Sweden’s Social Democrat Prime Minister has invited municipalities, religious groups, sports associations, unions and public sector employers to a conference on helping refugees integrate into Swedish communities.
Announcing an initiative called ‘Sverige tillsammans’ (Sweden Together) at a press conference in Stockholm, Prime Minister Stefan Löfven invited the groups to a major conference to be held in October, reports The Local. The move came ahead of cross-party talks to be held on the migrant crisis.
The scheduled talks will include leaders of Sweden’s centre-right Alliance parties representing the previous government. Leaders of the existing government’s coalition partners – the Greens and the Left Party – will also attend, but the anti-mass immigration Sweden Democrat party which currently enjoys record support, as previously reported by Breitbart London, is not invited.
Löfven, who has declared his government’s support for the compulsory asylum quota proposal made by the European Commission, called for groups to focus on getting refugees into schools and the general work force within two years, saying:
“This is about them having a speedy entrance into our society and getting a job, education, and housing.
“For us to be able to get through this demographic challenge, we need to get more working. This means we need to quickly get those who have newly arrived into the work force. This is what our investments are aiming for.”
The Prime Minister announced a specific new policy – an increase in compensation paid to municipalities for each refugee taken. It has been raised from 83,100 kronor (£6,427) to 125,000 kronor (£9,668) as part of a ongoing bid to bring about a more even distribution of refugees across Sweden’s 290 municipalities.
The Swedish government has earmarked 1.8 billion kronor (£139 million) to be spent on ‘Sweden Together’ in the next year. 870 million kronor (£67 million) is intended to help refugees find work more quickly, promoting speedier translation and validation of foreign educational qualifications, and a boost in Swedish language teaching.
Löfven explained: “Some have good work experience, we have doctors, teachers and nurses arriving, and we need to make sure they get quickly into work that they are qualified for.
“Others need more time to get into the workforce, so we need to get these people educated as quickly as we can…
“…These people are running for their lives. The war in Syria needs to end. But for now, we have good asylum policies of solidarity for those arriving in Sweden.”
Sweden takes in more refugees per capita than any other EU member state, which is not without its problems. Threats and violence in Swedish asylum accommodation are reported to be on the increase, and fighting between migrant groups has become a wider criminal problem.