Sweden's multi-cultural policy - Made in Estonia
Photo by Linus Mimietz via Unsplash
In his book Ex. Migrationsmemoar 1977-2018 Hynek Pallas writes about how Sweden has developed into an immigration country during the 20th century. Pallas is often writing about topics such as migration, Europe and racism. He personally has a history of being raised by dissident parents who fled to Sweden from Czechoslovakia due to prosecution from the communist government. Pallas parents were also friends with the legendary politician, human rights defender and democracy activist Vaclav Havel.
In his book, Pallas writes that after several years of debate, Sweden in 1975 officially introduced legislation defining the country as a multi-cultural one and that multi-culturalism would be one of the main goals of immigration policy and system. The multi-cultural idea was partly influenced by contemporary development in Canada but also by historical development in Estonia. Pallas writes that certain contemporary intellectuals and opinion-makers with a history of being immigrants advocated that multi-cultural policy was a better method than assimilation.
One example is Latvian-Swede writer and academic Gunars Irbe who initially fled to Denmark and later to Sweden from Latvia when the Soviet Union occupied the country during and after the Second World War. Despite finding his own Latvian community in Sweden for being very culturally conservative and even right-wing extreme among certain members, Irbe’s approach in the public debate about immigration was in favour of diversity, tolerance and openness.
Another example was Estonian born politician and intellectual Voldemar Kiviaed, who during 1960 criticised Sweden’s immigration policy for lacking more tolerance, respect and understanding for immigrants and minorities.
Politically, Kiviaed was a right-winger and member of the Conservative (Moderate) Party in Sweden. His promotion of multiculturalism and integration was often met with resistance within the party, partly because promoting such things were seen as “left-wing” and associated with the Social-Democratic Party. Today, Social-Democratic Party is associated with the introduction of multi-culturalism in Sweden while the Conservative Party is associated with being against it. But Kiviaed even argued that multi-cultural policy was vital also in order to prevent contemporary social-democratic demands for economic uniformity and government expansion in the private sphere and business life. While today, among the main critics and sceptics of multi-culture in Sweden are among others conservative politicians and organisations.
Kiviaed argued, among other things, that assimilationist among both left- and right-wing parties were wrong and making the same conclusions as the Soviets did in Estonia by enforcing uniformity against different nations and ethnic communities. Instead of assimilation, Kiviaed argued that Sweden should become a multi-cultural nation with a policy based on Estonia during its sovereign period 1920-1940, before the Soviet occupation. At that time, Estonia had one of the most tolerant and inclusive policies in Europe with respect for minority rights as for ethnic Russians and Jews. While Sweden, today being among the most open and diverse societies, was one of Europe’s most mono-ethnic and mono-cultural countries. Leading politicians were openly making racist comments and conducting restrictive or, better said repressive views on immigration.
Another paradox is that in around 80 years of time, Sweden and Estonia have changed in opposite directions. While Sweden is today regarded as an immigration country with higher levels of cultural diversity and openness, Estonia, together with Latvia, became more famous for discriminatory and assimilationist behaviours after regaining sovereignty in 1991 when the Soviet Union collapsed. One can say that Sweden today is more similar to Estonia during the 1930s, while Estonia is more similar to Sweden during the same period.
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