STOCKHOLM — When Linus Rispling jogs in the Stockholm suburb of Hoegdalen, he sees a side of Sweden that was thought eradicated by the rise of the welfare state.
Scattered in the wooded and snowy hills, not far from high-rise apartments, stand more than 15 shacks and trailers, home to people fleeing poverty and crisis outside of Sweden. It’s one of at least 20 shantytowns and camp sites that have sprung up around the city over the past few years, housing an estimated 80 nationalities.
“The whole thing is really sad, with people who are so poor that they have to come here to beg,” said Rispling, a 35- year-old cartographer who has lived in Hoegdalen since 2007. “They do no harm, bring life to the center of Hoegdalen and are very nice and polite – they always say hi during my runs.”
Not all Swedes are as welcoming. A surge in arriving foreigners, coupled with growing unemployment over the past six years, has stoked support for the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats. Polls show the party could win more than 10 percent in September’s election, cementing its place as a kingmaker between the Social Democratic- and Conservative-led blocs.
Sweden has accepted the second-biggest asylum load in Europe amid a surge in Syrian refugees. Because the Nordic nation largely avoided Europe’s debt and economic crisis, it’s also a destination for migrants who lost jobs at home. After spending the 20th century eradicating extreme poverty and building the welfare state, Sweden is now grappling with how to accommodate the needs of groups that fall outside its established systems.
EU migration “is definitely a problem,” said Richard Jomshof, a member of parliament for the Sweden Democrats, which entered the legislature in 2010. “Many of these people are begging in the streets and can be pretty intrusive. We’ve been loud and clear about that we should have the right to tell them to move but also to expel them from Sweden.”
In the hills of Hoegdalen, groups of two or three trailer homes are tucked away under snow-laden trees next to a railway line, a gravel pit and a busy road. In one location, they adjoin four shacks made of wood and plastic.
On one afternoon last month, as temperatures hovered below freezing, the only sign of life was smoke rising from an old trailer. A young woman coming out of the trailer declined to comment when queried in English, Swedish and German. Three men standing next to a Bulgaria-registered car declined to comment in German.
Stefano Kuzhicov, the chairman of the Swedish National Association of Romani in Europe, said in a telephone interview last week that it’s important to remember that all European Union members have a right to live anywhere in the bloc.
“This is also about human rights, which is an aspect that needs to be highlighted more,” he said by telephone while in Stockholm. “There is a lot of ‘we’ and ‘them’ in the debate, which gives rise to prejudice, discrimination, imbalances and hatred in our society.”
The Sweden Democrats topped a list of which party had the best immigration policies in a poll published by Novus Opinion on Jan. 25. Almost 20 percent of the respondents chose it. The issue has climbed to the seventh most important issue from number 13 four years ago, the poll showed.
Similar opposition is emerging across Europe, with Britain discussing limiting immigration and the National Front gaining in France.
