Refugee controversy in Sjöbo - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The refugee controversy in Sjöbo, Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

, refers to the surrounding events of the 1988 referendum

Referendum

A referendum is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal. This may result in the adoption of a new constitution, a constitutional amendment, a law, the recall of an elected official or simply a specific government policy. It is a form of...

that banned the Sjöbo Municipality

Sjöbo Municipality

Sjöbo Municipality is a municipality in Skåne County in southern Sweden. Its seat is located in the town Sjöbo.The present municipality was created in 1974 when the former market town Sjöbo was amalgamated with the surrounding rural municipalities...

from admitting foreign refugees. In 1987, despite opposition and demonstrations, local Centre Party

Centre Party (Sweden)

The Centre Party is a centrist political party in Sweden. The party maintains close ties to rural Sweden and describes itself as "a green social liberal party". The ideology is sometimes called agrarian, but in a European context, the Centre Party can perhaps best be characterized as social...

politician Sven-Olle Olsson (1929–2005), who was Sjöbo's

Sjöbo Municipality

Municipal commissioner

Municipal Commissioner

Municipal Commissioner is an office and political title in the municipalities of Sweden for councillors with executive responsibilities. The Commissioners are the only full-time employed office-holders outside the municipal civil service...

at the time, was successful in gaining the support of the Sjöbo municipal assembly

Municipal assembly (Sweden)

A municipal assembly is the decision-making body governing each of the 290 municipalities of Sweden. Though the Swedish Local Government Act uses the term "municipal assembly" in the English translation of the Act, "municipal council" and even "city council" are used as well, even in official...

to hold a referendum to decide if Sjöbo should ban the acceptance of foreign refugees

Refugee

A refugee is a person who outside her country of origin or habitual residence because she has suffered persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or because she is a member of a persecuted 'social group'. Such a person may be referred to as an 'asylum seeker' until...

. The controversial referendum passed with a 67.4% majority for the ban in 1988, gaining Olsson and Sjöbo much publicity in the Swedish media. The outcome was heavily criticized by Swedish media and politicians (including then-Prime Minister

Prime Minister of Sweden

The Prime Minister is the head of government in the Kingdom of Sweden. Before the creation of the office of a Prime Minister in 1876, Sweden did not have a head of government separate from its head of state, namely the King, in whom the executive authority was vested...

Ingvar Carlsson

Gösta Ingvar Carlsson is a Swedish politician, Prime Minister of Sweden and leader of the Swedish Social Democratic Party ....

).

Ollson was in turn expelled from the Centre Party

Centre Party (Sweden)

following the referendum which led to the forming of the nationalist Sjöbo Party (Swedish: Sjöbopartiet) in March 1991. In the municipal elections the same year, the party received 31% of the votes. This led to Olsson once again becoming Municipal Commissioner, a position he held until 1998, when his party's support was reduced to 15% in municipal elections. Following the Sjöbo party's loss of support, the ban was overturned by Sjöbo's municipal assembly, and Sjöbo accepted its first refugees for more than a decade in 2001.

Background and motion

In 1977, while a member of the Centre Party

Centre Party (Sweden)

, Sven-Olle Olsson, a former farmer, was elected as Sjöbo's Municipal commissioner

Municipal Commissioner

.The Centre Party

Centre Party (Sweden)

in Sjöbo

Sjöbo

Sjöbo is a locality and the seat of Sjöbo Municipality in Skåne County, Sweden with 6,364 inhabitants in 2005.-Overview:Sjöbo started growing when it became a halt on the railway between Malmö and Simrishamn in the early 20th century...

, led by Olsson, motioned

Motion (democracy)

A motion is a formal step to introduce a matter for consideration by a group. It is a common concept in the procedure of trade unions, students' unions, corporations, and other deliberative assemblies...

before Sjöbo's municipal assembly in June 1987 for a referendum

Referendum

on the acceptance of foreign refugees in the municipality. The motion came after a proposal that fifteen refugees be accepted into the municipality, an idea Olsson disliked. It has been speculated that the reason behind the motion was not these fifteen refugees, a small number for the municipality, but, instead, Olsson's idea to create a protest against Sweden's positive stance on refugees. Despite heavy protests from most of the country, Sjöbo's municipal assembly

Municipal assembly (Sweden)

decided in October 1987 to go through with the referendum in 1988. If the referendum passed, it would completely ban Sjöbo from accepting foreign refugees.

Debate and media attention

The municipality's decision to go through with the referendum was met with even more criticism from the rest of the country. Immigration minister and Social Democrat

Swedish Social Democratic Party

The Swedish Social Democratic Workers' Party, , contesting elections as 'the Workers' Party – the Social Democrats' , or sometimes referred to just as 'the Social Democrats' and most commonly as Sossarna ; is the oldest and largest political party in Sweden. The party was founded in 1889...

Georg Andersson described the vote as a "macabre expression of egoism, and a violation of the refugees' human dignity." A marginal majority of the population in Sjöbo, however, was in favor of the referendum. One citizen stated that "Foreigners just create problems. It's only democratic to vote about this. I'm all for it."

It was, however, reported, that several of those who were in favor of accepting refugees, were afraid of expressing their opinion in public. On the day of the vote, 18 September 1988, the Associated Press

Associated Press

The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...

reported that the refugee issue had split families, friends and even the town's only church."

The referendum and the protests against it also drew attention abroad. On 12 September 1988, The Philadelphia Inquirer
The Philadelphia Inquirer
The Philadelphia Inquirer is a morning daily newspaper that serves the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, metropolitan area of the United States. The newspaper was founded by John R. Walker and John Norvell in June 1829 as The Pennsylvania Inquirer and is the third-oldest surviving daily newspaper in the...

wrote: "A referendum on accepting refugees in this quiet Swedish town has flared into an ugly battle watched closely by a country that prides itself on its tolerant attitudes and absence of racism."

Madeleine Ramel, a baroness, and the head of the local Social Welfare Board that was planning on taking care of the refugees, said: "a lot of people are very ashamed. It's terrible. The town has changed." Ramel was Olsson's strongest opposition in Sjöbo at the time. The Baroness became a symbol of the minority who supported the acceptance of refugees into the municipality. According to the local newspaper Skånska Dagbladet, "the Swedish media, especially the evening newspapers, loved the polarization between the simple farmer who did not want foreigners in the village and the baroness who wanted to take in the needy with open arms."

Olsson's main argument in the debate leading up to the day of the referendum was that foreigners would not be able to fit into a community such as Sjöbo. He repeatedly stated that these people come from "unknown cultures" and that it would be impossible for them to integrate into the Swedish society. Per-Ingvar Magnusson, the then-chairman of the Sjöbo branch of the Center Party, stated to the media that the referendum had nothing to do with racism; he claimed that the reason for the vote was that Sjöbo lacked housing and jobs. He said in an interview that he was surprised by the attention the town had received in the media: "They make us out to be stupid, fools, farmers who live in isolation. The town simply wants to take care of its own first."

Result

The referendum was held in Sjöbo on 18 September 1988, the day of the Swedish general election

Swedish general election, 1988

Elections to the Swedish Riksdag held 18 September 1988. The elections saw the Green Party elected to parliament for the first time....

, and passed with a 67 percent majority of the votes (6,237 for and 3,000 against), which led to even more criticism from the Swedish population. Then-Prime Minister of Sweden

Prime Minister of Sweden

Ingvar Carlsson

Gösta Ingvar Carlsson is a Swedish politician, Prime Minister of Sweden and leader of the Swedish Social Democratic Party ....

said the results were "tragic", and the then-leader of the Centre Party, Olof Johansson

Olof Johansson

Sten Olof Håkan Johansson is a Swedish politician, who was the leader of the Swedish Centre Party from 1987 to 1998 and Minister for the Environment 1991-1994....

, called the ban "improper". The result of the referendum led to concerns from the Swedish government that other municipalities would follow in Sjöbo's footsteps. The day after the vote, Madeleine Ramel commented: "This is a sad result. Everyone is a loser. It is unfortunate for Sjöbo."

Heléne Lööw, a Swedish historian, stated that one of the likely reasons for the relatively large xenophobia

Xenophobia

Xenophobia is defined as "an unreasonable fear of foreigners or strangers or of that which is foreign or strange". It comes from the Greek words ξένος , meaning "stranger," "foreigner" and φόβος , meaning "fear."...

in Skåne County at the time was the high unemployment numbers. The county had accepted a large amount of refugees compared to the rest of Sweden, and many saw this as the reason for the lack of jobs. Lööw also stated that the xenophobia could have been strengthened by local traditions. Nazi groups were "relatively strong" in Skåne in the 1930s.

Aftermath

The ban was heavily discussed in the Swedish media. Following the criticism, and after claims that Olsson was associated with the New Swedish Movement, the Centre Party decided in 1988 to exclude Olsson and his companions Börje Ohlsson and Per-Ivar Magnusson from the party. They responded by forming the nationalist Sjöbo Party (Swedish: Sjöbopartiet) in March 1991. In the municipal elections the same year, the party received 31 percent of the votes. This led to Olsson once again becoming Municipal Commissioner, a position he held until 1998, when the party's support was reduced to 15% in the municipal elections. Following Sjöbo party's loss of support, the referendum was overturned by Sjöbo's municipal assembly, and Sjöbo accepted its first refugees since more than a decade in 2001. Although Olsson died in 2005, the party is still active, and in the 2010 municipal election

Swedish general election, 2010

A general election to the Riksdag, parliament of Sweden, was held on . The main contenders of the election were the governing centre-right coalition the Alliance and the oppositional centre-left Red-Greens coalition A general election to the Riksdag, parliament of Sweden, was held on . The main...

the party received 11.4% of the votes, making it the third largest party in Sjöbo.

External links

"A Democratic Pioneer" - a Swedish documentary about the referendum

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