Sweden's reputation for openness and tolerance is changing as the government adopts an increasingly hostile and restrictive stance on immigration.

KEY POINTS

  • Sweden is often viewed as a liberal utopia in Europe, known for its stable economy, high quality of life, and open and progressive society.
  • But its center-right coalition government — which is propped up by the nationalist and right-wing Sweden Democrats party — has adopted an increasingly restrictive stance on immigration.
  • The country is trumpeting its lower numbers of immigrants, but economists say the economic benefits are debatable, with growth and productivity among the factors to consider.
  • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldMEnglish
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    2 months ago

    Sweden is often viewed as a liberal utopia in Europe

    I thought it was often viewed as a place with a stark landscape full of constant murders and detectives with clinical depression.

    • ours@lemmy.worldEnglish
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      2 months ago

      Because it’s an utopia that allows so many people to write books about bleak crimes.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldMEnglish
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        2 months ago

        Some of them anyway. I really liked the Kenneth Brannagh Wallander series. The original books are good too. There’s a Swedish TV version, but I’ve never seen it.

        • CheeryLBottom@lemmy.worldEnglish
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          2 months ago

          I did watch most of Wallander and a number of the Nordic Noir shows, but they got depressing and killed off my favorite people :p

    • InverseParallax@lemmy.worldEnglish
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      2 months ago

      As an Californian/Swede, it’s bizarro-land where people are nice to you, the exchange rate is almost hilariously good (if you work for dollars) and people don’t seem to want to take your money nearly as much.

      Also the people are gorgeous and friendly, though the extreme politeness takes a lot of getting used to.

      • GissaMittJobb@lemmy.mlEnglish
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        2 months ago

        Also the people are gorgeous and friendly, though the extreme politeness takes a lot of getting used to.

        Do you mind elaborating a bit on this? I’m interested to hear.

        • InverseParallax@lemmy.worldEnglish
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          2 months ago

          I’m American so for here I’m super loud, obnoxious, awkward and even rude, but that’s because we’re conditioned to be outgoing and friendly, while Swedes are far more reserved and communicate in subtlety.

          Also there’s a “right way” to do everything, and you just need to know it, I’m still learning.

          I’m really feeling my autism here.

        • ZC3rr0r@lemmy.caEnglish
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          2 months ago

          Having lived and worked in several countries, I think the concept of Jantelagen is rooted in the Protestant Reformation more than it being a specifically Nordic thing. Not only does it fit well with the general premise of the Protestant worldview, all countries that were early converts seem to have ingrained that particular perspective (under various names) in their collective cultures.

        • InverseParallax@lemmy.worldEnglish
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          2 months ago

          Agreed, and there’s a lot of that.

          It does go a bit far and cause tall-poppy syndrome.

          But it’s not too bad, and America has something similar, personally I love my daughter being brought up here because you see young girls walking around almost alone, and they’re not afraid, you don’t see that in America because obviously they’d be terrified of being attacked. Here the fear is just gone, they feel safe to be independent.

  • mumblerfish@lemmy.worldEnglish
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    2 months ago

    [the right wing government] says it is implementing a “paradigm shift” in its migration policies […]

    Note that at the same time, the social deomocrats are trying to embrace this paradigm shift as their doing and that what is being done now is just details on their work.

    government has proposed new initiatives to deport or repatriate migrants

    This also includes just a vague “bad behavior”, “vandel”. And in examples given by government representatives it could mean things like being a victim of a crime.

    • BearGun@ttrpg.networkEnglish
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      2 months ago

      Yea that’s been the main issue, not enough resources spent to get the immigrants to actually learn swedish and truly become part of society. Instead you get whole areas filled with people who don’t know the language and distrust the government and civil systems, which breeds a whole host of problems.

      • FenrirIII@lemmy.worldEnglish
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        2 months ago

        Not to mention the bad parts from their country of origin aren’t exorcized just by moving. You can’t remove negative cultural problems instantly.