IMAGE: A campaign advertisement for the Swedish Democrats.
When people ask me (politely) how I’m doing, I typically answer, “Pretty good, considering.” If they ask, “Considering what?” … my standard response is, “Considering how badly I could be doing.”
If we want to consider how badly the U.S. is doing… well…
…compared to the Soviet Union under Stalin… or Uganda under Idi Amin… we’re doing pretty well.
We could also compare ourselves to Sweden, 2023.
I spent my senior year of high school as an exchange student in Sweden, and I was impressed (as one can easily be, living a foreign country) by their mix of capitalism and socialism. The family I stayed with was relatively well off, in spite of paying about 75% of their income in taxes; the father was CEO of a company that built power lines; the mother was a traditional housewife.
Sweden had its share of people living in poverty, but most people seemed to be comfortably ‘middle class’… and relatively well-off, with universal health care, low-cost transportation alternatives, free college education, well-maintained public infrastructure, and respectful politics.
Truth be told, I did not look forward to returning to the U.S. in 1970 — to a country embroiled in the Vietnam War, a battle for civil rights, racial hatred, a ‘war’ on drugs, a growing prison population. If I hadn’t signed an agreement, promising that I would return to the U.S. following my exchange year, I would have been sorely tempted to stay in Sweden.
Had I broken that agreement, and somehow managed to stay in Sweden, I suppose I would have been classed as an ‘immigrant’.
I see that now, the far-right in Sweden — represented by the Sverigedemocraterna (“Swedish Democrats”) — has been making headway in national elections, promising:
“Sverige ska bli bra igen”.
The Swedish word, bra, can have various meanings, depending upon the context. “Good”. “Wonderful”. “Great”.
I would translate this campaign message as “Sweden shall become great again.”
Compared to something?
As I said before, it all depends on who we want to compare ourselves to… and whether we see ourselves as blessed or cursed.
We can also compare ourselves to the past, of course.
Sweden is not quite the same place it was in 1969-1970, the year I was attending high school there… at least, to judge by what I find in the online news. The popularity of the right-wing Sverigedemokraterna (“Swedish Democrats”), for example, is a relatively new development. Back in 1970, the Socialdemokratiska arbetarpartiet (“Social Democratic Workers Party”) had pretty much maintained political control of the Swedish Parliament (Riksdag) since the mid-1930s, either on its own or in political coalitions with parties representing farmers, liberals, and socialists.
Sweden currently has eight different parties represented in the Riksdag, who share power in various configurations in pursuit of various agendas.
Things took a turn in 2022, when the far-right Sverigedemocraterna became Sweden’s second largest party, and agreed to back a coalition government led by the Moderata samlingspartiet (“Moderate Collective Party”), the Kristdemokraterna (“Christian Democrats”) and the Liberalerna (“Liberals”).
Ulf Kristersson, leader of the Moderata samlingspartiet is currently Prime Minister — with support coming from the far-right, in exchange for implementing robust anti-immigration policies.
In a recent speech, Prime Minister Kristersson summarized the government’s changing direction.
Immigration to Sweden has been unsustainable. The result has been dangerous social exclusion among many people born in other countries, but also among children and young people born here in Sweden. The integration problems now affect all of society in the form of housing segregation and overcrowding, unemployment and benefit dependence, health problems and poor school outcomes, crime and vulnerability to crime, honor-based oppression, insecurity and violations of young people’s rights.
There has never been a well thought-out approach to how many people can come, and on what terms. The same can be said of what rules are necessary to integrate people into the community when they come from countries with completely different laws, rules and cultures.
This Government’s message is that this cannot continue. A paradigm shift is now taking place in Swedish immigration policy.
As a member of the European Union, Sweden is bound to abide by EU immigration policies — to some degree. How those EU policies can be shrewdly interpreted, to prevent the acceptance of immigrants from “countries with completely different laws, rules and cultures”, will apparently be one of the key tasks of Sweden’s new right-leaning government.
According to an October 2022 agreement between the four political parties, Swedish immigration must be adjusted to the minimum level allowed by European Union law, while maintaining international conventions, including the right to asylum.
Some will argue that these are ways for Sweden to become great again.
Today is ‘Indigenous People’s Day’, or alternately, ‘Columbus Day’. We can compare the values encapsulated in those two very different labels, and the meaning of the word “immigration”.
From the Merriam Webster Dictionary:
Immigration: an act or instance of immigrating… specifically : travel into a country for the purpose of permanent residence there.
Following the ‘discovery’ of America by Christopher Columbus and his crew, the immigration began — from the ‘Old World’, to the ‘New World’.
It wasn’t actually a new world, of course. It had been occupied for at least 23,000 years, according to the latest archaeological findings in New Mexico.
When you travel to a country, for the purpose of taking up permanent residence there, you might be an immigrant seeking the legal right to live there, according to that country’s laws.
Or you might simply force your way in, without asking permission, and kill anybody who tries to stand in your way.
Like Columbus did.
In which case, you’re not an immigrant. You’re a conqueror.