Although Sweden has opted for a more multicultural approach than neighbouring Denmark, which has one of Europe's toughest policies on immigration, the city of Malmö, with its 270,000 inhabitants, has a variety of cultures unlike any other in Sweden. Mayor Reepalu also acknowledges that the country has toughened anti-discrimination laws and is working to validate foreign qualifications. He also stresses that the demography of immigration is positive for Malmö.
"While the load of its ageing population is weighing down Sweden, our city has a young population that is in itself an investment in future welfare," he said.
Some 34% of its residents have a foreign background, with many from the former Yugoslavia, but even Iraqis and Somalis number among recent entrants.
Immigration did not figure prominently in the 17 September 2006 election, as the main parties focused on jobs – however, the victory for the centre-right alliance was historic, as the Social Democrats have never before lost power in the middle of an economic boom. The Social Democrats, led by Goran Persson, took a 35.2% share of the vote - their lowest since the introduction of universal suffrage in the 1920s.
So, does Mayor Reepalu believe that a swing to the right, parties not normally associated with moderate immigration views, means a change in Sweden’s attitude? “No, I don’t think so. The right-wing is not saying that we shouldn’t let more people in, but rather that they should be able to support themselves. The liberals perhaps believe that Sweden should be even more generous than it is, so I don’t see any moves likely against immigration.”
Many immigrants, however, will be hoping that the new Swedish government delivers more jobs - the official unemployment rate is nearly 6%.
In Malmö, housing is also a problem – with 3,000 immigrants arriving in the city each year, double the number of houses available, what does Reepalu plan on doing to address this difficulty? “Well, it is a problem, but one that we are dealing with,” he says. “Malmö is having more money spent per capita on housing that any other Swedish city, and I look at it in the same way as the city’s problems were dealt with in the mid-1990s, when the city suffered a sharp economic downturn. Yes, times were tough, but they also coincided with us becoming a member of the EU – as with immigrants now, there were dramatic changes but also dramatic gains. Even though the high unemployment coincided with high immigration, there was not a sense of ‘they’re taking our jobs’. Rather, it was a time of collective will and effort, just like now.”
