Tag: immigration

To stay or to go – the Green party is wavering

Isabella Lövin and Per Bolund Miljöpartiet
An unhappy couple left out in the cold
pic: miljöpartiet.se

The Green party is in crisis discussions regarding staying or leaving the government, Expressen reported today. By the end of August, the government wants to have a new migration policy, one that has broad support from all the parties, done and dusted. To this end, the Social Democrats have had long and intensive discussions with the Moderate party in particular, something the Green party doesn’t appreciate at all as they and the Moderates have largely diametrical thoughts on the immigration topic. Last Friday, the discussions were particularly comprehensive – but the Green party was left out on the doorstep.

At the moment, the Social Democrats, the Moderates and the Christian Democrats are agreed, DN reports, on some sort of asylum “max number”. Even the Center party and Liberals haven’t expressed outright opposition to the concept. These three or more parties, if they come to an agreement, would get a majority in parliament. The Sweden Democrats would likely go along though, which would make a pretty much unassailable majority, even if they say they consider the proposal “way too lame” (alldeles för mesigt).

On the other hand, however, the Green party and the Left party are indignant going on outraged. “The Social Democrats are slamming the door in both our faces by negotiating with the Moderates. There is another majority here, one that the government is actually based on. Still, they turn to the Moderates. It’s refugees who will pay the price” said Left party board member Christina Höj Larsen. “It is completely unique that the government negotiates with the opposition and not its own partner” said a Green party member to Expressen. “Are all the questions we’re not agreed on to be decided with the Moderates in the future?”

When the Social Democrats first put more restrictive policies in place after the wave of immigration threatened municipality stability back in 2015, the Green party still didn’t leave the government – to the dismay and anger from a large part of their following. They will be risking that anger again if their “partner” the Social Democrats run them over again on the same question.

One thing that might make a more restrictive immigration policy more palatable, however, is if the government says no to Preem’s expansion plan (see “Preem gets a pass” here). If not, though, losing on two issues close to their heart, if that’s what happens – and when they’re supposed to be a deciding partner – might prove to be too much to swallow.

19 sep. – Shekarabi’s immigration play on fb

civilminister Ardalan Shekarabi
pic: gp.se

Ardalan Shekarabi might post as “a social democrat” on facebook, but he’s actually Minister for Public Administration (civilminister), not some random self-identified voter on the internet. Therefore it’s no featherweight suggestion he makes there that Sweden needs “a sustainable immigration policy and to keep the number of new immigrants low” ().

His facebook post reflects the split in the Social Democratic party regarding immigration, with several prominent persons expressing themselves rather in favor of a more restrictive immigration. As SvD notes, the youth wing of the party, SSU, came out in favour of an EU-wide immigration policy, stating that Sweden can’t be the only country taking asylum responsibility (). The thinktank Tiden has asked prominent Social Democrat, and Norrköping City Council member, Lars Stjernkvist, to formulate a future immigration policy in which the dreaded word “volume” is discussed ().

Shekarabi writes that “extreme segregation” is a threat to social cohesion, and that he would like to create “an inclusive national identity.”

This comes at almost the same time as the government has decreed (today) that new immigrants who decide for themselves that they want to live in a “socially vulnerable area” – IOW an area that is populated largely with immigrants who are low on the socioeconomic scale – will lose their daily social allowances (dagsersättning) from the government ().

The Liberal party immigration spokesperson Fredrik Malm remarked that there are problems of extremely crowded living and segregation associated with these areas: School children, for example, can’t concentrate on their studies when they live in crowded conditions. If new immigrants live in state-run institutions, it is easier to reach them and provide social services, it is argued ().

However, no one has suggested actually revoking the Law of Own Accommodation (EBO-lagen – lagen om eget boende), that was begun in 1995 and allowed new immigrants to establish themselves wherever in the country they wanted. Quite naturally, this turned out to be where they found others from their country, and where they didn’t feel so alone. This has turned out to be city suburbs, and the rest is segregation history. In many respects, these areas are economic grey areas anyway, and it is unsure whether the threat of taking away allowances is going to have any effect.

Meanwhile, Shekarabi’s post may only be his way of jockeying for a better position in the race to succeed Löfven as party leader. As Rahm Emanuel said to Obama in the beginning of Obama’s first term as president, at the height of the 2008 economic crisis, “you never want a serious crisis to go to waste” (nyti.ms/NYTimesBiggestCrisis).