Vennskap News: There's Trouble in Sweden

There’s trouble in Sweden!

There is an old saying that “There’s trouble in Denmark”, but this time, the troubles are in Sweden.

Sweden is a sparsely populated country, characterized by its long coastline, extensive forests, numerous lakes and one of the world’s northernmost countries. Due to Sweden having arguably the highest standard of living in the world, this Scandinavian country offers residents a good life — from the cradle to the grave.

So, what could be the problem? Sweden has been transformed from a nation of moderate emigration of World War I survivors to being flooded later from people displaced after World War II. In 2009, emigration reached its highest level since records began, with 102,280 people migrating to Sweden.

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Sweden has probably the most generous immigration, asylum and welfare policies in the world. Sweden's healthcare system is socialized and every resident of the country has access to a universal healthcare program mostly supported through regional and local taxes. It is government funded, and will provide care to anyone who needs it regardless of their ability to pay. Education is free from six years of age to university age, and most health care and pension benefits are paid for by employer and income taxes.The country had a reputation for generosity and an especially welcoming attitude, but now something is clearly going wrong.

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The difficulty is that Sweden has always been perceived as a high-spending country, with generous provisions for education and social help and that’s where the problems begin! In a country with a reputation for openness, tolerance and a model welfare state, rioting has exposed a fault-line between a well-off majority and a minority who are often young people with immigrant backgrounds , who are poorly educated, cannot find work and feel pushed to the edge of society. Swedish youth unemployment stands at 25.1 percent, about triple the level of overall joblessness, and much of that youth unemployment is concentrated around immigrants.

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Youth unemployment is especially high in immigrant neighborhoods, and unemployed youth are rebelling. A spree of destruction has seen masked youths vandalize schools, libraries and police stations, setting cars alight and hurling stones at police and firefighters.

It was sparked by the fatal police shooting earlier this month of a 69-year man, reported by local media to be a Portuguese immigrant suspected of wielding a large knife in a Stockholm suburb of Husby.

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More than 80% of the 12,000 inhabitants in Husby are from an immigrant background, and most are from Turkey, the Middle East and Somalia.One recent government study showed up to a third of young people aged 16 to 29 in some of the most deprived areas of Sweden's big cities neither study nor have a job. Police in Stockholm called in
reinforcements after youths set cars and a school ablaze in a fifth night of rioting, the worst to hit Sweden for years.

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While Thursday was slightly calmer than the four nights before, about 30 cars were torched and eight people, mostly in their early 20s, were detained, police said. Young people who are jobless and lack a good education — those who feel excluded by society, feel that they don’t have a great future ahead of them and are filled with rage against the established society. They feel they are subject to a wide-spread sense of discrimination.

One form of discrimination often discussed in Sweden is referred to as “customer discrimination”. Many entry-level jobs for young people exist within services. According to these youth “ If you don’t speak Swedish with a perfect Stockholm dialect, because you come from a marginalized immigrant neighborhood, or for that matter from a rural part of Sweden, your ability to sell services or work in retail is lower than that of others, all else being equal. When employers have lots of applicants to choose from, they often eliminate those who don’t have the right dialect”.

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I. Reepalu, a Swedish Social Democrat

Ilmar Reepalu, the Mayor of Malmo, Sweden’s third largest city, reports..
“Sweden needs lots of immigrants, because, otherwise, we can’t keep up our welfare system. We, as most parts of Europe, have too few people. Within the coming 20 years, we will have a lack of labor force, so we need more people coming to Sweden. We don’t have enough kids from ourselves.”
MP Kent Ekeroth disputing the argument that immigration keeps Sweden’s welfare system afloat, asked
“What kind of immigrants do we take in? It’s people from Somalia who have done nothing but herd sheep their whole life and we expect them to benefit our society? It’s ridiculous.”

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A Swedish convert to Muslim

There has been an "Islamophobic" backlash. Scandinavia’s largest mosque happens to be in Malmo.This photo is of a Swedish resident who has converted to Islam as she attends a Royal Swedish wedding.

Reports of attacks to one helpline have increased greatly since recent atrocities, allegedly carried out by Islamic fanatics.The influx has mostly come from war-torn countries such as Iraq, Somalia, former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Syria.

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At the last report, there are estimated to be 350,000 Muslim Swedes, making it one of Sweden's biggest minorities.

While the general public in Sweden has a negative attitude toward these foreign new-comers, there are government officials who feel that Sweden needs to accept these new immigrants.
Aje Carlbom, a social anthropologist at Malmo University, said " The government needs to accept that immigrants arriving without an adequate education were likely to remain unemployed".

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In part, because of Sweden's reputation as an equitable society, news of the protests has come as something of a surprise. The reputation, however, seems to be out of date. In recent years, the country's economics and demographics have shifted to be more in line with the rest of Europe.