A scattered but global campaign against the Swedish social services has united several actors and made headlines in Sweden and beyond in recent weeks. When social media accounts with links to violent Islamist organisations got involved, it prompted Swedish authorities to warn of disinformation, violent threats made against the social services, and a possible risk of terror attacks in their wake.

In a series of tweets, the Swedish Foreign Ministry warned of a disinformation campaign, stating the following: “This information is wrong. It is seriously misleading and aims to create tensions and create mistrust. Swedish social services do not kidnap children. All children in Sweden are protected and cared for equally under Swedish legislation, including the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.”

PART ONE: ‘We don’t kidnap children’: Why Sweden is worried about a new conspiracy theory

Children in immigrant families ‘twice as likely’ to be taken into care

But while claims about a systematic kidnapping campaign are false, the bigger picture is complex.

“There’s been a fear of the social services in certain immigrant groups in Sweden for a number of years, and at its core, this is an integration problem,” Julia Agha, CEO of Alkompis, an Arabic-language news organisation, told The Local.

“We’ve seen that people feel as if they’re being discriminated against. Obviously we don’t know if it’s officially discrimination, or if it’s just being experienced as discrimination, but you can never take that feeling away from someone, that they feel unfairly treated, and we’ve seen a lot of that,” said Agha, whose organisation reports Swedish news and helps its readers navigate Swedish society.

The fear does not come out of nowhere. Figures suggest that social services are twice as likely to take children from immigrant groups into care, according to statistics provided to public broadcaster Radio Sweden by the National Board of Health and Welfare and Statistics Sweden in December (it is not clear what percentage of these families were Muslim).

There’s a multitude of possible reasons behind this, including that Swedish law may in many cases be stricter than what some parents are used to.

Agha said it was important that families who are worried about the social services understand what the law says, and then follow it.

“In plain terms, that means that you should look after your children and meet their needs,” she said.

“There are some things which are less simple – not everything is black and white – and some things that are very clear: for example, corporal punishment isn’t permitted in Sweden, and if you hit your children, that’s wrong. That’s very black and white.”

But more vague cultural differences can also raise issues, for families and authorities alike.

“For example, ‘honour’ in a Swedish context is very controversial, and the debate has almost become infected,” said Agha. “But in some families, it’s very closely linked to religion, so there are some nuances which are more difficult. We often talk about these things at Alkompis.”

‘People don’t know that social services help as well’

Addressing those nuances is important, because it’s hard to identify one single factor that affects such a diverse community.

Agha points out that around 420 million people around the world speak Arabic, with the only thing in common being the language, and in some cases a few cultural aspects. 

“One example of that is that, in terms of values, the family is almost more important than the individual. I’ve seen comments saying ‘it makes no difference what the parents do, you can never take children away from their parents’,” she said.

“There’s this belief that the best situation for the child is always for them to be with their family. Whether you call it ‘kidnapping’ or not, that makes no difference. Just the fact that children are taken away from their parents, there’s friction there.”

So simply dismissing the conspiracy theories as wrong, may not help.

“That’s why this has spread, and why people, in some way, believe this, even if they don’t believe that children are being kidnapped by definition. They know that children are taken into care, and they think that’s wrong,” said Agha.

It becomes a vicious circle, with the knock-on effect that some of these families may be less open to cooperating earlier on if social services feel a need to intervene, as they distrust authority, and they are scared that the Swedish social services will take their children away from them.

“People don’t know that social services help as well. That they’re there to help,” Agha said.

In general, before taking a child into care, social services will offer voluntary help, such as a consultation with families to address issues. Immigrant families are more likely to turn down this help, academic research has found. This, in turn, means that it is more likely that their children will be taken into care, as the situation worsens until social services have no other option.

Birgitta Persdotter, a Karlstad University expert in social work who has researched the issue, told public radio broadcaster Sveriges Radio last year: “Children with a Swedish background receive voluntary help to a much greater extent than children with an immigrant background, whereas children with an immigrant background to a much greater extent are taken into immediate care.”

Additionally, not all newly-arrived parents are aware of how the system works and that they, too, have rights. They are allowed to appeal any decision with the help of a lawyer, and if they don’t speak Swedish they are entitled to an interpreter. But they may be less likely than parents with a Swedish background to use these channels to argue their case.

Another aspect is that while not all immigrant families are the same, some of these families may be more likely to have other risk factors which increase the risk of their children being taken into care.

“Immigrant families are overrepresented in vulnerable areas, where people are worse off, there’s higher unemployment, people are less healthy, there are lots of other background factors here which can affect family relationships, and these statistics as well,” said Agha.

“You need to be aware of that as well, when you’re looking at these statistics. It’s very easy to just say ‘it’s because they’re Muslims’.”

What can Swedish authorities do to combat this?

“They need to listen. They need to take these families’ fears seriously, these fears have been there for a number of years,” Agha explained. She said that although the current debate has been hijacked by forces with ulterior motives, at its root there’s valid criticism.

The Swedish Care of Young Persons (Special Provisions) Act, known as LVU in Swedish, is the law regulating the circumstances in which social services can take a child into care.

“From the beginning there has been a fear and distrust of authorities, and also criticism of how the social services work, and how LVU is applied. We know that there are lawyers, other opposition from within Swedish society who agree with this criticism – not just immigrants or families who have recently arrived in Sweden who have had their children taken into care,” she said.

“There’s a factual issue here which needs to be discussed.”

• FACT CHECK: What is Sweden’s LVU and how does it work?

She argues that Swedish social services need to be more specific when talking about some of the legal terms they use, and improve how they communicate what these terms mean in practice.

“Train social workers more in the kinds of problems these families are experiencing, so they learn to talk more about the issues which affect these groups. Adapt communication, and above all, get rid of this fear, because there are a lot of families who need help from the social services who are afraid of reaching out or decline help, and then time passes and maybe it’s too late,” she said.

This article is part of an in-depth report by The Local on the disinformation campaign against the Swedish social services. Read part one HERE.