Uncle dans leg wrote:I was looking for some info about it after hearing from the wifes family recently. They are under the impression there is a growing problem there. BTW that link was a quick google. Not sure who it is...
Do you personally feel that muslim immigration is causing racial tension in Sweden? Do many Swedes?
Is there increasing racial tension? Yeah, probably.
Is it caused by the immigrants? No, not really.
As you may have noticed there is an ongoing international financial crisis. Sweden hasn't been hit hard, our GDP growth last quarter was at 2.6%, which is among the best in Europe, but still. Seasonally adjusted unemployment is at 7.8%. Inflation is non-existant.
So what happens when times are dire? People start looking for scape goats.
Preferrably people of Semitic origin, darkish features and practing odd religions we know little about.
In the 1930's it was the Jews. This time it is the Muslims.
As in many other countries in Europe we now have a fascistoid populist right wing party which blames everything on immigration and who attracted close to 13% in the parliamentary elections this past september. Our lot are called the Sweden Democrats and is an offshoot of the white supremacy movement of the 1990's. They have let their hair grow back (well, some of them) and have switched from bomber jackets to suits, but they're basically the same people who did nazi salutes and beat up black and/or gay people back then.
I really cannot see how anyone in his/her right mind could vote for them, but sadly some 13% of Swedish voters did. None of the other parties want to have anything to do with them, so they are isolated in parliament, but they hold the balance of the vote, as neither the Red-Green block (Social Democrats, Left Party and Greens) nor the Alliance (Conservatives, Liberals, Centre Party and Christian Democrats) have a majority. It's rather annoying. I keep crossing my fingers that either the Greens or the Liberals will switch sides, so we get a government with a solid majority behind them, but it probably will have to take some time before they dare reach across the aisle.
The really stupid part is that if you look at our demographics, anyone with half a brain and some basic understanding of economics would see that we really need to
increase immigration in order to save our pensions, as the baby boomers from the 1940's outnumber those graduating from college over the next several years, which means a smaller number of tax payers will have to support an ever increasing number of retired people... But just because of the fear of people who look different, of course combined with the recession, the pitchfork mob want to do the opposite, which will hurt us in the long run. Sadly, people are stupid.
Logically, the Sweden democrats do worst in the big cities, where people actually meet immigrants on a regular basis, and best in the rural areas where there's hardly any immigrants at all.
The typical Sweden democrat voter is a man with less than high school education who is a blue collar worker or unemployed. Of course not everyone fits the mold, but there is a strong negative correlation between education and SD sympathies.
Meanwhile, polls on racism and immigration show that the average Swede is growing less prejudiced. When polled about whether you'd mind having an immigrant living next door or if you'd be OK with your children marrying a foreigner, the number of people who would not mind has been increasing ever since they started polling in the 1960's. A poll last summer also revealed that more people are concerned about racism than about immigration, so I guess the majority is still sane.
And, lol, the new Social Democrat /Green government that took office in September includes three ministers that are Muslim and a black woman (the latter adopted though, so culturally 100% Swedish). Guess they're trying to send the SD crowd a message...