Social Unrest Provoked Violence Continues in Stockholm

If someone goes to the small hill overlooking the Husby Park, there are several granite cubes in the park district Husby in Stockholm. In one of them, you can read a written in stone that says Do not be a gangster, stay alive. It could be a warning to young people that populate this section of Stockholm and just a year ago they staged a riot that made thinking about the end of the Swedish utopia on the perfect integration of immigrants. Unemployment, discrimination when awarding jobs, lack of prospects were mentioned as explanations for the uprising, visible flames hundred or burning cars, similar to those that occurred earlier in London or Paris, although less scale. A year later, the neighbors argue that the problems are still there, while the City reinforces their nursing care.

“You do not see that fire and smoke.” Sitting on a bench at the neighborhood mosque and wearing a  typical Nigerian costume Hakeem recognizes not have returned to cause problems in the neighborhood, others point to some shots, no injuries, but insists the complaint about the marginalization of immigrants, most of them in the neighborhood, 85%, many of them in Africa, according to the district authorities Rinkeby – Kista, which Husby, home to about 12,000 people belong. ” They do not want to be part of them, will not let you live where you want, do not get the job you want.” Soldier for 10 years in the Nigerian Navy, acknowledges that he does not work, but complains of the youth treatment. “They do nothing for them, give them no leisure activities, do not give them assistance, differentiate between them and the Swedes when they ask for work, although they speak Swedish. The riots have to do with the lack of opportunities “ditch, shortly before going into the mosque for prayer Sunday.

Kristina Andersson, 33, and her partner, Nic, 36, walk their baby by Edvard Griegsgangen, the runner crossing the neighborhood, next to the shopping center where they met and the rioters, a few meters from Hakeem, disagrees: ” No nothing was political, there was no political demands. Only boredom.” Marian, Chile 33, returning from shopping with their children Gino, 17, and Francisco, 8, notes that idle youth ” want attention “. It’s the same reviewer Kamen Yordanov, a Bulgarian 40 years working with youth in the area and, before starting to pay with other neighboring gardens of their community, showing the reporter the blackened mark left one of the cars fire. Then he returns to his task at the plants around the bland blocks of four, five stories, some higher, insipid in its various colors.

Kristina and Nic, along with two volunteers Kirkan Husby, the Baptist church a few meters from the mosque, criticize the authorities because, a year later, ” did nothing “, but the responsible district listed a catalog of assistance measures. So does the Greek Alexandra, 24, who shyly notes that ” some people are not satisfied.” Volunteers, like other neighbors consulted speak of unemployment, which affects a large proportion of the citizens Husby, even among young people. According to official statistics, the unemployment rate in Husby among young people 20 to 25 years stands at around 17%, by 3% in Stockholm, although self Olle Johnselius, director of the district council admits it can be greater. During the protests last year, some sources stood at 20 %. Hakeem exaggerates 90% youth unemployment. Perhaps the clearest speech rate (the percentage of people working on the total), which is slightly above 50% in the district, 76% in the whole of the Swedish capital.

“They feel they have opportunities,” laments Barbro. It was one of the first inhabitants of the neighborhood, back in the mid-70s, when the heat of the ambitious national program ” Million households “, the Stockholm authorities gave the green light to the construction of Husby as a destination for the burgeoning middle class of the city. With the economic boom and the influx of immigrants, the Swedes were leaving the neighborhood.  ” They do not like school and do not want to work. Come in Sweden people have everything and they want to have, but do not want to get it working, ” she says.

However, points in a direction that so does the official Johnsellius: education. Barbro regrets that newcomers do not speak Swedish, making it very difficult finding work. When it comes to your children, I do not speak it, pointing to their parents, as they do not understand, do not know what happens outside the door of your home, or have no communication with the schools that their children attend. “I do not know what happens.”

To Johnselius, education is key, particularly school failure. The ” frustration ” they feel when they finish at 15 and 16, the nine -year compulsory education and do not have enough to go forward with the institute note, the gymnasium, which is voluntary, but without which it is very difficult to get a good job. The reason for this failure? “Language, definitely,” Johnselius ditch. ” If me lead me to Somalia and put me in a school and not understand a word, how was I going to manage? “.

Therefore, there are programs to bolster education. One is a center, opened a year ago, which evaluates the newcomer to determine their level and, together with the school to enroll in, design a support program. There is another program with assistants in schools for kids to actually go to class. They have also launched an interdepartmental initiative designed especially for kids who neither study nor work, to motivate and guide them so that complement their training, by skipping school. In addition, some companies that have raised huge venues in the neighboring suburb of Kista, sent representatives to schools to motivate students, even some have internships or invite the kids to visit their sites. In order to better employment, the district has a summer job program. For three weeks, boys between 15 and 18 years may work as any other district employee.

To complete the service network, there are other measures of social character. One is what they call ” social intervention groups.” When social services detected a youth at risk of crossing the line of criminality, adults gather around you (parents, teachers, social workers, police) to design a plan for the future. Yes, this program must have permission of the person concerned, or their parents if under age. When that line has already been crossed, there is another project for the reintegration of ex-offenders. Finally, there is a network monitoring problems of youth in the district. District workers, police and volunteers every weekend together to detect if something special is happening and take action. For some time also there patrolling social workers talking to the kids and above all, listen to them. Almost everyone in the neighborhood knows these patrols. Many of these programs were already present before the outbreak and have been reinforced since. “I think you can not do much better,” Johnselius judgment.

Be unemployment, discrimination, lack of prospects, boredom, causes the Swedish social explosion last year are still there, at least in the opinion of the residents of Husby as authorities, which allowed certain problems, say they are doing their job, and more, not to be repeated, so that local people feel a bit more integrated. For, as stated in another park stones ” keep dreaming “.

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Posted by Abdul Basit Abbasi on Jun 10 2014. Filed under World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.