HUNDREDS of cars set on fire, a school in flames and angry youths hurling stones at the police. This is not the banlieue in France but suburbs in supposedly peaceful Sweden. Six nights of arson and violence in Stockholm’s poorer suburbs, where a majority of residents are immigrants, have shaken the Nordic country and created international headlines.For much of this year, discrimination of immigrants and racism have been hotly debated in a country where 14% of its 9.6m people are foreign born. Now the riots could make immigration and integration the pivotal debate in Swedish politics.On the night of May 24th cars were set ablaze in several Stockholm suburbs but fewer incidents were reported compared to previous nights. Instead, unrest spread to other towns, including Örebro, 160 kilometres west of Stockholm, where masked youths threw stones at the police and damaged a police station.The riots, which started in the suburb of Husby, are not as violent and widespread as those in Paris in 2005 and in London in 2011. But the quickly spreading rioting has shaken local residents and politicians, putting a spotlight on what many see as a long-time failure of society to integrate immigrants.In suburbs like Husby unemployment is more than double the country’s average, income much lower and residents complain of being neglected by politicians. Although Sweden is still one of the ...
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