“A great advantage the United States has “When it comes to preventing terrorism, our Muslim population is more assimilated compared to that in Europe,” said Barack Obama when he was president in 2015. When I listened to Obama, I realized he had a point.
I have relatives in the United States who tell me about how their children in the schoolyard together with other children read aloud and proudly Pledge of Allegiance – the American oath of allegiance. One of the staff at an HVB home for unaccompanied children and adolescents told me after a lecture that his brother’s teenage children in Canada identify themselves primarily as Canadians and not as Eritreans.
“My children in Sweden do not,” complained the man in the car on the way to the train station. Although they lived in a prosperous residential area for the middle class, his children did not feel that they were Swedes.
Despite this, the Swede in me reacted to the word “assimilation” in that statement by President Obama.
Why did he use that word? Does he not know that the word is only used by xenophobes? Has no one told him about it?
“Margot Wallström should have a snack with him on her next visit to the United States,” I thought.
“You Barack, it’s actually called integration and including, do you understand. And in Sweden we do not use that word anymore ”.
Like when Dalarna’s SSU chairman Sofie Eriksson, in her fire speech against the Sweden Democrats, pointed out their scandals at the end of 2016:
Knut (Knut Scherman, SD politician) here in the room said on Monday at the County Council Assembly that immigrants should be assimilated into our Swedish culture. It’s a lot to be temporary. ”
She said this in the podium after listing Kent Ekeroth who was reported for assault, Björn Söder’s (first) statement about Sami and politicians in Lund who publicly posted addresses of refugee housing when it was also reported in the media about arson at refugee housing.
In Sweden, therefore, the concept of assimilation is as bad as Kent’s Ekeroth’s assault charge, Björn Söder’s problematic statements about Sami and the publication of addresses to refugee accommodation.
But let us then briefly look at what the term “assimilation” means.
In sociology do “Cultural assimilation” means that an ethnic minority group in a society, if the processes are complete, completely abandons its own set of norms and values in order to adapt to the culture of the majority culture. Now notice the sentence “processes are complete”. This is where the focus should be. So, how much assimilation is necessary and where does the limit for assimilation go?
The question of conscience is: does the majority population want the immigrant to abandon their culture, adopt and adapt completely to Swedish culture? Everything from food to traditions?
Is the problem with the multicultural society today that we eat too much Thai food and too little pork and potatoes? Is it the the Swede worries about?
Obviously not.
The problem with the multicultural society, and what worries us, is the value conflicts. The view of equality, equality, homosexuality, the rights (and obligations) of the individual. The fear of parallel societies where Swedish law no longer applies, areas where the clan gets more and more while we allow the judiciary and information. This frightens the Swede because she, as the journalist and author Per Brinkemo describes it, “is marinated in the state”.
When the SOM Institute in its surveys ask the Swede which authority she trusts most often answers to be the Tax Agency. Tell someone from Afghanistan or Somalia. Or to an American or an Italian for that matter. The Swede is extreme even in that sense. And it is hardly facilitated by the fact that the Swede believes that the Swede is the norm in the world; that we are drawn to the notion that there is a little Swede living in everyone who is just waiting to get out. It does not matter if it is a Finn or an Afghan. Sooner or later, all will be Swedes. Whether they want it or not.
Integration, on the other hand, means that the indigenous population, ie the Swedes, must to some extent adapt to the culture of immigrants and its customs and habits. This can be read in Government Bill 1997/98: 16 “Sweden, the future and diversity – from immigration policy to integration policy”.
Integration is like a dance where both parties have to invite, I usually hear during my lectures by social workers, good men and teachers at school. “It’s about meeting in the middle and compromising with others,” is another explanation. However, no one explains where this center is anywhere. Is there a line that someone has drawn so that the way there is easier?
And if the integration is one two-way process, in which culture should the Swede and the Swedish majority culture be integrated? The Afghan? The Somali? The Japanese? The Iraqi? The group of immigrants is not a homogeneous group.
In a municipality in Västergötland I was invited to dinner by an integration coordinator who was politically on the left. During dinner, he told me that his friends outside of work consist of white middle-class friends. Everyone calls themselves a feminist and when they go out on the weekends and have a beer, they complain about how awful it is with Islamophobia in society.
The man told me that sometimes he just wants to stand up and shout at his friends: “But none of us know any Muslims! We hardly know anything at all about Islam! ”
Anecdotal evidence, you might be thinking? But let me then quote a survey conducted by Sifo from 2016 which showed that two thirds of environmentalists do not know anyone of non-European descent privately. Those who shout the loudest about the importance of differences do not live as they learn privately.
Swedish integration and migration The last few decades have been like one big football match where Sweden has sent signals to the rest of the world that everyone is welcome to play in the small country in the north. But once the players come to the match, we forget to convey what the offside rule is. Or that it is the referee who judges the game. Of course, it is also possible for everyone to come to the game, of course, know what offside and the referee’s role in the game is. Offside, the world’s simplest rule to follow, but perhaps the most complicated to explain.
A bit like the norms, values, trust in the state but also the informal rules of the game in the public space that the Swede has unconsciously acquired since childhood. The multicultural society needs a common culture as well.
Football teams such as FC Barcelona, Real Madrid and PSG dominate world football. They are multicultural teams with players from all corners of the world. Lionel Messi from Argentina dances his way through insurance in the opposing team and wins matches for his Barcelona. Brass Casimero at Real Madrid is the midfield general that players can count on when they top the ball in the offensive half. In PSG, you have a trio consisting of a brass, a Uruguayan and a Frenchman who puts fear in any back line. These three teams show that differences and multiculturalism can certainly work. But then there can be no frame of reference that everyone can adapt to. In these teams, everyone knows what offside is and when it comes to a throw-in while having a common goal together: to win.
Sweden will come forever to be a multicultural society. Whether you want it or not. For the multicultural to work, we must all be above certain basic things. We can start with Sweden’s constitution, the Discrimination Act and the Parental Code. That these laws are also based on certain values that the Swedish majority population stands behind and follows. Such as gender equality, equality and individual rights.
The football match has been going on for many years now. It is high time to explain the rules to all players.