Today's article in the Swedish major daily DN discusses the unrest in Herrgården in the distrcit Rosengården in the city of Malmö, Sweden. The area is closely follows the pattern that is familiar in discussions about social exclusion and have also grabbed the spotlight in the national media because of the violent outburts of disaffected youth. The article discusses the counter measures taken by the seemingly desperate public decision-makers, primarly in the form of an increased police presence.
What really caught my eye was the suggestions made by Dr Carlbom, anthropoligist. He solution to the segregation is to "...stop the in-migration of immigrants to Malmö." For some reason, he does not agree with the dominant analysis which suggests that uneployment is a prime cause, saying only that he has difficulties seeing that as a cause: "There are many unemployed, but very few who throws rocks".
His solution is highly problematic, though.
While stopping immigration might go some way to address the rise in the rate of overcrowded apartments, a phenomenon that is generally associated with the area, but it will hardly address the reasons for such overcrowding, which, it seems to me must be attributed precisely to the high very unemployment rates that Carlbom discounts as relevant. To put it bluntly, I believe that people don't live in cramped up spaces because it is fun, but because they can't afford anything else.
More importantly, however, stopping immigration is questionable since the measure would constitute a highly paternalist approach to integration. It basically entails adopting the principle that certain people in society (namely immigrants) don't have the freedom of movement that everybody else has. That is, if anything, highly disempowering. If there already is a siege-mentality (and the article certainly suggests this), then it will only be strengthed by such quite draconic measures, further fuelling frustration and antagonistic us vs. them feelings.
It seems to me that in a situation where disempowerment and social exclusion is so prevalent, such paternalist measures will only make things worse.
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