"Refugees Welcome" and the death of ‘kind’ Swedish capitalism

This article was originally published on 8 October in Swedish at marxist.se. It explains the rise of the Sweden Democrats, a right-wing party that has made opposition to immigration a central plank of its policy. Meanwhile, the ‘left’ and the moderates, who have overseen a decade of austerity and become increasingly unpopular as a result, have nothing to offer but to try and mimic the anti-immigrant rhetoric of the right wing.

In analysing a process that has occurred elsewhere, particularly across Europe, which has seen plenty of right-wing populist parties gain in prominence, this article also serves to shatter the illusion of ‘nice’ ‘humanitarian’ Swedish capitalism.

[Originally published in Swedish at marxist.se]

Ten years ago, tens of thousands of Swedes took to the streets in solidarity with refugees. Many opened their homes, provided medical services, or donated money – others took part in demonstrations. “Open your hearts,” Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt (Moderate Party) had said a year earlier in 2014 – and the new Prime Minister Stefan Löfven (Social Democratic Party) came with a similar message: “My Europe does not build walls.”

On 6 September, 2015, 15,000 people demonstrated in Stockholm under the banner of “refugees welcome”. A few days later, a further 4,000 people demonstrated in Uppsala – the largest demonstration in the city in many years. On 9 September, 15-20,000 people gathered at Götaplatsen in Gothenburg. Across the country, tens of thousands of people took to the streets to show their support for refugees.

As always,a spark ignited the flame. On 2 September, a two-year-old boy was washed up on a beach in Turkey. He drowned alongside his mother and five-year-old brother when the family tried to reach the Greek island of Kos to seek asylum in the European Union. The father is the only member of the family to survive the shipwreck.

A picture of the deceased two-year-old lying face down on the beach summed up the entire European refugee policy. It spread like wildfire.

Fortress Europe

Between 2000 and 2015, the EU spent over 17 billion kroner (€1.6 billion) on physical and economic barriers to prevent refugees and migrants from reaching Europe. During the same period, EU and Schengen countries spent €11 billion on centrally coordinated deportations (which is a small proportion of the total number of deportations). They built walls in Spanish North Africa, Serbia, Bulgaria, and Hungary, while financing inhumane refugee camps outside the EU.

They built a Fortress Europe, as the collection of anti-migrant policies came to be known. Politicians such as the former British Prime Minister David Cameron emphasised that attempts should not be made to rescue people drowning in the Mediterranean – who are desperately attempting to reach Europe – as this could “encourage more migrants to try.” The EU's coast guard agency Frontex not only refused to carry out search and rescue operations, but also actively tried (and is still trying) to push migrants out of EU waters.

The human catastrophe that, in 2015, caused around 1.3 million refugees to risk their lives and seek asylum in Fortress Europe was entirely the fault of American and European imperialism.

For example, the largest group of refugees (20 percent) were fleeing the Syrian civil war, where ISIS and other Islamist groups were wreaking havoc. The rapid growth of ISIS was a direct result of both the imperialists' invasion of Iraq and their direct intervention in the civil war itself, where the CIA, Britain, and Saudi Arabia put weapons in the hands of Islamist groups.

The second largest group of refugees (7 percent) came from Afghanistan, also a result of the Western imperialists' invasion. The third largest group came from Eritrea (6 percent), whose entire bloody history is a direct result of the imperialists' ravages. And so on.

The battle over refugees

Despite their responsibility for creating the refugee crisis, this fact was of little interest to our ruling class. Instead, the wave of refugees sparked a battle between the European imperialist powers over who could help the fewest.

The EU's coast guard agency Frontex not only refused to carry out search and rescue operations, but also actively tried (and is still trying) to push migrants out of EU waters / Image: Mstyslav Chernov/Unframe, Wikimedia Commons

Although the law states that refugees must seek asylum in the country they first arrive in, the countries of northern Europe were able to dump most of the responsibility for the migrants' asylum process elsewhere. But when the systems in Italy and Greece became overloaded, the refugees began to organise themselves to force their way across the borders into Macedonia, Serbia, and Hungary in order to reach the countries in the north, especially Germany, which took in the most.

Angela Merkel, the former Chancellor of Germany, was under political pressure to help refugees and demanded that other countries take their “fair share”. The British government gave a typically measured sarcastic response. The UK was prepared “to take zero, but would double that number under pressure.”

Compare the cynicism of the ruling class with the magnificent response from ordinary people.

On 12 September, demonstrations took place in 85 cities across 30 different countries across Europe, with over a hundred thousand participants. In Greece, holidaymakers and islanders took it upon themselves to help refugees from Turkey. In the former Yugoslavia, people spontaneously organised emergency aid, legal assistance, guidance, and more in both large cities and critical locations along the refugees' route. At football stadiums in Austria and Germany, banners were raised by the crowds in support of the refugees.

In Vienna, 30,000 people demonstrated, while at the same time organising practical help for the refugees – both to get across the border and once they arrived. In the UK, 400,000 signatures were collected on a petition to the government, calling for the country to take in more refugees, and 300,000 people marched to Parliament Square on 13 September. The list goes on and on.

The Sweden Democrats smell blood

In Sweden, the Refugees Welcome movement was the final nationwide chapter in a wave of struggle against racism and fascism that began in connection with the election successes of the Sweden Democrats – a right-wing party that opposes migration – in 2010 and culminated around the 2014 election, where they doubled their vote share to 13 percent.

Thousands of people had participated in actions to ‘turn their backs’ on the Sweden Democrats, as well as in much more powerful counter-demonstrations against Nazis such as the Party of the Swedes. In Kärrtorp in Stockholm in December 2013, 16,000 people took part in a huge show of force after fascists attacked a smaller anti-racist demonstration. All parties in the Riksdag sent representatives, except for the Sweden Democrats.

The right wing dressed up its politics in anti-racist colors. On August 16, 2014, Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt gave what has come to be known as the “Open your hearts speech”, where he stated:

“I now appeal to the Swedish people for patience, to open your hearts to see people under severe stress, with threats to their own lives, who are fleeing, fleeing to Europe, fleeing to freedom, fleeing to better conditions.”

Against the backdrop of the refugee crisis, he argued in practice that Swedish workers needed to accept lower housing standards, poorer welfare, higher unemployment, and more. This was the bourgeoisie's line: accepting refugees at the expense of the working class.

The Sweden Democrats more than doubled their support in the polls: from 9.4 percent of the vote in June 2014 to 21 percent in July 2015 / Image: Per Pettersson, Wikimedia Commons

The Social Democrats pursued their standard policy: to protest mildly against the right wing's cuts, but to continue them when they themselves won the office of prime minister after the 2014 election. Having only been able to form a minority government, the Social Democrats established the so-called December Agreement with six bourgeois parties. This was essentially an electoral pact to prevent the Sweden Democrats, who made up a significant minority in the Riksdag, from having too much influence.

But with a policy of continued austerity, such an agreement naturally meant that the Sweden Democrats instead grew faster than ever. They more than doubled their support in the polls: from 9.4 percent of the vote in June 2014 to 21 percent in July 2015. For many workers, they seemed to have been right in claiming that immigration was behind the deterioration.

This reinforced the feeling among the ruling class that it was time to change tack – that the reception of refugees was becoming too expensive. An editorial writer for Svenska Dagbladet expressed this view after the ‘Hela Sverige skramlar’ (All of Sweden is rattling) gala on 29 September, which raised 40 million Swedish kronor for the UN refugee agency UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees):

“All of Sweden is rattling, and the state coffers are now literally rattling. The current migration policy cannot be maintained indefinitely.”

Some weeks saw up to ten thousand refugees arriving.

There was a growing sense of panic among authorities and municipalities. The shortage of housing was growing. SFI (Swedish For Immigrants) and other types of language support had long been neglected. Asylum accommodations were quickly thrown together, giving crooks like Bert Karlsson good opportunities to make money, while municipalities and regions had to improvise schools, healthcare, and various types of support.

The Migration Agency had coldly calculated that southern European countries would continue to receive the majority of the refugee wave, but now instead talked about starting to house refugees in tents. Processing times grew exponentially – many had to wait 15 months for a decision on their asylum application. At the same time, the system for distributing refugees among different municipalities once again broke down. Swedish bureaucracy became overloaded.

The rapid death of “humanitarian” capitalism

Prime Minister Stefan Löfven and the Social Democrats' initial line was that the imperialist monsters of the EU should show solidarity, cooperate, and take in refugees. In a speech at the demonstration in Stockholm on 6 September, he expressed it in grandiose terms:

“My Europe welcomes people fleeing war, in solidarity and together. My Europe does not build walls; we help each other when the need is great.”

But Europe was busy building walls, and had been doing so for a long time. When tens of thousands of people nevertheless reached Sweden on the northern edge of Europe in a short period of time, the authorities were unable to cope with the burden.

A total of 163,000 refugees arrived in 2015, and in order to continue receiving them, it would have required significant resources. The bourgeoisie analysed the issue in its cold-hearted way. Unemployment was already high – they only needed more labour for professions that require long training or professional skills. To the extent that they needed to replenish the labour force in the low-wage sector, cheap labour was available in Eastern Europe. From their point of view, the refugees were therefore just a large, troublesome extra cost.

At the same time, the bourgeoisie was concerned about the success of the Sweden Democrats. They were worried that they would not be able to control the party, it was only after the 2014 election that the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise – a major organisation of Swedish businesses – had even established contact with them.

It was not until 2015 that they got the Sweden Democrats to drop their demand to ban profit-taking for independent schools, for example. The party had not yet abandoned its opposition to the EU (that happened in January 2019). In addition, the party's constant openly racist statements led to protests, anger, and political unrest.

The bourgeoisie needed time to transform the Sweden Democrats into a more ‘normal’ racist right-wing party that could become part of a coalition with the other right-wing parties. In order to curb the growth of the Sweden Democrats as the only opposition party to immigration, the other right-wing parties needed to change course: they had to embrace the Sweden Democrats' racist policies themselves.

And that is what happened. The Moderates made a dramatic U-turn early on. Through a series of agreements, Löfven now did the same.

On 23 October, the government concluded a 21-point migration agreement with the Moderates, Christian Democrats, Liberals, and the Center Party for a stricter migration policy. On 12 November, border controls were introduced.

On 24 November, Åsa Romson (Green Party) burst into tears at a press conference. She and Löfven announced that Swedish asylum rules would be temporarily set at the EU minimum level: limited family immigration, stricter income requirements, expanded border controls, and temporary instead of permanent residence permits.

A year earlier, only a Sweden Democrat could have made such demands. Now, suddenly, the entire Riksdag was behind it.

The feeling of being able to create a more humane society together was shattered when politicians did the exact opposite / Image: Frankie Fouganthin, Wikimedia Commons

This was a blow from which the refugee-friendly movement never recovered. The feeling of being able to create a more humane society together was shattered when politicians did the exact opposite – especially the Social Democrats, the dominant party in the labour movement.

Even though the parties in the Riksdag excluded the Sweden Democrats from formal influence, the right wing gradually adopted both their policies and rhetoric.

It was no longer possible to win elections on Reinfeldt's privatisations, cuts, reductions in unemployment benefits and health insurance, tax cuts for the rich, and so on – all hidden behind soft liberal rhetoric. The right wing needed to base its policies on the Sweden Democrat's myths that all the problems of Swedish capitalism were caused by Swedish ‘naivety’ and immigration, especially from Muslims.

"It is political naivety and ignorance that has brought us here. It is an irresponsible immigration policy and failed integration that has brought us here. Exclusion and parallel societies feed criminal gangs.“ (Moderate Party Prime Minister Kristersson, ”Address to the Nation", September 2023)

The Social Democrats, who accepted the right wing's policies, quickly adopted the same rhetoric. What were said to be temporary emergency measures in 2015 quickly became permanent and needed to be supplemented with tougher measures.

“With large-scale migration where we are unable to cope with integration, there is also a greater risk of the problems we are seeing. That is crystal clear.” (Social Democrat Löfven, party leader debate in September 2020)

The battle over who could take the toughest measures against refugees and crime was born, and with it public xenophobia and racism proliferated on a whole new level. The late police chief Mats Löfving's statements are a prime example.

"It is far from all people who want to become part of Swedish society. Right now, we have at least 40 family-based criminal networks in Sweden, so-called clans. They have come to Sweden, I claim, solely for the purpose of organising and systematising crime.

"... The whole family, the whole clan, raises their children so that they can take over the clan. These children have no ambition to become part of society; instead, they have an ambition from birth to take over in crime. We in Sweden are quite naive in this regard." (Interview on Sveriges Radio, September 2020)

Ambition from birth – talk about determined children! Needless to say, Löfving did not present a shred of evidence to support his claims. These claims hardly served any police function, but they did serve an even more important political one.

This racist nonsense now forms the basis for the entire Swedish political debate. The kind Swedish ‘humanitarian’ liberalism – capitalism with a human social democratic face – is dead and buried.

Socialism – the only future worthy of the name

The number of refugees worldwide is now at its highest level since World War II, 123 million people according to the UNHCR. The richer countries have only taken in just over a quarter of them.

Sweden has gone from taking in 163,000 in 2015 to an estimated intake of 7,000 in 2025 – a decrease of 96 percent. There is not a single party in parliament that is actively raising its voice to change this. In other words, everyone accepts in practice that people are born, live, and die in starvation and poverty, in huge refugee camps created by the ravages of imperialism.

Nor does any party seriously question the constant racist claims that link gang crime and all kinds of social problems to immigration, especially from Muslim countries. By swearing by ‘the Swedish people’, that they ‘love Sweden’, and similar platitudes in every other sentence, everyone from the Sweden Democrats to the Left Party competes to appear as the best nationalists.

The Swedish capitalists and their political representatives no longer consider themselves able to afford any ‘humane’ mask, just as they do not consider themselves able to afford a functioning welfare system and reasonable working conditions.

To the extent that they want immigration, it is mainly for well-educated or already skilled workers whom they can exploit cheaply, without having to invest in them. This applies in sectors where there is a labour shortage. But also in other sectors, such as construction, they can pit workers from different parts of Europe against each other to drive down wages.

For communists, it is fundamental to demand the right of every refugee and migrant to stay, with the same rights as others / Image: News Øresund Johan Wessman

At companies such as Northvolt, employees were directly dependent on their employer in order to stay in the country, which made it easier for the owners to exploit the workers under any conditions. This is a direct consequence of all the measures introduced since 2015 to make the situation of immigrants more precarious.

For communists, it is fundamental to demand the right of every refugee and migrant to stay, with the same rights as others. This is the only way to stop the bourgeoisie's attempts to pit workers from different backgrounds against each other, to exploit people's desperation for conditions and wage dumping.

At the same time, the bourgeoisie has a political need to blame social problems on someone other than themselves. The deeper the crisis of capitalism, the worse the agitation. This is happening in all countries. The turnaround in Sweden in 2015 and onwards is just a particularly clear example.

Nowhere has the turnaround meant an end to cuts and deteriorating conditions. This in itself reveals the right wing's lie that it was the reception of refugees that was the problem. That is why politicians have moved on to focusing on gang crime instead. Here, their so-called solution – ‘tougher measures’ with more police and harsher penalties – will prove directly counterproductive.

It is capitalism that stands in the way of solving the problems of the working class. The only way forward is a united class struggle against the real enemy: the bourgeoisie. They are the ones who have become increasingly wealthy on falling real wages, an ever-faster pace of work, insecure jobs, and more. They are the ones on whom the state has squandered money with its tax cuts and privatisations.

Imperialism's wars, exploitation, poverty, and starvation are forcing millions upon millions of people to leave their homes in search of a better life. The imperialists' attempts to legally distinguish between different groups are only aimed at dividing the working class in order to exploit both domestic and immigrant workers more harshly.

The struggle for refugees' rights is also the struggle against them having to flee in the first place. By abolishing capitalism, we would also abolish the root cause of modern wars and exploitation: imperialism, which stems from capitalism.

It hardly needs to be mentioned that under socialism, the reception of refugees would not be viewed in the same way as under capitalism: as a cost. The more hands that can help build communism, the better.

Our politics are about uniting workers in a common struggle for our class interests, as the necessary preparation for overthrowing capitalism once and for all.

This is the only way to give us all a future worthy of the name.