Sweden, becoming a fortress

I am watching the Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau welcoming the Syrian refugees. Giving them permanent residence permits at the airport terminal, social security numbers and health cards. Inviting them to become Canadians. Expressing it’s a wonderful evening. And I am thinking wow. It is possible!

I am not proud to be a European theses days. And I am ashamed to be Swedish. I am even ashamed about my city Umeå. In only a couple of months Sweden has moved from letting everybody in need in, to building a fortress. The national conservative party Sverigedemokraterna (Sweden Democrats) much despised opinions about refugees and immigration have in a very short time become politically okay and the Social Democrat/Green government this week agreed on a law which will definitely change the earlier polished image of Sweden for the worst.

The pressure from the masses fleeing from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan is high in the bottle neck passage between Denmark and Sweden. ID controls on the ferries is already a fact. And on the new year there will also be ID checks on trains and buses. The reason, in the this week passed proposition, is “a severe threat to public order and internal security”. And the purpose is to make less refugees come here, and transform Sweden to a less attractive country. What a goal.

A severe threat to public order and internal security. Now, this is interesting. 154 758 refugees have , this far, sought for asylum in Sweden 2015, twice as many as was predicted this summer. That’s a lot. And we weren’t prepared. Of them, about half the number, gets to stay in Sweden.

The situation at the south Swedish border is very difficult. Unaccompanied children get lost and vanishes. Malmö (Malmoe), where the peak pressure is, this week asked five other cities to let some of the pressure off, helping Malmö out, becoming transit locations for unaccompanied children. Umeå was one of them. All the cities except Umeå responded yes. Apparently we couldn’t handle it. Note that Umeå is scoring very low welcoming refugees in general. A city with the self image of being open and tolerant.

We can’t handle it. Public order.

Sweden is a well organized, well functioning and well being country. The tolerans for disorder is low. What we perceive as chaos might to others be serenity.

The word chaos is used a lot here these days. As well as out of control. The refugee situation is so chaotic and out of control that we need to take a breather.  That’s why the ID-controls on ferries, buses and trains. The Swedish government in the proposition this week even tried to sneak in the option closing Öresundsbron (the bridge connecting Sweden to Denmark) if necessary, but that one didn’t pass. And who is going to handle the ID checks? Well, people working on the buses and trains! Evaluating Middle Eastern drivers licenses!

I know the situation is extremely strained and I appreciate the concerns. It’s not ideal people being on the run from terror for months finally arriving in the country for their goal, having to sleep outside in the cold because there isn’t room for them inside. But it’s probably better than being rejected and sent away. 

It’s not ideal being offered beds in tents, but it’s a roof over the head and the tents are warm. It’s not ideal being too many in an asylum accommodation, but there is food and clothes. It’s not ideal starting school without interpreters, but the children get to meet Swedish kids having a chance for friends in the new country and learning the foreign language from there.

But we can’t handle it. And I would say it is not in concern over our guests in need not being treated as well as we expect us to do. It’s about our organized country being stirred up by the disorganized world coming here messing with our systems and protocol.

The now viral video of Justin Trudeau welcoming and dressing Syrians just out of the airplane is of course a well arranged photo op. The refugees look like they have had a make over already on the flight. And 25 000 people is not many for such a big country, but it’s more than the even bigger U.S. and a lot of the European countries. And the photo op is still real. The facts are real and the Canadian prime minister is expressing an open face, a warm heart and generosity.

In Europe, all I see now is strained shut down faces. Cold eyes. Building a fortress. Even my own country. And that, to me, is very painful. I am thankful, this Lucia Day, for the new Paris climate agreement sending a bright light telling that it’s actually possible for the world to come together. Thank you.