“We came to ask him questions about how democracy works in Sweden. »
In the central square of Rinkeby, 11-year-old Sedra speaks impeccable English. With her classmates, this child of Iraqi refugees came to have a snack at the stand of the candidate in her neighborhood, Elvir Kazinic. A member of the ruling Social Democratic Party for two terms, Mr. Kazinic is himself a refugee from Bosnia who arrived in Sweden in the 1980s. Here, more than 80% of the inhabitants are first or second generation immigrants.
Like Sedra, most of the girls in the group wear the Islamic veil. While the candidate explains to the children what will be at stake in the general elections next Sunday – where the left-wing bloc led by the Social Democrats is neck and neck with the right-wing – only the most assiduous take notes while the others are laughing in a corner while biting into an apple or a pear.
However, we do not laugh every day in this green and clean suburb located 10 kilometers from the capital and which welcomes migrants from Somalia, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Ethiopia, Greece, Poland or China. Because behind these HLM on a human scale, with their green parks, their fountain and their gardens for the elderly, hides a completely different reality.
“Here, you can shoot yourself with a Kalashnikov,” says Khaled, an Iraqi refugee who arrived 22 years ago and became a taxi driver. For me it’s fine, but my family doesn’t want to live here anymore because of crime and drug trafficking. Gang members keep shooting at each other. Sweden should pay more attention to the choice of its immigrants. »
Exploding crime
No wonder crime has become the top concern for voters heading to the polls on Sunday. Something to tarnish the postcard image that Sweden projects abroad.
Since last January, 48 people have fallen under the bullets of a killer, a number which has more than doubled in 10 years. According to a survey by the National Crime Prevention Council, Sweden ranks second among 22 European countries in the number of gun deaths, just behind Croatia. A unique progression in Europe.
As in France, car fires have also become a daily occurrence. In 2020, the Ali Khan gang, led by an imam of Lebanese origin, terrorized several neighborhoods in Sweden’s second city, Gothenburg. Last year, the death of young rapper Einár, shot dead outside his home for a crime linked to street gangs, moved the whole country.
“In a country traditionally as peaceful as Sweden, it’s a real shock,” says Quebec political scientist Henry Milner, a long-time professor at Umeå University and has just published the book. Committed observer, where he talks about his Swedish career. “This election is very different from the others. Talking about law and order in a Swedish election was unimaginable just a few years ago. However, it was necessary to face the facts. The Swedes are losing their naivety: welcome to Europe! »
For the three major parties — the Social Democrats (center left), the Moderates (right) and the Swedish Democrats (populists) — there is little doubt that this criminality, which extends far beyond the so-called sensitive neighborhoods, is closely or closely linked by far to poorly controlled immigration. “Too much immigration and too little integration have created parallel societies where criminal gangs have taken root and progressed,” said Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson, who wants to break with the image of a Sweden that has long been considered a “moral superpower”.
No “ethnic groupings”
Despite the personal popularity of Prime Minister Andersson, the re-election of the Social Democrats, who have dominated Swedish political life for a century, is far from certain on Sunday.
Faced with the progress of the populists of Anders Akesson, this former national swimming champion has never ceased to distance herself from the former laxity of her party in terms of immigration. In particular, it proposes a drastic reduction in the number of immigrants, which is already largely underway. And to facilitate integration, it wants to limit their number to less than 50% in the municipalities. To do this, it intends to attract wealthier families to the suburbs and force newcomers to settle in the localities assigned to them. Finally, it intends to push the municipalities to enroll the children of immigrants in kindergartens from the age of three. “We don’t want to Chinatown in Sweden, we don’t want Somalitown or Little Italy”, she decided in the pages of the great Stockholm daily Dagens Nyheter.
This election is very different from the others. Talking about law and order in a Swedish election was unimaginable just a few years ago. However, it was necessary to face the facts.
The assertion startled many, says political scientist Nicholas Aylott. “Only a few years ago the Swedish Social Democrats denounced their Danish friends who were proposing such measures. Today, they are following in their footsteps. »
It must be said that, when in 2006 and 2010 Sweden’s first party was ousted from power, it went through a crisis. But the main surprise came in 2010 with the entry into Parliament of the Democratic Party, a party with neo-Nazi origins which advocates zero immigration, the limitation of the right of asylum, the expulsion of foreign criminals and the end of reunification. family.
“After the massacre committed in Norway by the right-wing extremist Anders Breivik, it became impossible to express the slightest reservation on immigration without being called a racist,” says Mr. Aylott. During the 2015 refugee crisis, Sweden took in more than 250,000! A disproportionate number for a country that did not have 10 million inhabitants. We didn’t have the structures for that. Sweden has always been a peaceful country with low crime and few police. Of course, crime is not only explained by immigration, but without it, it would not have this magnitude. »
Integration or exclusion?
If this political shift joins the opinion of at least 58% of Swedes, it has wreaked havoc in the left bloc, where the traditional allies, the Greens and the Left Party, are far from being on these positions.
For Stockholm University sociologist Andrea Voyer, “it is futile to attack ghettos and think of eliminating them”. “The current debate worries me, because these neighborhoods are natural. They exist everywhere and, in my opinion, this is even where integration happens. It is not a good idea to stigmatize their inhabitants. If it happens that some immigrants become prisoners of it, it is primarily because of exclusion. Immigration is not a one-way street: it is a process of mutual acclimatization. »
According to this American whose grandmother left Rimouski in the last century to work in the factories of Lewinston, Maine, the measures intended to reduce the number of ghettos will not work. As for “the proliferation of criminal gangs, it is mainly linked to youth, not to immigration as such,” she says. To promote integration, the government would do better to “ensure systematic language learning, which is not really the case at present”.
“We were naive”
Spokesperson for the Social Democratic Party on international issues, Johan Hassel prefers to speak of “vulnerable areas” rather than ghettos. But he maintains that his party’s openness to immigration was in the process of cutting it off from its traditional base from working-class and popular backgrounds.
“I come from a semi-rural background and have seen populists advance in areas of the north that were traditionally ours. We have not listened enough to these populations who have suffered from uncontrolled globalization. We were naive on the issue of crime. We failed, we have to admit. We want fewer immigrants because we want to better integrate them. With more housing and school resources. »
According to him, the gap is now yawning between the unskilled labor that lives in these neighborhoods and the shortage of highly qualified personnel that Sweden is experiencing. It will take time to fill it. When he is given the example of the French Socialists, who have often turned a blind eye to these problems, he immediately replies: “Don’t talk to me about a party that has practically disappeared. We want to stay alive! »
Since a police station was built in the center of Rinkeby and there are night patrols, security has improved a bit in the area, says Freddy, a former journalist from the Dominican Republic who fled his country in 1970 with three comrades to save his life. “In general, I do not vote in elections. But for a few years, I was rather sensitive to the arguments of the Swedish democrats, even if I do not like all their policies. Maybe Magdalena Anderson will convince me to become a social democrat again. I’m still waiting to see…”