The elections shed light on the rise of racism and discrimination in Sweden
When a masked man with a sword killed a teaching assistant and a student at a school in Sweden several years ago in a racially motivated attack, the whole world was shocked that this could happen in a country known for its welcoming attitude towards immigrants.
However, this year’s election paints a different picture, as all political parties use a “racist, anti-immigrant” narrative during their campaign in a country where the right-wing populist Sweden Democrats, according to recent polls, are set to become the second largest party in Sweden’s Riksdag or Riksdag .
Since the 1990s, racism and discrimination have been institutionalized in the country and are reinforced in this year’s election when “almost all parties in Sweden, in one way or another, have racist propaganda that migrants and marginalized people are the problem for Sweden.” said Masoud Kamali, author and one of the world’s leading sociologists who is a professor of sociology and social work at Central University.
Former Prime Minister Olof Palme, who led the expansion of Sweden’s welfare state, was assassinated in 1986, and since then the country has turned to the American model and American “politics of neoliberalism,” Kamali said.
With the collapse of the Soviet Union, Sweden began to adapt to neoliberal politics and neoliberal ideology, which was dominant in other countries in Europe.
Around this time, the Stockholm-based racist far-right organization Keep Sweden Swedish formed a political party now known as the Sweden Democrats.
The establishment of the Sweden Democrats, once banned from politics because of its neo-Nazi ties and now poised to become the country’s second-largest party, led to “increasing divisions and neoliberal politics in Sweden,” Kamali said.
Neoliberal policies and politics resulted in increasing inequalities and marginalization of migrants and people of immigrant background, and “at the same time increased racism”, he added.
Kamali, who was put in charge by the Swedish government to lead a project on racism, said the ruling Social Democrats did not take warnings from experts like him seriously when they tried to warn them that “there will be conflict, it will be gangs and murder” because of the increased racism and marginalization.
Racist propaganda
“I can say that all parties have accepted or adapted to this racist politics and propaganda that you can see in the election propaganda of all election officials in this country today,” Kamali said.
In the past 40 years, “I have never experienced such racist propaganda in an election as we are seeing today,” he noted.
“You can only see this electoral or electoral propaganda everywhere on TV, everywhere on the radio, in public services. You can see that everything is about a restrictive migration policy; migration should be limited, criminals, of course, with an immigrant background should be deported from Sweden and Sweden must be tougher on migration, Kamali added.
He pointed out that immigrants are discriminated against and not given equal opportunities, and “when you have a system that makes them unemployed and poor and then blames the problems that come with poverty on them as well,” this falls under individualization. of criminality, or to single out and label immigrants as criminals, and lack of integration.
“I think this is a huge problem that we are now facing in this country,” he added.
Kamali believes that Sweden is a country where racism has become deeply rooted and institutionalized, but that this is also noticeable in everyday life “because the authorities and state institutions foster racism and discrimination.”
Neoliberal politics
Over the past 10 years, the country has seen socio-economic gaps increase by 35%, meaning that “Sweden today is the most marginalized country in Europe,” he said. “This means that the neoliberal system has already destroyed the country.”
Fereshteh Ahmadi, professor of sociology at the University of Gävle, said that one of the biggest factors that contributed to the rise of racism in the country is due to neoliberal policies, which created a “huge gap between the poor and the rich.”
The country adopted the type of capitalism that “we might see in the US or some of the other European countries”, but joining the EU also affected Sweden, according to her.
“People got poorer and angrier from all these changes, and (they) see immigrants (as) the root of their problems,” she said.
According to Kamali, “we are witnessing that people, many people with an immigrant background, are almost talking about the impossibility of living in this country,” because there is not even a single party that wants “an integrated, equal society.”
He predicts that Sweden will see “more conflicts, more crime. We will have a divided country.”
Racism kills
Teysir Subhi, leader of the Swedish political party Feministisk initiative, said that racism is one of the biggest security problems in Sweden.
– On a daily basis, non-white Swedes are exposed to racism and Islamophobia in the labor market, in the housing market, in the school system and in healthcare, says Subhi.
But she said racism can also have even worse consequences than that, because “racism is violence, racism kills.”
According to Kamali, sociology teaches us that if we want to see if society is sick or not, we should go to prisons and see which groups are there, and “in Sweden, you have about 70% of the people in prison with an immigrant background.”
“So it’s a matter of structural discrimination, historical discrimination, now showing up in criminal records,” he added.
Kamali announced that structural changes and long-term government interventions are very necessary for the country to move forward.
“But as I said, I cannot now see a single party that is there to raise those issues in a situation where racism is increasing. But proposals are there.”
“The Future Not So Bright”
However, Sweden is not alone in the rise of racism, as Europe as a whole “has a huge issue when it comes to racism,” Kamali said.
In 2001 he conducted research sponsored by the European Union called “The European Dilemma”, where he showed how racism in Europe is institutionalized in the labor market, the education system, politics and the housing market.
The research also showed that racism would increase over time if no action is taken by European governments.
In response to the Swedish researcher and writer Gunnar Myrdal and his book “An American Dilemma”, Kamali wanted to show that Europe also has a dilemma and that the continent is always “hiding behind American racism and American society’s racism and colonialism”, he said. .
Ahmadi said the future is not so bright if Sweden continues to go in one direction, because many people “may leave the country, people who may have an immigrant background will not see this country as their own country.”
This, she said, will have a very negative effect on working life, social life and cultural life, and “I think there will be a strengthening of the polarization of people against each other, but I hope this will not happen.”