Jimmie Akesson, leader of the populist Sweden Democrats, has suggested that migrants who commit crimes or refuse to integrate into Swedish society should be stripped of their Swedish citizenship.
Akesson argued in a recent interview with a Swedish newspaper the country’s migration policy – over the past decade – has been built upon a lie insinuating people who migrate to Sweden want to become Swedish. In fact, “they don’t want that,” he asserted.
“We have a situation where people live in Sweden, as citizens of Sweden, but they still can’t speak Swedish. They have no connection whatsoever to Swedish society. They are only here to commit crimes. They bring down the reputation of Swedish citizenship and Swedish passports internationally,” he explained, before adding: “Sweden now needs to get away from all this … I don’t think there’s any other solution than to start looking at tearing up citizenships.”
Sweden – a country of ten million people – has become notorious throughout Europe for its increasing struggles to accommodate and integrate the over one million people who have arrived in the country over the past decade.
Crime and gang violence have skyrocketed in recent years, with Sweden ranking only behind Mexico in terms of the number of hand grenade explosions occurring in a country not actively involved in an open conflict.
