Sweden was previously a refuge for refugees. No longer
In 2015, Swedes were extremely proud of the country’s decision to receive 163,000 refugees, most from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. But much has changed since then.
Earlier this month, Sweden’s Minister of Finance Magdalena Andersson delivered her maiden Speech as chairman of the Swedish Social Democratic Party and thus the presumptive successor to the longtime Prime Minister Stefan Lofven. Andersson began, predictably enough, by celebrating the triumph of the Swedish welfare state over the “grinning bankers on Wall Street” neoliberalism. Then, in a turn that shocked some loyal party members, Andersson addressed himself directly to the country’s over two million refugees and migrants.
“If you’re young,” she said, “you need to get a high school diploma and move on to get a job or higher education.” If you receive financial support from the state “you must learn Swedish and work a certain number of hours a week”. In addition, “here in Sweden, both men and women work and contribute to welfare.” Swedish gender equality applies “regardless of what fathers, mothers, spouses or brothers think and feel.”
In 2015, Swedes were extremely proud of the country’s decision to receive 163,000 refugees, most from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. “My Europe receives refugees”, Lofven sa Right then. “My Europe does not build walls.” It was the heroic rhetoric of an almost vanished Sweden. The Social Democrats now use the harsh language that only right-wing extremist nativists from the Sweden Democrats used in 2015. A Social Democratic body recently stated with satisfaction that since “all major parties today stand for a restrictive migration policy with a strong focus on law and order”, the refugee issue is no longer a political responsibility.