Sweden’s two year U-Turn: Liberals’ refugee policy turns public AGAINST migrants
SWEDEN’S politicians’ open-door refugee policies have turned the Swedish public against migrants in just two years, a study has claimed.
By ALIX CULBERTSON
Express.co.uk
Sat, Feb 18, 2017
Fears of Swedes losing their culture and identity has fuelled a rise in anti-migrant sentiment, after 163,000 people arrived in the country in last year.
Sweden has been the poster child for openness and toleration for decades but that has changed in just two years, the study by independent British think-tank Demos found.
In September 2015, thousands of people took to the streets with banners saying “Refugees Welcome” while Prime Minister Stefan Löfven spoke about not building walls and offering help “when need is great”.
A year later, in October 2016, his government decided to implement border controls, which had always been available but not used, to stem the rapid flow of asylum seekers.
And a surge in nationalistic language has shown Swedes now consider migrants a threat to the nation, the report said.
The 458-page study into populism in Europe found an increasing use of “exclusionary nationalist rhetoric” in 2015 and 2016 by Swedish politicians across the spectrum.
Since the beginning of 2015, the study found an increasing use of the term “Swedish values” by not just the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats which have gained popularity since then, but by all main parties.
Swedish media mentioned the term more than 1,600 times in 2016, an increase from 286 times in 2012, the study found.
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