The politics of sending asylum seekers home
The Local is not responsible for the content of blog comments.
Sweden may still have a reputation for holding its doors wide open for Iraqi asylum seekers. If this reputation was once deserved it certainly is not now, as the Boston Globe has noticed. The reason: Swedish courts have decided that there is no civil war in Iraq, making it possible to turn away more Iraqi asylum seekers. Last year, 72 percent of Iraqi asylum seekers were allowed to stay. This year, the figure is just 43 percent.
The rise in the number of rejections may ostensibly be down to the perceived improvement in Iraq – the court said that the violence there did not meet the internationally accepted definition of an ‘internal armed conflict’. What is unescapable is that many people who arrived in Sweden from tragic circumstances in Iraq, Afgahnistan and Somalia are being sent back to live in grim conditions or are staying here illegally to avoid being sent home.
But some say Iraqis are being turned away for essentially political reasons. Left Party spokesman Kalle Larsson tells the Boston Globe: “the system is sending political signals to the courts and to the migration board,” he said. “And these signals are saying, ‘There are too many people coming to Sweden.’ ”
Larsson’s explanation is hard to digest: we should all be concerned if courts are subject to political pressure. There’s no doubt, though, that the decision was politically useful for the government: Sweden was taking many more Iraqis than either the US or UK, the western countries most responsible for the Iraqi refugee problem. At the same time, voter tolerance for Sweden’s perceived generosity was beginning to wear thin.
With all parties worried by the rise of the anti-immigrant Sweden Democrats – and with any economic slowdown liable to increase that party’s appeal -there has been every incentive to clamp down on immigration.
This is particularly true of the Social Democrats, the main opposition party and current best bet to win the next election.
The Social Democrats’ traditional working-class, unionised supporter base is, according to pollsters, more likely than the average voter to vote for the Sweden Democrats.
This has necessitated a reaction – painful for a party with a history of generosity to asylum seekers. Leading Social Democrats have called for immigrants to be moved away from multicultural cities like Malmö and Södertälje. This kind of ‘tough love’, it is hoped, will appeal to poorer Swedes who feel their needs are being forgotten, while also being palatable to the party’s pro-immigration wing. Hardly suprising, though, if the party leaves thorny issue of interpreting the rules about who can and cannot stay to the courts – just as the current government has done.
July 22nd, 2008 at 8:16 pm
I can only hope that the authorities finally realize that Sweden is not ready to take up hundreds of thousands of jobless immigrants. This “multiculturalism” utopia just doesn’t work, and… why and who the heck needs it?!? Sweden is just fine as it is, with its own traditions, habits, cuisine, etc, etc..
July 28th, 2008 at 10:33 am
I’m a journalist who was threaten in Iraq, I came to Sweden to apply for asylum.. I was a productive person who will not agree to live as jobless.. so as hundreds of doctors and intellectual people … I think they can be merged into Swedish community and be effective
August 10th, 2008 at 12:14 am
some good points… I think the key is to remember that any country regardless of size can only take in so many people at a time before the system is overburdened. and that’s what is beginning to happen in sweden. too many people, too quickly ina country that prides itself on its social welfare is a recipe for disaster.
August 27th, 2008 at 3:01 am
I agree with John Doe. Being compassionate doesn’t mean giving up our culture.
The whole idea of Swedish population declining and the need for immigrants to offset it etc. is bogus. Sure let some immigration occur from many different countries of different cultures so that we don’t set up what seems to be brewing… a culture clash between white swedes and arabs.
August 28th, 2008 at 4:45 pm
I think the issue here refers to asylum seekers and not every immigrant in Sweden. so i want to defer from john Doe comment because it is out of track. If there is a authentic and sincere reason why an asylum seeker should be rejected, I have no problem with that, but if the rejection has political undertone, then the aim of asylum seeking will not be accompanished. Almost all the countries in the world have asylum seekers…at one point in time, it booms in a particular countries, at another it dooms. Asylum seeking is an international affair, it is not peculair to Sweden. Besides, not all the people that seek asylum in Sweden are granted permit to stay…be it residence or permenant after their cases are decided…
August 29th, 2008 at 6:59 am
When the asylum seekers are invited into sweden for the time they are not safe in their land, why dont they return back then?….and a fact is that every country has some problems of which the solution is not for the people to migrate to other countries…
Immigrants are immigrants and they stay immigrants even if they are granted permanant residence….they,their children are looked in the same way as of now even after countless decades and they remain in the history as immigrants.
So..better they go to their homeland and fight for their freedom.
September 3rd, 2008 at 8:45 am
why are we destroying sweden? sure, 1 out of thousands of asylum seekers is worth having here to make a contribution to our society. does that mean we have to support the livelihoods of the other masses that only drag our system down and drain our economy and fill our streets with crime? it seems so many swedes are obsessed with being do gooders to so many who are only doing bad.
September 3rd, 2008 at 8:51 am
If these people’s life in their country is so bad, they should fight for change. Running to sweden and sucking up a free life on our kroner is the easy way out, and besides,why do we want to absorb so many people of that mentality that takes the easy way out?
I think they are rather cowardly and lazy. They must go home and make their own place of birth better!
July 28th, 2010 at 6:26 pm
Mind your business, so what if they want a chance or opportunity to live a better life get off your white horse and leave the damn people alone. Selfish fool.