Sweden still 'a land of possibilities' for foreigners says finance minister

Asked by The Local at an event in Malmö whether her government was hostile to foreigners, following cuts to funding for organisations like ABF, which among other thing teach Swedish to people who can’t study SFI, and also to the ethnic associations research shows can be an important tool for integration, Svantesson said Sweden still offered a lot to immigrants. 

"If you put it all together, we do an enormous amount to make sure that people from other countries can come in [to society], she said. "We take action upon action, and I'd argue that Sweden is a 'land of possibilities' for those from another country."

She conceded, however, that the budget was being cut for folkbildning, the term for popular adult education organisations like ABF – which is linked to the Social Democrat party – or Medborgarskolan, which is linked to the Moderate Party. 

"Yes, the money for folkbildning is reduced, absolutely," she said. "But there's still a lot of money left." 

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She then ran through the ways in which Sweden was in fact very generous to foreigners newly arrived in the country. 

"You get free Swedish lessons at SFI [Swedish for Immigrants], and if you're an asylum seeker, you can even get paid to study Swedish. We have the etableringsjobb [introductory jobs], which together with the unions and employers we are very keen to get going as soon as possible." 

She added that education in Sweden was completely free, with some even paid to study.

So to argue that her government was "hostile to foreigners", she concluded, was way off the mark. 

"I feel very confident, and secure and certain that anyone who truly wants to get on can go extremely far in Sweden."  

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The event, an informal meeting with the Moderate Party in Malmö on Wednesday evening, rounded off a day in which Svantesson had toured Skåne together with Sweden's Prime Minister, Ulf Kristersson, vising an old people's home in Åhus and a school in Broby. 

The intention was clearly to show that the government was concerned about the ability of municipalities and regional governments to fund education and healthcare, even though both regions and municipalities have complained that the extra funding they received in the budget last week is insufficient to cover the impact of inflation. 

The meeting, which was intended as "an open audience" with the two politicians, was attended by activists from the Extinction Rebellion protest group.

One after another, they interrupted the proceedings with statements about the increased emissions resulting from decisions taken by the government, several then sang a song, with each in turn dragged away by plain clothes police officers.