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Sweden's Backlash: Why The Tide Is Turning For Refugees

Sweden has received more refugees per capita than any other country last year, but many Swedes have started to question the country's immigration policies as crime rates and extremism are on the rise.Traditionally, Sweden has been viewed as welcoming to refugees.In 1970, most immigrants came from other European nations like Finland, Yugoslavia, Denmark and Greece. The 1980s saw people come from Iran, Chile, Lebanon and Turkey.In the last 10 years, the numbers have taken off and in 2015, nearly 163,000 individuals applied for asylum in Sweden, a nation of 9.8 million people.Syrians accounted for 51,000 of these asylum seekers, 41,000 came from Afghanistan, 20,000 from Iraq, along with thousands from Eritrea, Somalia and Iran. A combined 4,000 came from Albania and Kosovo.Today, around 1.6 million people living in Sweden were born in another country - that is 16 percent of the population.Many new arrivals are languishing in temporary housing, beggars and homeless live in the streets, and some neighbourhoods have seen an uptick in violence and extremism.Concerns over security are growing and recent information about members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) living in Sweden and going to fight in Syria has received lots of media attention. According to Swedish police, around 300 people, many of them from the city of Gothenburg, are believed to have gone to Syria.Then there's violent crime - in the past several months murders and assaults have taken place in asylum centres and in neighbourhoods with large numbers of immigrants.The Sweden Democrats, the only party that has been advocating a more restrictive immigration policy, is now the third largest party in opinion polls, despite efforts by established political parties to isolate it.So, what is behind the recent backlash against immigration in Sweden Why is the tide turning for refugees in SwedenAl Jazeera went to the Swedish community of Ostra Goinge, an area that has received a n

English
  • Originally Aired April 9, 2016
  • Runtime 20 minutes
  • Production Code 4837866773001
  • Network Al Jazeera
  • Created April 12, 2016 by
    Administrator admin
  • Modified April 12, 2016 by
    Administrator admin