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Politics

'Love immigrants need help to adjust': Liberals

Published: 18 Jul 12 12:17 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/42094/20120718/

The government wants to increase support for vulnerable female “love immigrants” who may not know their rights with the aim of helping them better adjust to life in Sweden.

The proposal comes after Liberal Party (Folkpartiet) ministers Nyamko Sabuni and Erik Ullenhag put forward the proposal in an opinion article in the Svenska Dagbladet newspaper on Wednesday.

The female “love immigrants” - in this case women who have moved to Sweden to marry Swedish men - are often isolated in Swedish society, relying on their husband’s financial support and networks and in the worst cases being exposed to domestic violence.

The new proposal is expected to cost 40 million kronor ($5.7 million),

"The idea is to ensure that newly arrived women learn Swedish as quickly as possible, understand how the country works, as well as values which govern our country when it comes to equality, rights and responsibilities," Sabuni told the TT news agency.

"As a result, the path to the labour market will be made easier."

Some of the women are exposed to violence and for those in that group it can be especially important to know what protections they are entitled to in Swedish society, she said.

“There is already help available today. It’s just that the women are isolated in their homes and tricked by their partners about how things work. They are therefore often scared to ask for help,” she told TT.

The government inquiry looking into ways to reform Sweden's approach to integration was strongly critical of the current rule which puts women at risk of deportation if their relationship ends within two years – however the government claims that this rule indeed does work.

“There are certain criteria that are obsolete and unacceptable, but it’s not time to get rid of the two-year rule. It’s possible though to revise the texts in terms of how the violence is interpreted,” Sabuni said.

While a number of reforms have been examined, the government is awaiting further reviews of the inquiry's findings before taking a stance on the measures.

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13:09 July 18, 2012 by hpunlimited
This is a good idea imo. Knowledge is power and makes the world a better place!
13:26 July 18, 2012 by Hamsterdam
Sabuni, the ex-immigration minister whose inability to either debate or understand policy and changing needs gave Jimmi Åkesson a free ride into politics.

Sacked but given another role to be useless in.
13:38 July 18, 2012 by matona1
what about,love men ,why everything is all about women in sweden?
13:43 July 18, 2012 by Scepticion
The new proposal is expected to cost 40 million kronor? For what?

Give each person who comes a welcome pamphlet (in their native language) that gives them all the key information how things work and don't work.
14:45 July 18, 2012 by Shazzer
Any such a program should definitely be open to all "love immigrants" regardless of gender. I personally know several men who relocated here to make a home with a Swede. Based on my experience with my Swedish partner and the Swedish partners of other ex-pat friends of mine ... the average Swede does not know very much about the services and support available to an immigrant spouse.
14:53 July 18, 2012 by Just_Kidding
matona1: maybe there is a need for a "gender expert" to explain that for some strange reason, female love immigrants are from Thailand and Philippine, but the male love immigrants are USA or UK and they already know their rights.

In our SAS (Svensk som andra språk, there were two lessons, in lesson 1 they showed how Swedish peasants avoided gipsy (zigenare) with the prejudice that they are thieves and on the other hand, a Swedish guy in another lesson stole the engaged gypsy woman from her boyfriend.
15:54 July 18, 2012 by TG22
And there it goes another "plan".

First let's make thing clear here, when politicians talks about the need to integrate "immigrants" they are talking about a particular group. There is no need to integrate Americans or Brits, they do it very well just by themselves.

Second, you just can't integrated those who refuse to integrate, pure and simple. Those who believe they should follow the law of their prophet rather than the law of the land they freely choose to immigrate to.
16:06 July 18, 2012 by marissa516
The nonsenses that this country spend time and money on never ceases to amaze me.
16:39 July 18, 2012 by eddie123
there are lots of issues involved with moving abroad to live with a spouse especially if both are not properly acquainted as is the case with most of the sham marriages on parade in Sweden.

singling out foreign women for assistance whilst neglecting men beggars belief. both categories of spouses are in the same situation. i know lots of foreign men married to women in this country who are poorly treated and exploited.

if a law is to be made, it must carter to both males and females. simple.
17:17 July 18, 2012 by stabbull
why is the proposal focussed on only women, there are also male love immigrants. include them är ni snälla.
17:19 July 18, 2012 by FireBoy
Gender equality is bullshit in sweden, and guess who pays that 40 million kronor!
18:24 July 18, 2012 by Dazzler
I wish I could get in on some of these money grabbing programs! Oh wait...I'm a straight white male, no soup for me!
19:36 July 18, 2012 by hackie
Sweden has lost it long time ago. Woman this, woman that. All this is BS.
20:08 July 18, 2012 by p201055r
In that multi-cultural, equal state, which only partly defines 21st century Sweden, would the proponents of this (rather bizarre and costly) proposal ever consider extending it to members of that oft-forgotten gender - MEN?

But seriously, folks..........

40m SEK? If the proponents of the scheme can't see or find something of real social need to spend this amount of money on, their suitability as elected representatives and/or Government ministers is in grave doubt.
21:12 July 18, 2012 by Uncle
Just kidding got it right.

"Imported" men are from normal countries with rights and ability to study. They are REAL love immigrants. The program is created for those women who are imported in the full meaning of the word. Thai and Philippino females who make a deal of marrying old and ugly swedish farts in exchange for financial stability.

In fact they sell themselves into slavery for money and although they are legally free to walk away, they simply do not know it and are locked in the fear of economic disaster, since they are usually housewives without any work experience. The program is to INFORM them of the real deal and therefore this program is not exactly for the majority of men. I really do not see what the problem is.

On the other hand, the failure of the minister of immigration is apparent, so starting programs for few thousand, whereas hundreds of thousands asylum seekers look the way they look, is a faulty priority.
00:54 July 19, 2012 by Just_Kidding
They put their focus on teaching Swedish language to Immigrants. Instead they should teach western culture, the developments after the industrial revolution, French revolution, renaissance, and world history to Immigrants (instead of pushing useless Swedish words for spices and etc, using media like movies, free DVDs, youtube channel, etc...). Without these backgrounds all the preaching about treating women nicely and etc. will be on death ears since their Imams will advise differently. On the other hand, they should work on the prejudice of the main population about immigrants and refugees. This is a very hard task and a big challenge, not only in Sweden, but even in many other western countries. Socialist parties were a little bit helpful with their equality agenda, but they have also earned the hatred of the main population by slowing down the industrial flywheel (and making Swedish companies loose to the international competition) and creating big and inefficient governments.
04:23 July 19, 2012 by Grokh
i see a lot of women that just hang with other women from their respective countries , usually and mostly arabics, and then they spend 20 years doing SFI and dont learn the language.

thats one of the first problems with integration, the other comes when their children grow up halfway between 2 completely opposed cultures.
13:01 July 19, 2012 by KFF
I repeat my comment from an earlier article that this proposal is based on.

Regarding the treatment of men:

Women are always under all circumstances considered innocent victims in the officially endorsed ideology around things like these. You will therefore never see any reports on unfair treatment of men from swedish state sponsored research.

About the report that the proposition is based on:

Something not mentioned in the article is that the definition of a swede used in the article is anyone with a permanent residence permit. The vast majority of cases brought upp in the report "Kvinnor och barn i rättens gränsland" ("Women and children in the borderlands of jurisdiction") is actually cases involving this wider definition of a swede. The largest contribution of cases are Iraq, Iran and Africa, countries that very few ethnically swedish get their partner from. It's usually someone that get married to an ex asylum seeker and later on is abused alternatively want to have an excuse for a divorce. The typical thai and ukrainan wife that swedes prefer are less common, especially compared with the vast number of them here. Especially people from Thailand are far from isolated since they by my own experiences support each other in different ways.
00:36 July 21, 2012 by Spuds MacKenzie
@KFF Well put, and you confirmed my assumptions as well: that "Swedes" in this report include Middle Eastern refugees who now have a Swedish residence permit. They are undoubtedly the ones doing most of the wife abusing here.
08:42 July 21, 2012 by Alexjessy
Why is it that its so easy to spend on meaningless projects, why not a programme that will stop an 18 year old girl from marring a 65 year old man, you allow them marry men that can not even satisfy them sexually and later for the reason of marriage the want a divorce and will by law get half the mans life suffering, and you call that right,

Few years ago so many girls claimed to be raped just to get their hands on the fat money and when the government decided to make thorough investigation most of the women were caught and today you rarely hear the word rape from a girl,

my advice, want to stop abuse get to the root of the matter find out what is causing violence in most families , i think its reasonable spending on the caused of violence.
21:32 September 25, 2012 by trumanshow
Swedes are try'ers.....they are just not feelers...and will never get it right because much of humanity defies logic. And if there is no logic, for a Swede, it can't exist.
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