Re: Sweden: We're Friendly!
Originally Posted by
Cass
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One of the main problems in our area is that people tend to be grouped together in social housing, so you get whole streets of Turkish, Morroccan or Somali people and they set up their own little world within that street or block.
Surely not encouraging one group to dominate a particular street would be helpful? Our council seems to think not and continues to let them all live together so that inclusion and learning our ways never has to happen.
This is quite a dilemma and much more complicated then one might think.
Some years ago I lived in a predominately Arab/Somali/Roma neighbourhood. It was hell. All the things you hear about
: Drugs, graffiti, litter, crime, the children's play ground destroyed on a daily basis, aggressive behaviour, shouting, fire works and mopeds (with the silencer removed) ALL NIGHT LONG. I was finally offered another flat in a near-by town and was over the moon! As is my habit, I visited the new town/flat on a Friday/Saturday night just to try it on for size when I expect it to be at its worst. There was one Arab family there, but it was everywhere. The woman was in the kitchen (second étage). She and her husband (who was standing on the balcony over-looking the playground) were have a shouting discussion. Every now and then she'd shout to her children who were in the playground below. She didn't even come to the window. She actually shouted from the kitchen through the living room, across the balcony and out to the playground below! That single family dominated the whole complex of flats. I rang the flat owner and informed her I wasn't interested.
Then, one day, there was a program on the tele about the most infamous Malmö neighbourhood, Rosengård. They interviewed an Arab woman who was complaining about living in Rosengård where there's such a concentration of immigrants, mostly Arab and Somali, as far as I can tell. She thought it was a pity that she didn't have the opportunity to live amongst Swedes. I thought to myself, “What makes her think we want her family living next door to us?”
I like to joke about it. Well, I can afford it now that I no longer live anywhere near them. I like to say that the Arabs and Somalis are a very tolerant lot. All I and my countrymen do is complain about how loud they are … but I never heard a single Arab or Somali once complain about how quiet we are.