One way integration?

I was sitting on the subway a couple of weeks ago and was astonished of what was said when I accidentalley overheard what two men just two metres away from me discussed. The two men were young, maybe in the early 20´s and probably of middle eastern descent. One of them told the other about his recent experience at his new appartement. The landlord has apparentely greeted him "welcome" to his new place by asking him to "keep him for himself"... "You know how people can be with their prejudices(!)", she said.
The man was shocked, but ignored her advice and politely said "hello" to his new ("ethnically Swedish") neighbours. According to him, 80 percent didnt respond and he compared it to "being black in the US in the 20s"...

In media the integration problem is sometimes labelled as only a problem in immigrant suburbs as Rinkeby and Rosengård. But REAL integration cannot just come from one part. Both sides must be open and tolerant and not judgemental towards each other. Not like when I watched the news a couple of weeks ago - An immigrant woman phoned a day care centre to ask if there was a place for her child there. The woman in the daycare centre replied: "Im sorry it is full". When the immigrant woman phoned back a few minutes later, but pretended to be someone else with a more Swedish sounding name, all of a sudden they were more than welcome!


Anti-discrimination laws and investigating money in teaching the Swedish language to immigrants is good - but it is far fram enough. Only when we all in this country who like to believe we are so tolerant to each other turn that self-imagination into reality - then we can talk about reality. We need a change in peoples mindset, not just pretty words written in the law. Without a changed mindset those rules will be ignored anyway.

I also recommend this article on the topic. Also, watch the documentary I recommended in the post below. No matter religion or colour of our skin we are all human - and people are good and evil in general - it is not based on of how people look or which faith they have.

I can imagine this is a big problem in the whole world. People are often afraid of what they portrait as something unknown. Please share your thoughts on this topic.

/ The cat goes political