The fact that native Swedish citizens — as well as immigrants — tend to gravitate toward living in communities with people of similar background is a problem, according to Sweden's Social Democrats. In order to solve the problem, their proposal includes ending asylum seekers’ right to choose their own housing, banning the placement of newcomers in so-called vulnerable areas, and restricting moves there by threatening to cut social benefits - the international V4NA news agency highlights.
In an interview with the Swedish Svenska Dagbladet paper, Sara Kukka-Salam, a member of the party leadership, says native Swedes who want to live among other native Swedes are racist.
We have a housing market where you can live wherever you want. But choosing not to live next to someone based on their last name is racism,
– she said.
Kukka-Salam sees no problems with the mass immigration Sweden has experienced in the past decade and wants the country to continue welcoming immigrants. It’s not immigration that’s the problem, she said, but failed integration. And integration is everybody’s responsibility, she said:
If one in five of your friends isn’t born abroad, I’d say you’re not contributing to an integrated Sweden. Everyone has a responsibility. If you want to see integration, you also have to be part of it.
“The financial, ethnic, and linguistic segregation must be broken on a structural level which requires mixing of the population,” a document from the party congress states. To achieve this, the Social Democrats propose constructing new apartment buildings for subsidized housing among single-family homes, along with razing older apartment complexes that have become parallel immigrant societies.
Meanwhile, Social Democrat party chair Magdalena Andersson, when asked in a TV interview with Expressen if she would consider moving to an immigrant-rich neighborhood to “help integration,” responded:
I have no plans to move at all. … I mean, the whole question is pathetic — that’s not what this is about,
– The European Conservative points out.
Moreover, migrants typically settle in areas where members of their own community already live — this has led to the formation of parallel societies in Sweden, much like in other Western European countries.
The difficulties of integration also have cultural roots. Recently, a Muslim student organisation was banned from hosting events at Charité University in Germany after being accused of gender segregation during its gatherings. The Medislam Collective, a Muslim student group, was found to have violated the Berlin-based Charité University’s anti-discrimination policy after footage surfaced showing men and women being separated by gender during a lecture. A spokesperson for Charité told the German outlet Bild that the group’s upcoming events had been suspended while an official investigation is underway.
It is not surprising, then, that Andersson — like most Swedes — does not wish to move into migrant-heavy neighbourhoods, where crime rates tend to be higher and clashes between migrant gangs, including shootings and bombings, are not uncommon. As V4NA has regularly reported, European crime statistics have shown a growing trend for years: migrants are overrepresented among criminal offenders relative to their share of the population.
Illegal boat migrants in the United Kingdom are estimated to be 24 times more likely to be imprisoned for other offences than British citizens, according to analysis of government figures. The study looked at the 10,838 foreign criminals imprisoned at the end of March in England and Wales, excluding those who had obtained a British passport, according to Breitbart. Foreign passport holders had an imprisonment rate of 0.18 per cent when compared to the latest census in 2021, which recorded a population of 5.9 million. This compares to an imprisonment rate of 0.14 per cent for British citizens.
However, the analysis noted that the specific nationalities which make up the largest cohort of illegal boat migrants, including Afghans, Albanians, Iranians, Iraqis, and Somalians, have a much higher imprisonment rate than other groups.
Authorities Attempt New Tactics
As the number of migrants arriving in small boats shows no sign of declining, British and French authorities continue talks on how to curb illegal Channel crossings.
French police are now trialling a new method aimed at deterring both people smugglers and migrants from attempting the crossing. According to The Sun, officers are deploying jet skis to place nets in the sea, thereby preventing small boats from navigating across the Channel.
Footage emerged a few days ago showing French police slashing an inflatable boat full of migrants with a knife before towing the deflated vessel back to shore.
Authorities now believe that nets thrown into shallow water may entangle the propellers of small boats nearby, causing them to become stuck. According to The Sun, both the use of nets and the recent incident involving the punctured boat are experimental tactics designed to reduce the number of migrants arriving in the UK.
French President Emmanuel Macron is set to visit Sir Keir Starmer this week, and according to the paper, he is expected to present these methods on Thursday as part of a new strategy to halt small boat crossings. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper commented:
In recent months we’ve been working together to develop new ways of disrupting the operations of criminal gangs, and now the French are introducing important new tactics to stop boats at sea. We must do everything we can to strengthen our border security.
Cover photo: Illustration (Photo: AFP)
