User:Caleb26/Stockholm

As of 2004, Stockholm housed 31.5% of the total foreign born population in Sweden.^[1] Botkyrka, a suburb of Stockholm with a population of 76,000 as of 2001, has a majority foreign born population, while a study from 2005 noted that the Rinkeby municipality contained 60% first generation, foreign born residents.^[1][2][3] Disturbances caused by immigrants are noted as being rare except in certain cases such as the 2017 Rinkeby riots as well as the 2013 and 2010 riots.^[4][5] From 1991-2001, a study found that racial segregation throughout the greater Stockholm area did not change significantly.^[1] The aforementioned study also indicated that the indigenous population is generally avoiding areas that have significant immigrant populations, which was also suggested by the New York Times.^[1][3] The local municipalities are in charge of deciding if they will accept refugees and if so the number.^[6] Multiple studies have indicated that Sweden is one of the most welcoming countries to immigrants in regard to immigration laws.^[7][8][9] It was reported in 2000 that sentiments towards the immigrant population were generally favorable with only 16% polled voicing concerns while other studies have expressed similar views.^[10][6] It was suggested that this was largely due to the fact that the majority of migrants were refugees.^[10]

The share of the labor market that immigrants are able to take part in is considerably lower than that of the native Swedish population.^[9] Attempts to find jobs by natives of immigrant origin can take several more tries than the majority population.^[11] Often immigrants find themselves working in areas such as the healthcare sector, working other lower paying jobs or being self-employed.^[12] It was suggested that for the Turkish population this could be due to lower levels of education.^[9] However, this is not purported to be the case for the Iranian immigrants as it is suggested that rather than taking jobs that are below their level of education they often prefer not to work, instead taking advantage of the generous Swedish welfare system.^[9]

More than half of the nearly 35,853 Turkish citizens that were living in Sweden in 2005 lived in the Stockholm metropolitan area and make up one of the largest foreign-born groups in the country.^[2] A 2009 study concluded that Turkish citizens currently living in Sweden are not integrating with the indigenous population as they are residing in separate parts of the city, maintaining very strong ties with relatives back in Turkey and largely rejecting the notion of relationships or marriage with indigenous citizens.^[2] The idea of establishing a shared culture between native Swedes and Turkish citizens was decidedly split at 50.6% of Turks considering it a bad idea.^[2] A quality of life study was performed in 2007 on the Turkish population of Stockholm in order to evaluate the integration of the immigrants.^[2] The results were compared with those of Turkish citizens residing in Turkey which showed that the immigrants generally had a higher quality of life, with the third generation of immigrants having the most optimism in the future.^[13] When comparing teenage Turks living in Stockholm to those living in major cities in Norway, it was found that those living in Stockholm felt better about their Turkish identity, felt less marginalized and felt less discrimination than their counterparts living in Norway.^[14] The housing situation for Turkish immigrants is not comparable to native residents as "...more than 40% live in overcrowded situations..." while the percentage for native Swedes is at 4%^[15]

Historically, the majority of the foreign labor force has come from Finland.^[1][16][17] However, following the Second World War and until the 1970's, immigration to Stockholm was spread between Fins and other migrant workers from Europe. ^{[1][18][19][17]} Relative to the rest of post-World War II Europe, Sweden had become an attractive option for many because its economy was still in good condition and was growing.^[1][18][20] Beginning in the early 1960's, migrants workers from Konya and Istanbul began immigrating to Sweden to aid in labor shortages.^[21][15]

A reduction in migrant workers from non-Nordic countries began occurring in 1972 after the trade unions encouraged the legislature to change the immigration laws.^{[1][22][18][20]} However, Sweden's policy of being welcoming to refugees did not change and as a result the number of refugees admitted did not reduce like the number of migrant workers had.^[1] In 1975, non-citizens were given the right to participate in elections and to run for office, providing they had lived in the country for at least three years.^[17] As of 2017, an estimated 18,000 refugees continue to live in Sweden even after having their asylum applications were denied.^[23] In 2017 the Swedish government accepted 27,205 asylum applications while it denied 30,802.^[24]