New immigrants in Sundsvall, same old problems

“If I can make it there I will make it anywhere…” (The Theme song of “New York, New York”).

This song is sang on New York but can easily used when new immigrants will be asked to describe their integration in Sundsvall. This problem was not overlooked by Sundsvall kommun that issued a brochure called “Jag är inte rasist men“ (I am not a racist but) and distributed in libraries.

Seven kommun parties are involved in different committees aimed at easing the integration process of new immigrants but according to some of the information in the brochure it looks like the kommun doesn’t really understand the real problems new immigrants are facing and it is understandable. Out of all kommun members involved only João Pinhiero wasn’t born in Sweden and even him came to Sweden at a different time under different circumstances than most new immigrants.

As for the brochure it is full of statistics but statistics can be misleading. The costs and the number of new immigrants is something that you cannot argue with, but to say that many of them often start their own business as an evidence for how good they have been integrated is a mistake. It is 10 times harder for a new immigrant to start its own business than for a native born Swedish. It is banks that will not always approve openning an account, clients that will try to take advantage of the of the situation and so on. But they do it because finding a job sometimes seems like a hopeless battle for them.

It is unclear rather this brochure is trying to prevent discrimination and racism or spread disinformation and make new immigrants look ridiculous (see the example to money spent on godis).

Share you views about the kommun’s afforts and experiences as native Swedish/new immigrants in Sundsvall.

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