Published: 21 Jan 10 07:41 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/24500/20100121/
Sweden plans to give priority to refugees from Somalia and Eritrea in its efforts to resettle an estimated 1,700 to 1,900 United Nations (UN) refugees this year.
What do you think? Leave your comment below.
Parents and volunteers have been patrolling the streets of Stockholm's immigrant-heavy suburbs to help quell riots that have raged for almost a week, serving as a successful deterrent to troublemakers and winning praise from police. READ () »
Police are hunting a 40-year-old man after a woman was found dead in a suburb of Stockholm on Saturday. READ () »
Two cars collided on a road between Trollhättan and Vänersborg in western Sweden on Friday afternoon due to an elk having chosen the unusual spot to give birth to a calf. READ () »
Express delivery firm DHL has been criticised for having handed over a load of alcohol ordered from Germany to a 10-year-old boy in southern Sweden who was home alone at the time. READ () »
A sixth straight night of unrest blighted several Stockholm suburbs on Friday night, spreading briefly to the city of Örebro, 160 kilometres to the west. READ () »
With international media swooping on the Stockholm riots from every angle, The Local's Oliver Gee explains why Stockholm is not burning, and how the story has been blown out of proportion. READ () »
After five nights of rioting throughout the outskirts of Stockholm, many in Sweden and elsewhere are trying to make sense of it all. The Local spoke to a mix of commentators and local politicians to get their views. READ () »
As white-collar union Saco slammed Sweden for not helping well-educated foreigners into the labour market, The Local spoke to researcher Josefin Edström about the disconnect between foreign professionals and Swedish employers. READ () »
More news from Germany at thelocal.de
More news from France at thelocal.fr
More news from Norway at thelocal.no
More news from Switzerland at thelocal.ch
Register now for:
> Free use of noticeboard
> Special discounts
> Weekly news roundup
> Unlimited use of discuss
"A week full to the brim with LFC football…. Div 5 LFC match against Nåjdens FK has been moved. This is due to the Svenska Cupen final: 26 May, 17.00 kick off, Nationalarenan Friends Arena, Solna. Next match is on Tuesday (see below). ………………………………………………………… Friday: Div5 Ladies: Rotebro IS FF – Långholmen FC (Skinnaråsens IP) KO: 16.15 ………………………………………………………… Saturday: Vets: Långholmen FC – IFK..." READ »
Your comments about this article:
The comments below have not been moderated in advance and are not produced by The Local unless clearly stated. Readers are responsible for the content of their own comments. Comments that breach our terms and conditions will be removed.
They better SPREAD THEM OUT through the country so they'll be forced to INTEGRATE.
Please when describing something be more accurate.
Part of why the countries of origin are in such a bad shape (besides political and sometimes religious factors) is that even being so poor they still reproduce at alarmingly high rates, if children can hardly be fed or cared for having lots of them is not going to make it any better. Living off the social systems of the host countries and reproducing at much higher rates than the host populations is not good either, have as many kids as you can afford to care for without everybody else having to pay for you and your kids lives.
When it comes to immigrants from certain nations you'll have the good and the bad (mostly higher and lower class respectively) but Somalis as a WHOLE are like this. You'll find exceptions but they're rare. The Somali CULTURE clashes horribly with the Swedish system.
I would rather have 10 Arabs and ten southern African immigrants than one Somali family. That's how bad their situation is. :(
This is the sad and scary story of people of colour in Africa.
Zulu Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi refused to let his people in Kwazulu Natal practice family planning because he said, "We are building a nation".
At the end of the day Sweden is committing suicide!
Do u know Hilter?!
Im a muslim and has a PhD deos this hurt u ?
I guess so at least untill u find a job !!!!! wat how did i know??
The only part of your views I diagree with is khat. I thought you'd mention khat. Khat should not be illegal in Sweden as it is not even as dangerous or as harmful to health as alcohol in the unprocessed plant form. That is why khat, it's unprocessed plant form, will never be illegal in the Netherlands or the UK, which will secure the smuggling of khat continues in the more prudish and repressed European countries which have immature and authoritarian attitudes about mind-altering substances, like Sweden, France, Germany, Norway, etc.
It was interesting to read your post and the example that follows:
"My work dealt with the Hmong in the USA and it was a common belief among elderly Hmong refugees that America was literally hell and that they had died on their way over." Wow, talk about a different frame of mind and belief system.
There exists the believe amongst many that we (as people from different parts of the world) are all the same and all want the same for ourselves, our families, our loved ones and that we all have the same or similar perspectives on life, to me that is just not the case, people from different countries and backgrounds might have such different views on all the above that inundating a country with large quantities of immigrants that are very different from the locals can be a big mistake, something that can be impossible to undo and that will alter the host country forever.
Here's a youtube documentary about about the Somali diaspora in the UK which highlights this: watch?v=fJ5nCEVcb58
Somalis in Somalia tend to be very family-oriented and they combine a family lifestyle with a nomadic lifestyle. Khat is present but not used to the extent it is in the West. In Somalia they don't have the social issues that are present in the Somali diaspora. They of course have to leave Somalia since it's a warzone but it just goes to show that culture clashes can lead to serious problems for all parties involved. And there is no real winner either. Not the dad's who are made to feel useless, not the mother's who loose the close connection to their children, not the kids who grow up alienated and confused, and not society which has to deal with this mess. :(
Khat is only socially harmful when it is made illegal and driven underground and people are stigmatized for using it. You can read a review in Swedish of a book about khat here, it is very interesting:
http://drogsociologi.blogspot.com/2010/01/att-ata-paradisets-blommor.html
I agree with what you're saying about everything except your views on khat. The illegality of khat causes more problems for khat users than khat itself. The same goes with cannabis, magic mushrooms, and other soft drugs. Problem users arise out of poor social conditions, not out of simply using a substance. Khat's role in Somali culture could be compared to the roll of fika in Swedish culture.
When can we understand that people should be judged based on personal qualifications and not national, colour, ideology...?
you come across as very judgmental, and the assumptions that you hold about the somalis are wrong. the primary priority that the somalis go to Sweden, America and elsewhere is for safety, and not to collect walfare benefits or become isolated . Anywhere they go, the majority of somalis are hard workers, and they are business oriented people. i live in minnesota which has the largest somali population in the west, and when we came to minnesota, we were refugees and had nothing, but today the somalis own some of the the biggest malls, restaurants and othar business. they are doctors, lawyers, teachers, and they are very productive part of the mainstream sociaty. unfortunately, the same is not true for our brothers and sisters in Sweden because unlike America, the Swedish system does not allow them to succeed. Most Somalis in Sweden, even though that they are thankful, complain about the lack of work. I am sure if there is opportunty to get off walfare and work, they would have done it becasue we did it in Minnesota. check out the link http://minnesotaindependent.com/1209/somali-refugees-hailed-for-moving-off-welfare-quickly PS the next time you run into somali, be open minded you will be supprised how friendly that they are