norway	Norway	Norway	Sweden	Sweden	Sweden
Sámi identity	0.2353*	0.2331^†	0.1933^†	–0.4526*	–0.4041*	–0.4349**
	(0.1050)	(0.1110)	(0.1057)	(0.1579)	(0.1203)	(0.0908)
Minority roots		–0.0233	–0.0384		0.1063	0.1036
		(0.1311)	(0.1340)		(0.1750)	(0.1436)
Household income decile		0.1851***	0.1598***		0.1114***	0.0855***
		(0.0243)	(0.0272)		(0.0151)	(0.0094)
Education level (Base level: Not exceeding compulsory education)
Upper secondary		0.3465	0.2810		0.6307***	0.2728
		(0.2889)	(0.2609)		(0.0860)	(0.2057)
Advanced vocational		0.6826^†	0.6178		0.9106***	0.5419*
		(0.3770)	(0.3529)		(0.1218)	(0.1938)
Bachelor's-degree		1.1183**	0.9200**		1.2137***	0.7812**
		(0.2904)	(0.2920)		(0.0734)	(0.1685)
Master's-degree or higher		1.8457***	1.5506***		1.6644***	1.2283**
		(0.2351)	(0.2428)		(0.1518)	(0.2066)
Welfare benefits: Yes		–0.6371***	–0.4551***		–1.4621*	–0.9619
		(0.0775)	(0.0823)		(0.4653)	(0.4954)
Fairness wealth distribution			0.1815***			0.0319
			(0.0253)			(0.0394)
Financial situation: Positive			0.7307^†			1.4715**
			(0.3495)			(0.3472)
Political left-right self-placement			–0.0236			0.0450^†
			(0.0282)			(0.0194)
Satisfaction with democracy			0.0495^†			0.0889*
			(0.0245)			(0.0221)
Gender: Male		–0.4309***	–0.3356*		0.3500*	0.2693^†
		(0.0961)	(0.1130)		(0.1192)	(0.1109)
Age		0.0112*	0.0123*		0.0069^†	0.0034
		(0.0044)	(0.0056)		(0.0031)	(0.0033)
Household size		0.0117	0.0166		0.0720	0.0989
		(0.0308)	(0.0253)		(0.0495)	(0.0498)
Constant	5.9869***	3.5085***	1.7210**	6.0000***	3.7939***	2.1954**
	(0.0855)	(0.3635)	(0.5235)	(0.1035)	(0.2444)	(0.4246)
Observations	401	392	369	673	661	610
R^2	0.0037	0.3763	0.4327	0.0094	0.2112	0.2895

Note: Standard errors in parentheses clustered on municipal-level; ^†p < 0.1, *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001.

Table 4. Linear regression on perceptions of Sámi’s sociocultural status.

	(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)	(5)	(6)
	Norway	Norway	Norway	Sweden	Sweden	Sweden
Sámi identity	–0.4604	–0.3670	–0.3169	–1.1037*	–1.0378*	–0.8529*
	(0.2673)	(0.2368)	(0.2804)	(0.2757)	(0.2714)	(0.3315)
Minority roots		0.4144*	0.4482**		0.5301**	0.4214*
		(0.1437)	(0.1356)		(0.1139)	(0.1362)
Household income decile		0.0769	0.0681		0.0307	0.0324
		(0.0445)	(0.0496)		(0.0271)	(0.0224)
Education level (Base level: Not exceeding compulsory education)
Upper secondary		0.3469	0.2703		0.6903	0.7509
		(0.4124)	(0.3930)		(0.4171)	(0.5022)
Advanced vocational		0.7317*	0.6793^†		0.8719	0.7471
		(0.2704)	(0.3315)		(0.4708)	(0.5227)
Bachelor's degree		0.4218	0.2489		0.6701	0.7042
		(0.3206)	(0.3213)		(0.4878)	(0.5946)
Master's-degree or higher		0.7104^†	0.3504		0.3014	0.3123
		(0.3709)	(0.3887)		(0.6513)	(0.6795)
Welfare benefits: Yes		0.2263	0.4150^†		0.2543	0.6022
		(0.2080)	(0.2096)		(0.9987)	(1.0743)
Fairness wealth distribution			0.2152**			–0.0153
			(0.0580)			(0.0576)
Financial situation: Positive			–0.1240			0.1150
			(0.8293)			(0.3433)
Political left-right self-placement			0.0040			0.1267*
			(0.0441)			(0.0366)
Satisfaction with democracy			0.0077			0.0695
			(0.0532)			(0.0804)
Gender: Male		0.0885	0.2563*		0.1477	0.0832
		(0.1073)	(0.1015)		(0.0850)	(0.0685)
Age		0.0211^†	0.0225*		0.0166*	0.0186**
		(0.0101)	(0.0095)		(0.0049)	(0.0027)
Household size		0.0315	0.0227		0.1486*	0.1344*
		(0.0355)	(0.0440)		(0.0570)	(0.0579)
Constant	6.5114***	3.9693***	2.8288**	6.3370***	4.0131***	2.9094**
	(0.1875)	(0.5443)	(0.8981)	(0.1230)	(0.3014)	(0.4477)
Observations	397	388	366	654	643	600
R^2	0.0103	0.0597	0.1055	0.0292	0.0769	0.0921

Note: Standard errors in parentheses clustered on municipal level; ^†p < 0.1, *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001.

Table A1. Survey municipalities’ adult population share thereof registered with Sámi Parliament electoral roll in 2017.

Municipality	Adult population	Sámi Parliament electoral roll share
Norway, total	37,767	20.9%
Alta	15,458	8.5%
Deatnu – Tana	2396	36.1%
Divtasvuodna – Tysfjord	1623	17.5%
Gáivuotna – Kåfjord – Kaivuono	1774	20.7%
Guovdageaidnu – Kautokeino	2290	68.6%
Kárásjohka – Karasjok	2175	64.0%
Kvænangen	1014	12.3%
Kvalsund	862	17.3%
Lebesby	1076	16.0%
Loabák – Lavangen	829	12.3%
Lyngen	2342	9.4%
Porsanger – Porsángu – Porsanki	3245	23.8%
Raarvihke – Røyrvik	382	10.2%
Storfjord - Omasvuotna – Omasvuono	1523	9.9%
Unjárga – Nesseby	778	47.3%
Sweden, total	32,205	9.1%
Arjeplog	2364	10.9%
Jokkmokk	4257	15.5%
Kiruna	18,637	7.5%
Sorsele	2068	9.8%
Storuman	4879	8.3%

Note: Norwegian municipalities’ classification as of 2017.

Sources: Sámediggi (Norway); Sámediggi (Sweden); Statistics Norway; Statistics Sweden; own calculations.

Table A2. Participation in survey stages by country.

	Norway	Sweden
Telephone interview	2396	3020
Questionnaire	502 (21.0%)	918 (30.4%)

Note: Response rates in parentheses refer to the percentage of respondents from the preceding stage who continued participating.

Table A3. Online survey answering time and dropout rate by country and questionnaire version.

	Norway		Sweden
	Standard	Extended	Standard	Extended
Median duration (minutes) for completed questionnaires	22	25	20	24
Dropout rate	13.4%	14.5%	11.0%	12.0%

Table A4. List of variables and operationalization.

Variable name	Original survey question wording and operationalization
Individual social status perception	Imagine a ladder with 10 rungs. At the top of the ladder (10th rung) are the people who are the best off, those who have the most money, most education, and best jobs. At the bottom (1st rung) are the people who are the worst off, those who have the least money, least education, worst jobs, or no job. Please choose the rung that best represents where you think you stand on the ladder
	The answer was recorded on a ten-point scale ranging from 1 = the lowest rung to 10 = the highest rung
Collective social status perception	Now please think about different groups in society, imagining the same ladder as before. At the top of the ladder (10th rung) are the groups for which the overall society shows the most appreciation and whose cultural traditions and norms are the most accepted. At the bottom (1st rung) are the groups for which the overall society shows the least appreciation and whose cultural traditions and norms are the most rejected. Please choose the rung that best represents how much each of the following ethnic groups is appreciated in society as a whole: Norwegians/Swedes – Sámi – Kven/Swedish Finns
	Tornedalians [only asked in Sweden] – Immigrants
	Respondents could answer on a ten-point scale for each of these groups. The variable at hand is exclusively concerned with answers given about the Sámi. Again, it is recorded on a ten-point scale ranging from 1 = the lowest rung to 10 = the highest rung
Sámi identity	Overall, do you consider yourself to be Sámi?
	The variable takes on value 0 = majority of respondents answered in the negative. If they answered in the affirmative, the variable takes on value 1 = Sámi
Minority roots	People of different ethnic backgrounds live in Northern [Norway/Sweden]. Could you please tell me if you have an ethnic background from one or several of the following groups?
	The variable is coded 1 = yes if respondents chose any of the following categories: [Kven/Swedish Finn] Tornedalian [only available in Sweden] Immigrant Other minority The variable is coded 0 = no if respondents chose none of the categories above
Household income decile	This variable is based on two survey questions:
	What is your household's monthly net income? Counting all wages, salaries, other sources of income, and benefits of all members of the household, after taxes and deductions, please state an approximate value
	If you prefer, could you select one of the categories where your household's monthly net income falls?
	Respondents could only answer one of these questions. The minimum valid value for answers given to (a) was 1000 NOK and 1000 SEK, respectively. For question (b) answer categories follow, in essence, the national household income deciles of 2018 published by Statistics Norway and Statistics Sweden
	For constructing this variable, answers from (a) are classified according to which decile of (b) they pertain
	The income categories thus are as follows:
	Decile	Upper and lower bounds
		Norway (NOK)	Sweden (SEK)
	1st	1,000–256,000	1,000–185,000
	2nd	256,001–351,000	185,001–279,000
	3rd	351,001–452,000	279,001–350,000
	4th	452,001–551,000	350,001–431,000
	5th	551,001–666,000	431,001–513,000
	6th	666,001–813,000	513,001–589,000
	7th	813,001–986,000	589,001–670,000
	8th	986,001–1194,000	670,001–780,000
	9th	1194,001–1526,000	780,001–971,000
	10th	more than 1526,000	more than 971,000
Education level	What is the highest educational level you have attained?
	Respondents were given six levels as answer categories and country-specific examples for each
	Very few respondents chose the first category (no completed compulsory education). Therefore, I recoded the answer categories as follows:
	1 = No completed compulsory education or completed compulsory education
	2 = upper secondary education
	3 = Advanced vocational education / tertiary education without academic degree
	4 = Lower tertiary education (BA level)
	5 = Upper tertiary education (MA level or higher)
Welfare benefits	During the last five years, have you been dependent on social security at any time?
	Binary variable: 0 = no; 1 = yes
Fairness wealth distribution	In terms of fairness, how do you evaluate the distribution of wealth in [Norway/Sweden]?
	The answer was recorded on a ten-point scale ranging from 1 = completely unfair to 10 = completely fair
Financial situation	How well do you cope with your current financial situation?
	In the survey, respondents could choose one of four answer categories (not good at all; not so good; good; very good). For the purpose of this paper, the categories were aggregated into a binary variable:
	0 = negative (not good at all & not so good)
	1 = positive (good & very good)
Political left-right self-placement	In political matters, people talk of “the left” and “the right”. How would you place your views on this scale, generally speaking?
	The answer was recorded on a ten-point scale ranging from 1 = left to 10 = right.
Satisfaction with democracy	How satisfied are you with the state of democracy in [Norway/Sweden]?
	The answer was recorded on a ten-point scale ranging from 1 = completely dissatisfied to 10 = completely satisfied
Gender	What is your gender?
	In the survey, respondents could choose between three answer categories (female; male; diverse)
	Only one of the respondents choosing diverse subsequently filled out the questionnaire. However, they did not answer all of the other questions that are components of the analysis. Hence, this variable is practically also binary in this case: 1 = female; 2 = male
Age	Which year were you born in?
	I calculated the respondent’s approximate age by subtracting the reported year of birth from 2021 (the year in which the survey was conducted)
Household size	Including yourself, how many people – counting all adults and children – live in your household?
	Numerical variable, valid range: 1–10

Table A5. Variable means and ratios by respondents’ choice to proceed after interview.

	Norway		Sweden
	Proceeded	Not proceeded	Proceeded	Not proceeded
Sámi identity: Yes	26.7%	20.9%	11.9%	11.7%
Minority roots: Yes	40.3%	36.2%	41.1%	37.3%
Household income decile	6.76	6.38	5.45	4.82
Gender: Female	52.8%	53.4%	56.3%	53.8%
Age	53.17	54.67	52.14	54.04
Household size	2.64	2.52	2.40	2.36

Table A6. Logistic regression on proceeding after telephone interview (odds ratios).

	Norway	Sweden
Sámi identity	1.3509**	1.0098
	(0.2050)	(0.0565)
Minority roots	1.1856*	1.0700
	(0.1225)	(0.0697)
Household income decile	1.0517***	1.0758***
	(0.0182)	(0.0114)
Gender: Male	1.1240**	0.8492
	(0.0539)	(0.1086)
Age	0.9976	1.0012
	(0.0058)	(0.0028)
Household size	1.0108	0.9804
	(0.0281)	(0.0205)
Constant	0.2007***	0.3926***
	(0.0568)	(0.0367)
Observations	1964	2079
Pseudo R^2	0.0082	0.0105

Note: Standard errors in parentheses clustered on municipal level; ^†p < 0.1, *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001.

Table A7. Ordered logistic regression on perceptions of subjective social status (odds ratios).

	Individual socioeconomic status		Sámi’s sociocultural status
	Norway	Sweden	Norway	Sweden
Sámi identity	1.3382^†	0.6176***	0.7493	0.4245*
	(0.2196)	(0.0848)	(0.1844)	(0.1428)
Minority roots	1.0096	1.1739	1.5450***	1.4439**
	(0.1842)	(0.2432)	(0.1826)	(0.1830)
Household income decile	1.2688***	1.1253***	1.0628	1.0376^†
	(0.0576)	(0.0212)	(0.0557)	(0.0198)
Education level (Base level: Not exceeding compulsory education)
Upper secondary	1.1578	1.4202	1.4596	1.8612
	(0.4719)	(0.3559)	(0.5552)	(0.9014)
Advanced vocational	2.0589	1.9961**	2.1151*	2.0102
	(1.1002)	(0.4838)	(0.7577)	(0.9671)
Bachelor's-degree	3.0230*	3.0160***	1.3962	1.8064
	(1.3525)	(0.8305)	(0.4133)	(0.9830)
Master's-degree or higher	8.1987***	5.6869***	1.6571	1.2622
	(3.1017)	(1.6360)	(0.6384)	(0.7913)
Welfare benefits: Yes	0.5549***	0.2491^†	1.6433**	1.6342
	(0.0661)	(0.1889)	(0.2596)	(1.4566)
Fairness wealth distribution	1.3475***	1.0692	1.2205**	0.9920
	(0.0538)	(0.0658)	(0.0743)	(0.0460)
Financial situation: Positive	3.0337*	6.8921***	0.7245	1.1479
	(1.6763)	(3.7429)	(0.4880)	(0.3061)
Political left-right self-placement	0.9709	1.0660*	1.0120	1.1168**
	(0.0341)	(0.0299)	(0.0412)	(0.0381)
Satisfaction with democracy	1.1118**	1.1258***	1.0309	1.0537
	(0.0433)	(0.0386)	(0.0541)	(0.0758)
Gender: Male	0.6070**	1.4669*	1.2208^†	1.1119
	(0.0957)	(0.2597)	(0.1253)	(0.0778)
Age	1.0159*	1.0050	1.0231*	1.0171***
	(0.0071)	(0.0041)	(0.0105)	(0.0022)
Household size	0.9997	1.1410*	1.0202	1.1192**
	(0.0358)	(0.0665)	(0.0455)	(0.0482)
Observations	369	610	366	600
Pseudo R^2	0.1469	0.0843	0.0291	0.0252

Note: Standard errors in parentheses clustered on municipal-level; ^†p < 0.1, *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001.

Table A8. Linear regression with alternative independent variable operationalization.

	Individual socioeconomic status		Sámi’s sociocultural status
	Norway	Sweden	Norway	Sweden
Sámi identity	0.0250	–0.1296	–0.1229	–0.4796
	(0.1085)	(0.1167)	(0.2184)	(0.2995)
Minority roots	–0.0014	0.1162	0.5029*	0.4986*
	(0.1400)	(0.1579)	(0.2076)	(0.1369)
Household income decile	0.1617***	0.0880***	0.0701	0.0360
	(0.0276)	(0.0099)	(0.0476)	(0.0244)
Education level (Base level: Not exceeding compulsory education)
Upper secondary	0.3503	0.2481	0.5670	0.7299
	(0.2192)	(0.1989)	(0.4062)	(0.5135)
Advanced vocational	0.7082*	0.5342*	0.9327*	0.7135
	(0.2834)	(0.2041)	(0.4013)	(0.5340)
Bachelor's-degree	1.0106**	0.7541**	0.5239	0.6324
	(0.2521)	(0.1729)	(0.3725)	(0.5978)
Master's-degree or higher	1.6213***	1.2077**	0.6025	0.2577
	(0.2095)	(0.2017)	(0.4612)	(0.6933)
Welfare benefits: Yes	–0.4488***	–0.9346	0.4655*	0.7499
	(0.0823)	(0.4959)	(0.2136)	(1.1217)
Fairness wealth distribution	0.1886***	0.0336	0.2276**	–0.0130
	(0.0262)	(0.0377)	(0.0554)	(0.0552)
Financial situation: Positive	0.9160*	1.5262**	0.1011	0.1672
	(0.3241)	(0.3084)	(0.8098)	(0.3582)
Political left-right self-placement	–0.0214	0.0472^†	–0.0001	0.1369*
	(0.0280)	(0.0187)	(0.0443)	(0.0398)
Satisfaction with democracy	0.0505^†	0.0924**	0.0192	0.0714
	(0.0258)	(0.0222)	(0.0557)	(0.0817)
Gender: Male	–0.2959*	0.2737*	0.2726*	0.0900
	(0.1102)	(0.1033)	(0.0964)	(0.0778)
Age	0.0107^†	0.0037	0.0235*	0.0195***
	(0.0054)	(0.0035)	(0.0098)	(0.0026)
Household size	0.0160	0.0960^†	0.0185	0.1413^†
	(0.0252)	(0.0393)	(0.0409)	(0.0640)
Constant	1.4821*	2.0837**	2.0839*	2.7542**
	(0.5001)	(0.4393)	(0.9682)	(0.4737)
Observations	371	617	368	606
R^2	0.4436	0.2903	0.1136	0.0907

Note: Standard errors in parentheses clustered on municipal-level; ^†p < 0.1, *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001.