Forty years after the Swedish parliament decided to transform the previously homogeneous Sweden into a multicultural country, the number of violent crimes has increased by 300%, and rapes by 1472%. Sweden is second in rape statistics only to Lesotho in southern Africa.

aprinkis.lv, 6 February 2016

Amidst all the madness surrounding migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers, I have only a few emotional notes that are not based on scientific foundations or proven by statistical methods. Writing anything else now, when all boundaries of rational consideration have long been crossed and every new snippet of information is scrutinised with the suspicion that it has been fabricated or at least embellished by ideologues and purists of one perspective or another, would be, to say the least, hypocritical. The moment has come when it is completely irrelevant which numbers, data, and arguments we use, or how well-founded they are. Nothing convinces any of us anymore because it is clear that every piece of news will be followed by a counter-news, then another, and then another, endlessly and pointlessly. As I write this commentary, the latest example is the news about the origin of the participants in the Cologne New Year’s Eve riots and sexual assaults – it turns out only three were asylum seekers from Syria or Iraq; no, wait, the majority were “new” refugees who arrived in Germany in 2015; yes, but the majority were illegal immigrants from Morocco and Algeria, not “real” refugees; no, but the majority were just looting, not groping women. No, but, yes, but, no, but, yes, but – until it is clear to everyone that there is no news, there are only opinions.

And in at least one respect, I think that is excellent. Finally, in Europe – and across all of Europe, in all its colourful, chequered scale – there is an opportunity for something that remotely resembles value-based politics to emerge. Finally, there is a public debate in Europe that stirs the entire society – something that seemed impossible in the old Europe, managed by bureaucrats and divided by national interests. The opinions are radically opposed, much like the abortion debate in the US – and there are few who are indifferent. Neither the correct size of cucumbers, nor the volume of agricultural subsidies, nor even the potential Greek bankruptcy case are half as fascinating or engaging to the public.

As we increasingly discern how “information” is selected, polished, completely distorted, or presented tendentiously, we seem to have fewer and fewer formal guideposts for forming our own opinions. Or perhaps, in reality, there are fewer signboards left that anyone still believes in, and behind whose supposed “objectivity” it was so comfortable to hide? Beneath this superstructure, the true basis of our judgements appears. And it is not statistics, numbers, or data – it is our values.

Finally, European policy concerns us all, it affects us (or at least we think it does); we hate it, we love it, we criticise it, and we do it together with other Europeans. Swedish national radicals call for a fight against dark-skinned immigrant youths, and lo and behold, in Stockholm, they are joined by none other than recently arrived Polish extremists. Liberal-minded people across the continent and its adjacent islands are united by discussions on how to be open and tolerant towards newcomers who bring intolerance towards sexual minorities, discriminate against their own and our women, and do not respect pluralism as a value. How can the core values of secular Western society, which allow groups with different religious beliefs to coexist peacefully, be preserved? And where is the line where, in the name of tolerance, freedom of the press and expression falls into the trap of politically correct self-censorship? Perhaps we will solve the problems simply by having asylum seekers sign a social contract (samhällskontrakt), pledging to respect democracy and equality, as proposed by the Liberal Women’s Party in Sweden.

Naive? Of course, it is naive to think that after a brief spat over who has or does not have the right to rape “our” women, Europeans will suddenly just take it and become a nation. Although anthropologists might have a research-based view on this. But when I am amused by the next well-intentioned question from relatives and friends in Latvia on the topic of “what is happening in the rape capital Sweden?”, I reply something like this: thank you, here in Northern Europe everything is as usual. On Saturday evening, the children force me to watch the local Eurovision selection contest “Melodifestivalen”, a terrible pop culture product that attracts a significant portion of Sweden’s population, regardless of ethnic background. On Sunday afternoon, I plunge into the colourful bustle of the Kista Galleria shopping centre. It is located on the outskirts of Stockholm, near the largest immigrant districts, and successfully draws representatives of all colours, political and religious persuasions into a unifying consumer culture. Young women of Arabic appearance, most likely the cream of the second generation of immigrants, in tight tops and jeans, enjoy their lattes and cappuccinos at a nearby table and discuss the latest films in Swedish; boys parade from Mr STHLM to Jeans Company and back in search of the most stylish jumpers; their parents’ generation sip double espressos, watch the crowd, and are undeniably proud of what they have achieved. By complete chance, I meet an acquaintance here, an Indian-born IT specialist with all four of his children; we compare experiences in Swedish kindergartens and conclude that they act as real integration “meat grinders”. A few shops later, I bump into a young Latvian woman who arrived quite recently, is working various temporary jobs, studying, making plans for the future, and is expecting a baby with her boyfriend, who has moved here from Africa.
Article first published in the March 2016 issue of Rīgas Laiks magazine