Around 27 percent of Sweden’s population, or more than 2.8 million people, were of foreign origin in 2023, meaning they were either born abroad or both their parents were, according to Statistics Sweden.
Presenting the government’s plan, Gender Equality Minister Paulina Brandberg said she wanted to focus in particular on the scope of the phenomenon in schools.
“Racism and discrimination affect Afro-Swedish students at school… young Roma don’t dare speak out about their identity, and the (indigenous minority) Sami are victims of hate crimes,” the minister told a press conference.
“Teachers say they hear students uttering verbal insults against people because of their skin colour, their religion or their ethnic origin,” Health and Social Affairs Minister Jakob Forssmed said at the same press conference.
“It’s deeply worrying.”
These acts of racism have a serious effect on children, he said.
“It’s their very identity, their very existence, that is called into question and insulted.”
The government therefore plans to map the scope of racism in Sweden, focusing primarily on racism against Muslims, Jews, black people, Roma and Sami.
The aim is to make “the vulnerability of some groups more visible, in order to fight it”, Culture Minister Parisa Liljestrand said.
Sweden’s minority right-wing government is supported in parliament by the far-right Sweden Democrats, with whom they have a joint political platform focused heavily on curbing immigration.
The war in Gaza has also led to increased racism in Sweden, the ministers said.
“We see Jewish students whose lockers in school are marked with swastikas, we see young Muslims facing hatred and threats on social media,” Brandberg said.
According to the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (BRA), 2,695 hate crimes were reported to police in 2022, of which 53 percent were of a racist or xenophobic nature.
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© Agence France-Presse
