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.