ARE WE SO SUPERIOR?
13 May 2007

My greatest fear about moving back to Sweden is the attitude Swedes have about themselves, immigrants and the surrounding world. I can not stand Swedes who say that they are 'so happy to be Swedes because Sweden is such a great country'. Some view immigrants with great suspision and believe that everyone fights with everyone in 'all those countries in the Middle East or Africa'. It would not be a lie to claim that they look down on people who have not had the 'privilege' to be born in Sweden.

This is such a dangerous, unpleasant and ignorant attitude! Multiculturalism should, of course, be seen as a treasure which enriches homogenous societies. Living in a homogenous society, where everyone is blond and blue-eyed, would make me feel so isolated and bland!

I love my country, but there are also certain aspects I can not stand. For god's sake, the world is global these days and if Swedes continue thinking about immigrants as being so different because of their origin and colour, we will lose out, bigtime. Most of them also forget that Sweden used to be a very poor country with a 1/3 emigrating in the 19th century.

Swedish immigration policy has not worked, is not working and will not work only partly because of policies themselves, but the remaining part must be attributed to peoples' attitudes. Svensson, Persson, Johansson, please go and live in abroad for a while and see how it feels for yourselves to be a foreigner!

I always get into a good mood when I go to my local fruit and veggie provider: The old Moroccan man in his traditional clothing knows me and always smiles with his big (blue) eyes and says 'Bonjour mademoiselle, ca va?' Next time I will ask him about his life story-I am sure he will tell me interesting things about his berber life. And I hope he will invite me for some mint tea!