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IMMIGRATION

‘Sweden needs an honest conversation about immigration and integration’

OPINION: We need to be able to talk to our enemies, even if we don't like each other, argues Zimbabwean journalist Edinah Masanga.

Published: 27 June 2017 11:23 CEST
'Sweden needs an honest conversation about immigration and integration'
Edinah Masanga, right, and protesters at Sweden Democrat leader Jimmie Åkesson's speech in Järva. Photo: Anders Wiklund/TT & private

I should have written this piece a week ago but thanks to the effective integration system of Sweden I was away up north celebrating Midsummer.

But even as I lay on my back seeing mosquitoes hovering over me looking the size of bats – high on Croatian wine and mojitos – I kept thinking about the heckling of Sweden Democrat leader Jimmie Åkesson at the Järvaveckan politics festival, where hecklers disrupted his speech calling him names.

Politics is a dirty game, I acknowledge that (the hecklers could easily have been working at the instigation of other political parties, who knows), but I write this article as a human. In fact, I write this article as a black, foreign, African woman living in Sweden. So no, I'm not some malicious person defending a far-right party. I'm a human whose language is love but also someone whom Åkesson's stance affects negatively.

Åkesson himself responded to the hecklers saying: “I think one theme is democracy and an important part of democracy is dialogue. To be able to talk to each other without using ugly words and yelling and instead showing respect for each other's opinions.”

I found myself agreeing with the very same man I have come not to like very much because of the things his party stands for, but the human in me agreed with him in that instance that heckling anyone is not a solution. It will never be one. In fact, it is a malignant replication of the very thing we oppose – the assumption that those we do not like do not deserve dignity.

In fact, Jimmie, it's what we have been trying to tell you and your guys, that if you think that immigration presents certain challenges – which honestly speaking, it does – it does not mean that political parties should further ideologies that shut people out. Instead, political parties from all divides should have an honest conversation about immigration and integration. An honest conversation.

READ ALSO: How is Sweden tackling its integration challenge?


Jimmie Åkesson speaking at the Järva political festival. Photo: Anders Wiklund/TT

If I met Jimmie Åkesson today I would engage him, not heckle him. I would never heckle anyone no matter how much I do not like what they stand for. Åkesson and his party and their other brigades in Europe advocate for a world I do not want to live in, they advance views from a side of human beings that I do not want to see. But, if I behave like them in a way I become like them, only in a different voice and different message – but same difference, right?

We can't claim to want to make the world a better place by imitating the very things we claim not to stand for. In my world, the one in my head, the perfect one which does not exist, nothing is worth dehumanizing another human being. In fact, we should show them a better side of us that, like African icon Nelson Mandela said: “If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner.”

I do know that maybe working with people whose ideologies are bent on excluding other people may be hard, but it's the only humane solution that leads to a calmer, truer world.

Edinah Masanga is a Zimbabwean journalist living in Sweden. She is the editor of feminist lifestyle blog The International Woman.

FOOD AND DRINK

OPINION: Are tips in Sweden becoming the norm?

Should you tip in Sweden? Habits are changing fast thanks to new technology and a hard-pressed restaurant trade, writes James Savage.

Published: 5 April 2024 13:59 CEST
OPINION: Are tips in Sweden becoming the norm?

The Local’s guide to tipping in Sweden is clear: tip for good service if you want to, but don’t feel the pressure: where servers in the US, for instance, rely on tips to live, waiters in Sweden have collectively bargained salaries with long vacations and generous benefits. 

But there are signs that this is changing, and the change is being accelerated by card machines. Now, many machines offer three preset gratuity percentages, usually starting with five percent and going up to fifteen or twenty. Previously they just asked the customer to fill in the total amount they wanted to pay.

This subtle change to a user interface sends a not-so-subtle message to customers: that tipping is expected and that most people are probably doing it. The button for not tipping is either a large-lettered ‘No Tip’ or a more subtle ‘Fortsätt’ or ‘Continue’ (it turns out you can continue without selecting a tip amount, but it’s not immediately clear to the user). 

I’ll confess, when I was first presented with this I was mildly irked: I usually tip if I’ve had table service, but waiting staff are treated as professionals and paid properly, guaranteed by deals with unions; menu prices are correspondingly high. The tip was a genuine token of appreciation.

But when I tweeted something to this effect (a tweet that went strangely viral), the responses I got made me think. Many people pointed out that the restaurant trade in Sweden is under enormous pressure, with rising costs, the after-effects of Covid and difficulties recruiting. And as Sweden has become more cosmopolitain, adding ten percent to the bill comes naturally to many.

Boulebar, a restaurant and bar chain with branches around Sweden and Denmark, had a longstanding policy of not accepting tips at all, reasoning that they were outdated and put diners in an uncomfortable position. But in 2021 CEO Henrik Kruse decided to change tack:

“It was a purely financial decision. We were under pressure due to Covid, and we had to keep wages down, so bringing back tips was the solution,” he said, adding that he has a collective agreement and staff also get a union bargained salary, before tips.

Yet for Kruse the new machines, with their pre-set tipping percentages, take things too far:

“We don’t use it, because it makes it even clearer that you’re asking for money. The guest should feel free not to tip. It’s more important for us that the guest feels free to tell people they’re satisfied.”

But for those restaurants that have adopted the new interfaces, the effect has been dramatic. Card processing company Kassacentralen, which was one of the first to launch this feature in Sweden, told Svenska Dagbladet this week that the feature had led to tips for the average establishment doubling, with some places seeing them rise six-fold.

Even unions are relaxed about tipping these days, perhaps understanding that they’re a significant extra income for their members. Union representatives have often in the past spoken out against tipping, arguing that the practice is demeaning to staff and that tips were spread unevenly, with staff in cafés or fast food joints getting nothing at all. But when I called the Swedish Hotel and Restaurant Union (HRF), a spokesman said that the union had no view on the practice, and it was a matter for staff, business owners and customers to decide.

So is tipping now expected in Sweden? The old advice probably still stands; waiters are still not as reliant on tips as staff in many other countries, so a lavish tip is not necessary. But as Swedes start to tip more generously, you might stick out if you leave nothing at all.

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