Swedish journalist and “culture critic” Kristina Lindquist has slammed the institution of marriage, but noted that marriages to asylum seekers to help them stay in Sweden are an “excellent reason” for them.
Ms. Lindquist, who wrote the opinion piece for Sweden’s Dagens Nyheter earlier this week, said that she did not personally believe in the institution of marriage, calling it “one of the most central institutions of the patriarchy”.
“The thought of who I’m sharing myself with would call me his ‘wife’ is both absurd and laughable,” Lindquist said.
While Lindquist argued against marriage, she argued for the practice for asylum seekers to keep them in Sweden, mentioning the 2017 Danish film The Charmer in which an Iranian asylum seeker attempts to seduce multiple women into marriage in order to remain in Denmark.
Since the 1980s, Sweden has had a marriage law that requires couples to be together for at least two years in order for one of them to gain permanent residency in the country. Lindquist stated that she did not agree with the law as it “puts people in an absolute and destructive deprivation — and locks women into violent relationships”.
“To give a person a refugee residence permit — is not that a great opportunity to marry someone who can manage and wants it?” she said.
According to recent polls, immigration has become the top concern for Swedish voters ahead of this year’s national election set for later in the year.
While some, like Lindquist, continue to argue for the mass migration policies that were popular during the migrant crisis of 2015, Swedish voters are turning more and more toward the policies of the anti-mass migration Sweden Democrats.
In a recent televised leaders debate, Sweden Democrats (SD) leader Jimmie Åkesson won the post-debate polls on the topics of immigration as well as law and order, winning the debate overall. Since the debate, the SD has dramatically increased in the polls where a recent YouGov poll placed them neck and neck for first place alongside the ruling Social Democrats.