Sweden in a time of immigration: has the post-national complex gone too far? by Pelle Neroth Taylor

Author:Pelle Neroth Taylor [Taylor, Pelle Neroth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: UNKNOWN
Published: 2015-03-15T11:00:00+00:00

Sweden leads the world in fires on school premises

Even though Stefan Löfven was a strong candidate for the Social Democrats, stronger than Sahlin in 2010, the Sweden Democrats had a strong set of cards in their hand for the election of 2014. Schools, violence, the economy, the visible change of the demographics on the streets, the local communes bursting to breaking point with refugees. Fear of Islam, especially with the rise of ISIS in the Middle East. The perception that violence and crime was on the increase.

There was the decline in educational standards. Worsening schools are a sure sign your society is going to be in trouble 10-20 years down the line. The signs are that mass immigration has damaged Swedish school standards. According to the economic organisation OECD’s PISA tests - standardised tests of all member states’ 15 year olds' capacities at maths, reading and natural science - Sweden has seen the biggest falls in standards of any country since the last survey in 2009. Biggest drop in maths and natural science, and second biggest drop in reading skills apart from Malaysia. There were big falls in 2006 and 2009 too. As recently as 2003, Sweden was a well above average performer.

Sweden now scores well below northern and west European rivals like Switzerland, Holland, UK, Germany and Finland and in a cluster that includes Portugal, Hungary, Chile and Slovakia. Closer to bottom-performing Peru than top performing China.[xvii]

The demographics of the schooling system has changed fast and that is surely one reason. Another cause is the lack of a culture of discipline, giving teenagers too much power, a problem innate in the idea of free school choice. The pupils become powerful clients that have to be appeased. To retain the students next term, Swedish teachers must think in terms of pleasing children as customers, rather than acting the authority figures. How does that play with young people used to very authoritarian cultures? These recent arrivals themselves drag down the results, and the way they impose themselves on the culture of schools means even native Swedes underperform. Sweden’s decentralised school culture, plus a dash of privatisation and deregulation, maybe meshes badly with the aim of bringing large number of immigrants into the proper schooling process.

The Labour Environment Board, an official body, reported a 40% increase in school violence between 2012 and 2014, according to a report on Swedish Radio. [xviii]

Selective examples should always be taken with a pinch of salt, and the 40% rise may well reflect a greater propensity to complain rather than a genuine rise. Still, the example is worth quoting. A pupil organisation representative, called Persia, was interviewed on the radio programme: she said “Every day. I mean every day. Every time I go out in the corridor during a break I see someone getting kicked. It happens every day so you get used to it.”

I have talked to young women who are appalled at fights that take place in the workshops, near machinery, of the practical apprenticeship course she is doing.

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