Trump comments put focus on Sweden’s immigration policies

When a riot broke out in a predominantly immigrant Stockholm suburb late Monday, the biggest surprise for many Swedes was that a police officer found it necessary to fire his gun.

For President Don a ld Trump and his supporters, however, the episode appeared to confirm Trump’s vague observation two days earlier that the Scandina- vian country was at risk of becoming a breeding ground for extremist attacks.

It’s true that Sweden, which prides itself on welcoming newcomers, is see- ing a new kind of urban unrest. The combination of the country’s open-door policy and comparatively heterogeneous culture has led to friction, especially in areas where many long- time immigrants feel disem- powered.

Yet its problems with crime, poverty and violence are no greater than in the United States and other coun- tries with home-grown gangs as well as waves of new arrivals — and Trump’s focus on Swedish issues left many people there puzzled.

This week’s trouble started when police arrested a drug crime suspect Monday night in Rinkeby, an economically depressed immigrant neigh- borhood. Rioters threw rocks at police, set cars on fire and looted shops, but no one was injured. Similar episodes of unrest have happened sporadically in Sweden.

The flash came two days after Trump suggested during a Saturday rally in Florida that Sweden could be the next European country to suffer the kind of extrem- ist attacks that have struck France, Belgium and Germany.

“You look at what’s hap- pening,” he told his supporters. “We’ve got to keep our country safe. You look at what’s happening in Germany, you look at what’s happening last night in Sweden. Sweden, who would believe this?”

Swedes were baffled by the comment, pointing out that no crime or unrest of note had occurred Friday in their country. Trump, seeking to clarify his remarks, tweeted later that “my statement as to what’s happening in Sweden was in reference to a story that was broadcast on @FoxNews concerning immi- grants & Sweden.”

The president apparently had been referring to a segment aired Friday night on the Fox News show “Tucker Carlson Tonight.” It reported that Sweden had accepted more than 160,000 asy- lum-seekers last year, but that only 500 of the migrants had found jobs.

Illustrated with images of broken windows and fires, the segment went on to say that a surge in gun violence and rape had followed an influx of immigrants to the country of 10 million.

Amid a flood of ridicule on social media for Trump’s statement, some Trump supporters seized on the distur- bances in Rinkeby as evidence of his claim. Rightwing news outlets in the United States and elsewhere have insisted that Sweden is covering up evidence of migrant-related crime — a claim officials in this pros- perous Scandinavian nation, which has a long humanitarian tradition, have rejected.

Sweden received a record 163,000 asylum-seekers in 2015 — notin 2016 as reported by Fox News. That was the highest per-capita rate in Europe, and the country’s has since reduced the number of refugees and migrants it will accept, acknowledging it cannot manage such a large inflow.

Although the right-wing Sweden Democrats have tapped into a growing anti-immigrant sentiment, many Swedes are disinclined to link any increases in crime to the recent rapid growth in the number of refugees and migrants that streamed into the country and others in Europe.

The riot and gang battles over territory are mostly in areas where low-income immigrants settled decades ago.

In Rinkeby, Swedish culture has long lived side-byside with traditions from Asia, the Middle East and Africa, but the Swedish influence has increasingly diminished as more immigrants move in and more Swedes move out.

The suburb has come to symbolize failed integration policies, even if the problems are not as bad as in the worst neighborhoods of major U.S. cities. But it has had problems with crime for decades and, in recent years, with radical Islamic groups recruiting jihadi fighters.

So far, attacks linked to extremism have remained rare in Sweden.