Sweden struggles to integrate Muslim immigrants

[Aptrgangr]

Sweden struggles to integrate Muslim immigrants



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Sweden has welcomed immigrants with open arms for decades but now it is grappling with how to integrate them into society, especially in the southern town of Malmoe amid a massive influx of refugees.

Once a thriving industrial town with full employment, Malmoe has seen many of its plants shut down since the 1990s. That, combined with a never-ending stream of foreigners arriving, has led to rising juvenile delinquency and rampant unemployment.

Of the town's 280,000 inhabitants, a third are foreigners and 60,000 are Muslims.
"We are an open city. We see these immigrants as a resource for our society," Malmoe's Social Democratic mayor Ilmar Reepalu told AFP.

"The problem is that we have welcomed too many immigrants at the same time," he said, pointing out that last year Malmoe took in more Iraqi asylum-seekers than Germany, Spain, France and Italy combined.

Reepalu said 5,000 refugees a year seek asylum in Malmoe, Sweden's third largest city behind Stockholm and Gothenburg, though it is really only able to take in 1,500.
The result is many overcrowded apartments as refugees flock to immigrant-heavy areas and an employment rate that has dropped to around 50 percent.

Swedish Integration Minister Nyamko Sabuni -- a Muslim who came to Sweden when she was 12 and the first African to become a member of government in the country -- insists that the only way for immigrants to integrate into society is to learn the language and get a job.

"It is crucial that immigrants get in contact with the labour market as soon as possible after receiving their residence permit. This has to be combined with language courses," she told AFP.

While immigrants to Sweden in the late 1950s and 1960s came as much-needed labourers, the trend has in recent decades shifted toward political refugees, according to Yves Zenou, an economics professor at Stockholm University specialised in integration problems.

"Immigrants to Sweden have become political refugees. First there were people from South America, then Iran, Afghanistan and now Iraq," he said.
"They come seeking asylum and not work," he said.

He recalled the Scandinavian country's generous humanitarian policies which provide immigrants with everything they need once they arrive.

"The famous welfare state takes care of everything on a social level. But that's the limitation of the system -- the country cannot provide any solution when it comes to jobs, which is the key to integration," he said.
And the situation risks getting worse.

New arrivals tend to settle where they already have friends and family members, leading Swedes to desert some areas, such as Malmoe's southeastern neighbourhood of Rosengaard.

"When a lot of people from one ethnic group concentrate together, you always see the same phenomenon everywhere: they become marginalised, with high unemployment and crime rates," Zenou said.

"That's the case in the United States, France and Britain and now in Sweden, although at different levels," he stressed.

If nothing is done, he said, the situation in Sweden could explode within 10 or 20 years, as it already has in other parts of Europe.

Immigrants in Sweden follow a well-established pattern, he explained. Children grow up seeing their parents unemployed and socially excluded and inherit their frustration.
Compared to slums and projects in France or the US, Rosengaard looks like a nice community. But it stands out in a Swedish context.

On a recent visit, veiled women walk behind the men, casting quick glances at their husbands before refusing to speak to AFP's reporter. At the local mall, more Arabic is heard than Swedish and 28 of the 30 shopkeepers are immigrants.

The neighbourhood is clean, with plenty of greenery providing a nice backdrop for the modern brick buildings. But sprouting from every balcony or rooftop is a satellite dish, broadcasting programs for faraway countries.

For the time being, crime levels in Rosengaard are manageable, Malmoe police spokesman Lars Foerstell said.

"We do have a problem with youth criminality, with young people who commit different kinds of crimes," citing minor robberies, assaults, gang fights or rocks thrown at police cars.

"But it doesn't happen everyday."

However, the neighbourhood is stigmatized and even the slightest of incidents is reported in the press.

"The media often make it sound very much worse than it is," he said.
Meanwhile, Bejzat Becirov, the head of Malmoe's Islamic Centre and mosque, Scandinavia's first when it opened in 1984, continues to spread his message of toleranc
e and integration, as he has for 45 years.

"We have accepted a part of this country, we have accepted its rules and we want to be a part of it," he said, echoing Sabuni's insistence that integration comes through the language.

Discrimination is not a serious problem, he said.

Rather, "the biggest enemy of integration is the satellite dishes which broadcast TV programmes from countries where some children were even not born."

Sweden struggles to integrate Muslim immigrants

[Menydh]

What are the approximate percentages of unemployment among the ethnic Swedish population?

One thing that one should fear when you read something that it is important that Muslim immigrants get their first contact with the labour market, is that this turns into some kind of affirmative action that gives them precedence over the natives in the labour market. Other things too, of course.

[Weltschmerz]

I'll be straightforward: My opinion is that it is much easier for a foreigner who wants to get a job to get it, compared with a Swede. The reasons for it are plenty, and I'll mention a few of them:

1. The state has legislated against discrimination of foreigners, and since the rights of Swedes are not protected, anyone who doesn't hire the foreigner before the Swede will risk a law-suit.

2. The gigantic bureaucratic state with all its various branches, including big corporations in which they have the stock majority, make affirmative action to the favour of foreigners.

3. There are massive efforts of all kinds to target unemployment among foreigners, payed for by tax money. Swedish lessons are only a tiny portion of it. This is also a general tendency that is not tied to unemployment: The solution of any problem that the authorities recognize with foreigners is to spend more money on them.

I don't know to what extent the situation is 'the same' in other European countries, so I'm interested in hearing it from those who know.

Also, there is more to come in the near future: The EU recently made efforts to convince Sweden to make it even more easy for foreigners. For example, private businesses shall no longer be able to decide to whom they want to rent/sell their services, such as apartments, hotel rooms and so on. There's more about this in a nationalist Swedish newspaper:

EU vill att Sverige skärper lagarna mot ”rasism” - Nationell Idag

And in the Scandinavian section:

http://forum.stirpes.net/scandinavia...li-2007-a.html

Our minister of integration, Nyamko Sabuni of Folkpartiet, already said that four out of five suggested items will come into realization within less than a year. And yes, the name of Sabuni's party comes off as a punch in the face, but to me this is nothing new - they have been bleeding multiculturalists for a long time competing with the left for the crown of Treason.


Nyamko Sabuni, Minister Of Integration, Folkpartiet.

[Weltschmerz]

Originally Posted by Mynydd

What are the approximate percentages of unemployment among the ethnic Swedish population?

These are employment rates in percent according to Elfverson in Ingrid Björkman, Jan Elfverson, Jonathan Friedman and Åke Wedin Exit Folkhemssverige - En Samhällsmodells Sönderfall published by Cruz del Sur, Torsby, Sverige 2005:

1994

1999

In the entire population:

71,4

72,9

Born in Sweden:

73,3

75,0

Born abroad:

55,5

56,8

Born in Eastern Europe:

56,9

49,6

Born in other part of Europe:

65,7

68,5

Born in Asia:

37,9

47,0

Born in Africa:

38,7

44,0

Born in America:

52,2

60,9

Although there are many jobs that require little knowledge of Swedish, and although the authorities usually don't even demand good knowledge of Swedish where it is really important, like for doctors, of course it is a disadvantage for a lot of foreigners that they have to learn a foreign language. But it is also a lot easier for foreigners to get unemployment support and other welfare treats.

[Menydh]

Originally Posted by Gere

I'll be straightforward: My opinion is that it is much easier for a foreigner who wants to get a job to get it, compared with a Swede. The reasons for it are plenty, and I'll mention a few of them:

1. The state has legislated against discrimination of foreigners, and since the rights of Swedes are not protected, anyone who doesn't hire the foreigner before the Swede will risk a law-suit.

2. The gigantic bureaucratic state with all its various branches, including big corporations in which they have the stock majority, make affirmative action to the favour of foreigners.

3. There are massive efforts of all kinds to target unemployment among foreigners, payed for by tax money. Swedish lessons are only a tiny portion of it. This is also a general tendency that is not tied to unemployment: The solution of any problem that the authorities recognize with foreigners is to spend more money on them.

It was too easy to guess. They are so predictable.

I don't know to what extent the situation is 'the same' in other European countries, so I'm interested in hearing it from those who know.

Not exactly 'the same' in Spain. The construction boom of the last years has kept the demand relatively high in the labour market. And there is also a strong submerged economy which has interacted with immigrant population.

The situation is that we are living in a bubble economy that is deflating slowly and it still has to burst. Plus the phenomenon of immigration is relatively new here if compared to Sweden. 20 years ago it was unknown of. The vast majority of immigrants arrived in Spain in the last 15 years, with a strong incidence in the last 7 or 8 years and a peak incidence in the last 4 years due to the most irresponsible policies that any government could ever take.

I don't want to speculate at this late time as to what may happen, but when the bubble bursts (and be sure that it will) it will meet with the problem of a non integrated mass immigrant population.

So that you get an idea, at their executive level, the Spanish Socialists have been pupils of the Swedish Social Democrats. Starting with former Socialist Secretary-General Felipe González Márquez's admiration for Olof Palme, and in office from 1982 to 1996. The current Socialist PM, Rodríguez Zapatero, seems to have set himself to show that he is more extremist than his Socialist predecesor, the Swedish Social Democrats, and even Trotsky.

I would start numbering and naming his occurrences, but right now I wouldn't know where to start. In short, the plan seems to be to catch up with Sweden and even overtake it.

[Kernunnos]

The parasytes are ruling the host country.

The final insult to Sweden.

[Weltschmerz]

Originally Posted by Breha

The parasytes are ruling the host country.

The final insult to Sweden.

And I think that it will be a wake up call for many people. Every single day our media try to forge an attitude of empathy and even pity for the parasites. When people see in their everyday lifes that the strangers are taking over, many of them will eventually come to the conclusion that enough is enough. The hour is already late, but better late than never.

[DrStrangelove]

It seems every country has trouble intergrating Muslims . Does sweden have a Problem with exetremist preaching ?

[Kernunnos]

Originally Posted by Gere

And I think that it will be a wake up call for many people. Every single day our media try to forge an attitude of empathy and even pity for the parasites. When people see in their everyday lifes that the strangers are taking over, many of them will eventually come to the conclusion that enough is enough. The hour is already late, but better late than never.

I share your hope too.

Here we see the first signs of swedenization, but there are still many strong opponents.

Pity the swedish situation is left unknown to the public: the socialist newspaper repubblica recently published a work on Malmo that didn't even name immigration, while describing it as a cool and stylish city ... Disinformacija at work already.

[Weltschmerz]

Originally Posted by DrStrangelove

It seems every country has trouble intergrating Muslims . Does sweden have a Problem with exetremist preaching ?

Yes and I've even heard that the commune of Malmö supports it financially. For example I've heard of Quran schools that preach that everything Swedish including the language is evil. Now I don't favour integration, but that kind of hostility is a breeding ground for conflict.

And btw I recently found an example of how Muslims expect to always be in the right that is very typical. I read about it in the newspaper. For the barbeque the local prison had bought beef instead of pig's meat for the muslims. Then a muslim demanded that the grill should be cleansed before they put the beef on it. The guard replied that it is impossible to respect every religion, and now the prison and the guard have charges of discrimination pressed against them. I was thinking to myself: If only the guard had said that it is impossible to respect every "idiot", then they would probably be better off in this case.

[Kernunnos]

Originally Posted by Gere

Yes and I've even heard that the commune of Malmö supports it financially. For example I've heard of Quran schools that preach that everything Swedish including the language is evil. Now I don't favour integration, but that kind of hostility is a breeding ground for conflict.

And btw I recently found an example of how Muslims expect to always be in the right that is very typical. I read about it in the newspaper. For the barbeque the local prison had bought beef instead of pig's meat for the muslims. Then a muslim demanded that the grill should be cleansed before they put the beef on it. The guard replied that it is impossible to respect every religion, and now the prison and the guard have charges of discrimination pressed against them. I was thinking to myself: If only the guard had said that it is impossible to respect every "idiot", then they would probably be better off in this case.

they think that non moslems are inferior humans. No wonder if they lie continously about their true goals or if they resort to violence and treachery.

[Menydh]

Originally Posted by Gere

And I think that it will be a wake up call for many people. Every single day our media try to forge an attitude of empathy and even pity for the parasites. When people see in their everyday lifes that the strangers are taking over, many of them will eventually come to the conclusion that enough is enough. The hour is already late, but better late than never.

That's correct. It is too late to reverse the situation. Not only for Sweden. There are more countries in Europe where the situation is irreversible, and the rest is being unstoppably dragged into the same situation.

To be perfectly honest, that doesn't bother me much. When people think of a reversal of the situation, they often do it in terms of going back to a situation prior to the immigrant mass flood, which is precisely the same situation that took us all to where we are today.

It must also be noticed here that there is nothing worse for a political ideal (built around Nationalism in our case) than looking backwards searching for a point to return. That is not what the past should serve us for, but to learn from it while we move towards a point in the future.

There is no point of return, and there should not be one.

Nationalism as it was in the XXth century, and as a monolithic structure of past events, has no projection into the future, as it has no vision for it.

We need urgently to build a New Nationalism, with foundations in the past but with a structure of present and a projection of future.

Anything less than that will be a failure.