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Them ’n Us // Ethnicity –sharing origin
Sweden made its laws on immigration tougher and started to demand visas in some periods of the 1990´s, resulting in fewer people seeking asylum and residency permits. From the year 2000 fewer and fewer people have been granted residency permits. Immigration for family reasons continues but more restrictions have been introduced for this type of immigration also.
What is the present situation? Refugees are people who have come to Sweden seeking asylum and then have been granted permission to settle here. Other refugees are people who, prior to the journey to Sweden, were given residence permits within the refugee quota determined by the Swedish Government and Parliament. Travel costs of those refugees are paid by the Swedish Migration Board and UNHCR, the United Nations special organization for refugees. People seeking asylum are people who come to Sweden on their own accord and ask for protection against persecution, applying for permission to stay in Sweden and awaiting the final decision by the Swedish Migration Board.
Many people have left Sweden to move back to their countries of origin, a phenomenon called repatriation by the Ministry of Migration. Everyone cannot do this, however, and will never be able to, and so they become Swedish citizens and will remain in Sweden for the rest of their lives. The Swedish society of today has 12 per cent citizens born abroad and 4 per cent children both of whose parents were born abroad. In addition to this, we have generations of people of immigrant background who have lived and been raised in Sweden. Many people of foreign origin live in separate areas today, having their own suburbs, parts of towns and villages. Integration is slow. Unemployment is more common among people of foreign background than among Swedes. A majority of those of foreign background have low-paying jobs and as a result of this their financial situation is weaker. The Ministry of Integration considers employment to be an important part of integration. Another aspect is where you live, your school and what you can do in your spare time. Integration is about meeting others, seeing whether we are alike or not, and understanding that we are all simply “people”. Here is a big challenge to all Swedish youth organizations. Will the Scout movement take part?