It is a policy that has seen Sodertalje alone take more Iraqi refugees than the UK and the US combined. But in Sweden's new political climate, it is no longer certain that Nina (not her real name) will be permitted to remain. A new court process for screening refugees has meant that while last year about 72 per cent of Iraqi asylum seekers - the largest group entering Sweden - were accepted, in the first few months of 2008 that figure was only 27 per cent.
Driving the asylum debate is the nature of places like Sodertalje, Rinkeby, Tensta - all on Stockholm's periphery - and the suburbs of cities like Malmo. All have substantial populations of refugees - Somalis, Iraqis and Assyrians. Most are largely segregated from Sweden's mainstream life.
The rethinking of Sweden's asylum policy is being pushed too by two years of record immigration and refugee arrivals. Last year this country of nine million received 18,599 asylum applications from fleeing Iraqis. And the question being asked is not only whether a country with the reputation for having one of the world's most generous policies towards refugees can continue to be so welcoming. It is also whether Sweden needs urgently to redraw its requirements for their integration. Whether, indeed, those being offered a safe haven should be required to be more 'Swedish' and be dispersed from the core communities where they have settled.
The reframing of Sweden's attitude towards refugees has followed the election of a centre-right government in 2006 and also the reshaping of its politics with the re-emergence of the far right in the shape of the Sweden Democrats. The result has been a toughening of asylum policies and a hardening of the political discourse towards refugees.
Peter Beaumont in The Observer
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