Social Democrats and Greens have long ruled Sweden. A consequence is that unfettered and unfiltered immigration has almost destroyed the country. When ASIO chief Mike Burgess is comfortable letting through supporters of Hamas, it is time to call time on unfettered and unfiltered immigration to Australia.
Sweden is racked with ethnic gang violence. Denmark police have arrested at least 25 young Swedes for suspected contract killing or bombing in recent months. Increasingly younger people are committing violent acts. Ten-year-olds are lured with hamburgers, while 15-year-olds murder for money and prestige. It was reported that teenage boys or young men are recruited on encrypted messaging apps and paid up to $115,000 for a hit and $10,000 for bombings. No other country in Europe comes even remotely close to the escalation of violence in Sweden.
Denmark has imposed controls on the Swedish border, and Danish Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard said Sweden’s neighbours were suffering the ‘consequences of [its] longstanding failed immigration and criminal justice policy.’
Fortunately, the adults are now in charge in Sweden. Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson of the Moderate Party leads a coalition with the Christian Democrats and the Liberal Party. His address to the Riksdag last September was brutal; ‘Sweden has never before faced such serious threats to its internal security, including both terrorism and serious organised crime.’ The blame was laid squarely at the foot of immigration and poor integration.
Over the last twelve years, 1.2 million foreign nationals have immigrated to Sweden, and 700,000 people have been granted Swedish citizenship. The scale of extensive immigration to Sweden has placed a tremendous strain on Swedish society. Integration problems now affect most policy areas. After decades of too much immigration and too little integration, a paradigm shift is now taking place in Swedish immigration policy.
Sweden has vowed to reduce immigration to the minimum level allowed under EU requirements. The Prime Minister announced that everyone permanently residing in Sweden must learn Swedish because ‘it enables them to understand their country, its written laws, unwritten rules, and values.’ For this reason, the Swedish immigrant program must have ‘higher standards and higher quality’.
Since 2021, residence permits in Sweden are only issued for a limited time. An individual applying for a permanent residence permit must provide proof of income and housing. The 2023 measures are much more substantial.
Pointedly, the Prime Minister said that ‘no women or young people have to live in honour-related oppression’. This is a direct hit on conservative Muslim practices. The ‘shadow society’ must be combated, and the exploitation of vulnerable people must be mitigated.
Sweden is ‘getting tough on crime’ with harsher sentences for ‘gross’ offences. For example, those who have received an expulsion order must leave Sweden. The number of detention centres will be increased. Greater demands will be placed on countries that refuse to accept their own expelled citizens. Those who lied or cheated to obtain residence permits will have them revoked.
Police will gain the power to use ‘secret coercive measures’ against criminal gangs preventively, and sentences for gross firearms offences will be doubled. Special prisons for young offenders will be established.
Interesting is the link the Prime Minister made to education, where he promised to focus more on ‘measurable knowledge, more textbooks and fewer screens.’ Again, linking immigration and education, he said, ‘In the wake of failed integration, one in five pupils in Year 4 has difficulty reading. Further, he reported ‘physical and mental insecurity’ in the classroom and unfair and unacceptable ‘grade inflation’ in ‘certain’ schools.
He also said pedagogical trends have shaped schools for years, ‘gravely undervaluing in-depth factual knowledge.’ In addition, screens in the classroom will be reviewed based on research showing that analogue tools give children the best conditions to learn to read, write and do arithmetic. Sweden will invest in textbooks; ‘screen time will be exchanged for reading time.’
Australia can remain a liberal society only so long as it does not settle large numbers of people who are unable or unwilling to integrate. The Swedes are following the Netherlands; others are sure to follow a more discerning immigration policy and a more explicit integration policy.
Where there are illiberal elements in the migrant stream, Australia must work hard to liberalise. Having a stream of applicants already on the integration journey makes much more sense to make Australian citizens more confident of a migrant’s ability to integrate.
Gary Johns is chair of Close the Gap Research
