Political smoke screen to hide discrimination
Election year in Sweden and the Swedish media has highlighted one of “Folkpartiets”, the Liberal parties, points in the program they want the Swedes to vote for.
The Liberal party wants to implement a mandatory test in the Swedish language for all who applies for a Swedish citizenship.
The Liberals introduced this particular issue last election, 4 years ago and the media made it into a controversial issue.
This year’s election, the media again trigger a debate between the Liberal party and the Social Democrats on this issue. The debate is about if this is the right step to take, to integrate immigrants into the Swedish society.
What is this all about? Is this the best the politicians can come up with to develop the human resources of Sweden?
First of all, is there anything at all controversial with this mandatory Swedish test?
If the media bothers to discuss politics with the immigrants and not only with the politicians themselves, I believe the answer would be a simple no. No, there is nothing controversial with a mandatory Swedish test. This is because most immigrants that come to Sweden quickly realise that Sweden is a monolingual country and that the language is one of the keys into the job market and into the society.
USA has had mandatory tests in the English language and mandatory courses in the US history and US constitution for immigrants who want to become citizens for centuries. Do you ever hear anyone questioning that? No, of course not.
This whole debate is a political smoke screen to cover up the real problem, which is the Swedes’ attitude towards immigrants. An attitude that is shared by most Swedes, also politicians and journalists and has its roots in the Swedish self-sufficiency. Sweden is an ethnocentric culture; we do believe we are superior. But we put up a facade showing something else. Ask the immigrants, they experiences this phenomenon every day.
Sweden has for many years had a kind of open door policy for immigrants and refugees. Sweden has due to that become a multicultural society. Immigrants come here, learn Swedish, take degrees in the university and enter the job-market and there they meet the true face of Swedish ethnocentricity.
I’ll give you a true story (names are fictitious):
Evelin Nordström, (sounds very Swedish doesn’t it) is actually a black woman from Zimbabwe. Before she married her Swedish husband Carl Nordström, her name was Evelin Mubuto.
Evelin has lived in Sweden for ten years, has two children 8 and 6 years old. She has studied Swedish and speaks so damn good that people believe she is a Swede when they have her on the phone.
Now Evelin has taken a Swedish degree, in a Swedish university and is applying for a job.
The fact Evelin is having a Swedish looking name and sounding Swedish on the phone has taken Evelin to more job interviews than many other immigrants. But what happens when this beautiful and charming, well educated, well assimilated black woman enters the door to the interview?
Most interviewers were very surprised. So surprised that they forget to hide what they think. The first spontaneous question from the interviewer may be; “you must be adopted?”
This question is very interesting and illustrates very well the Swedish ethnocentricity. Swedes have no problem with people with different ethnic origin if they have been adopted and taken to Sweden as babies. This is because these adopted children become exactly like native Swedes. They have Swedish parents; go to Swedish nursery school and so forth. These adopted children think like Swedes, feel like Swedes, speak like Swedes and behave like Swedes. The only difference may be the colour of their skin.
The question, “you must be adopted”, is asked by the interviewer to be able to put Evelin in the right box. The Swedish box or the immigrant box. So, when Evelin tells the truth about her background she will be put in the immigrant box.
When you end up in the immigrant box you will have a different treatment. All the “fear questions” will be brought on you. What kind of background do you have? Where are you coming from? How much do you really understand about the Swedish work environment? How will you interact with your colleagues? How will you interact with our customers?
Can you be a threat? Will you fit in or can you be a problem?
Suddenly your competence and personality has become secondary.
Dear politicians and media professionals, this is discrimination. This discrimination is a part of the Swedish system and this is the real problem.
Don’t try to tell me I’m exaggerating. This is reality, our immigrants live with it daily, we the Swedes don’t see it or we deny it.
Another example:
My wife has lived in Sweden for eight years. All the time she has been a home worker (hemmafru) taking care of our growing family. My wife has a university degree, has 10 years work experience abroad, speaks 5 languages. She has never applied for a job in the Swedish job market but she has anyway understood how the system works. Therefore she is mentally preparing for the day she will start working outside our home. She knows already it may be the restaurant trade or something else along that line.
There’s nothing wrong with the restaurant trade. But it’s wrong of the Swedish society and the Swedish employers to not take care and not take advantage of Sweden’s fantastic Human Resources. Our fear, ignorance and self-sufficiency are stopping us from that.
The Liberal party wants to implement a mandatory test in the Swedish language for all who applies for a Swedish citizenship.
The Liberals introduced this particular issue last election, 4 years ago and the media made it into a controversial issue.
This year’s election, the media again trigger a debate between the Liberal party and the Social Democrats on this issue. The debate is about if this is the right step to take, to integrate immigrants into the Swedish society.
What is this all about? Is this the best the politicians can come up with to develop the human resources of Sweden?
First of all, is there anything at all controversial with this mandatory Swedish test?
If the media bothers to discuss politics with the immigrants and not only with the politicians themselves, I believe the answer would be a simple no. No, there is nothing controversial with a mandatory Swedish test. This is because most immigrants that come to Sweden quickly realise that Sweden is a monolingual country and that the language is one of the keys into the job market and into the society.
USA has had mandatory tests in the English language and mandatory courses in the US history and US constitution for immigrants who want to become citizens for centuries. Do you ever hear anyone questioning that? No, of course not.
This whole debate is a political smoke screen to cover up the real problem, which is the Swedes’ attitude towards immigrants. An attitude that is shared by most Swedes, also politicians and journalists and has its roots in the Swedish self-sufficiency. Sweden is an ethnocentric culture; we do believe we are superior. But we put up a facade showing something else. Ask the immigrants, they experiences this phenomenon every day.
Sweden has for many years had a kind of open door policy for immigrants and refugees. Sweden has due to that become a multicultural society. Immigrants come here, learn Swedish, take degrees in the university and enter the job-market and there they meet the true face of Swedish ethnocentricity.
I’ll give you a true story (names are fictitious):
Evelin Nordström, (sounds very Swedish doesn’t it) is actually a black woman from Zimbabwe. Before she married her Swedish husband Carl Nordström, her name was Evelin Mubuto.
Evelin has lived in Sweden for ten years, has two children 8 and 6 years old. She has studied Swedish and speaks so damn good that people believe she is a Swede when they have her on the phone.
Now Evelin has taken a Swedish degree, in a Swedish university and is applying for a job.
The fact Evelin is having a Swedish looking name and sounding Swedish on the phone has taken Evelin to more job interviews than many other immigrants. But what happens when this beautiful and charming, well educated, well assimilated black woman enters the door to the interview?
Most interviewers were very surprised. So surprised that they forget to hide what they think. The first spontaneous question from the interviewer may be; “you must be adopted?”
This question is very interesting and illustrates very well the Swedish ethnocentricity. Swedes have no problem with people with different ethnic origin if they have been adopted and taken to Sweden as babies. This is because these adopted children become exactly like native Swedes. They have Swedish parents; go to Swedish nursery school and so forth. These adopted children think like Swedes, feel like Swedes, speak like Swedes and behave like Swedes. The only difference may be the colour of their skin.
The question, “you must be adopted”, is asked by the interviewer to be able to put Evelin in the right box. The Swedish box or the immigrant box. So, when Evelin tells the truth about her background she will be put in the immigrant box.
When you end up in the immigrant box you will have a different treatment. All the “fear questions” will be brought on you. What kind of background do you have? Where are you coming from? How much do you really understand about the Swedish work environment? How will you interact with your colleagues? How will you interact with our customers?
Can you be a threat? Will you fit in or can you be a problem?
Suddenly your competence and personality has become secondary.
Dear politicians and media professionals, this is discrimination. This discrimination is a part of the Swedish system and this is the real problem.
Don’t try to tell me I’m exaggerating. This is reality, our immigrants live with it daily, we the Swedes don’t see it or we deny it.
Another example:
My wife has lived in Sweden for eight years. All the time she has been a home worker (hemmafru) taking care of our growing family. My wife has a university degree, has 10 years work experience abroad, speaks 5 languages. She has never applied for a job in the Swedish job market but she has anyway understood how the system works. Therefore she is mentally preparing for the day she will start working outside our home. She knows already it may be the restaurant trade or something else along that line.
There’s nothing wrong with the restaurant trade. But it’s wrong of the Swedish society and the Swedish employers to not take care and not take advantage of Sweden’s fantastic Human Resources. Our fear, ignorance and self-sufficiency are stopping us from that.
posted by Man in Love with Life at
12:43 PM
3 Comments:
"Sweden is an ethnocentric culture; we do believe we are superior. But we put up a facade showing something else. Ask the immigrants, they experiences this phenomenon every day."
It is the same situation here in Finland. It is so sad and upsetting and frustrating. We maybe immigrants but we are humans too.
Take for example, when a finnish woman and I walk into a shop simultaneously, the finnish woamn will be the one she greets and serve. She will pay no attention to me nor has any intention to EVEN serve me. Now tell me, what is that?
Another scenario, one day I went to a grocery shop with my baby in his pram, they have scores of branches all over Finland FYI, I was happily going from shelf to shelf looking for things that I want. While I went on my spree, I felt someone was actually following me. So I turned around to see a security guy following every corner I went. I gave him a scornful stare and he walked away. About 10mins later when I was walking to the cashier, I saw a gypsy woman hollering from another corner so I stopped to see what's going on and to my surprised she was yelling at the security guard for following her around the store thinking she might steal. So ... bottomline, they even visualize us as thieves. Isn't that discrimination?
There is so much more that I have gone through here which involves pretty much the word 'discrimination'. Will share more ifyou are interested :)
By
Anonymous, at 9:16 AM
Hi Daphne,
Today I had a bad day at work. Later when I read your comment I felt really down.
First I thought; how terrible bad we people treat each other, it's so sad.
Then I thought; I will not get many visitors on this Blog, who wants to read about miserable things like this.
Then I said to myself; don't rationalize too much, follow your heart and write out what ever is in there, happy things as well as sad things, let them out and maybe more will follow, like you did Daphne.
"What has not been said doesn’t exist"
By
Man in Love with Life, at 6:43 PM
You blog has been interesting and exciting, you are such an ambitious man who does his best in highlighting and educating people who are not able to cope with foreigners.
Here in the UK people are generally more culturally tolerant and as long as you show that you are capable, people will respect you.
Off course you do get a small bunch of people who don't like immigrants and sometimes older people find it difficult too, the way they look at you is as if you come here to steal all their money away.
Fortunately working in UK as a foreigner hasn't been that hard. I worked for 3 years as a secretary in various offices across UK, at first people kind of showed disbelief that you could do the job well because you are not English.
As soon as you prove them wrong you will gain acceptance amongest co-workers and i feel that that is the time when both culture really integrate and they begin to understand you.
Gaining trust is important. Maybe it is the nature of people to not trust someone who appears to be different from them. To break the ice, people need to talk and know each other.
I find that as a foreigner, if you try to conform to the norm and overall identity of a culture, you become less of a foreigner to them. Simple things such as dressing style, language, habbits and so on.
So if i dress up casually to go shopping, i would be treated differently, compared to if i am well dressed and trendy. I am sure this kind of scenario happens in our own country too, (by the way I am Malaysian for those who don't know me yet) the fact is that, people are realistic, they can't help but judging you from the way you look before they speak to you!
Well, what can i say, we can only do our best to help them to get to know us. At the end of the day, it is up to them to step out from their old protective shelters.
I am now attending University, I am amazed at how ignorant young kids are towards the rest of the world and international people in this country.
If anything, the educational system needs to change, young kids need to be made aware of the is a WORLD out there besides the country they were born into. They need to learn that no one life is greater than anohter and no one race is more superior than another and that we are just the same.
My husband is saying to me that everyone he knows seem to have Asian girilfriends of wives. As the world grows to be ever more globalised, lets hope for a more tolerant society.
By
Anonymous, at 4:49 PM
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