When The Local surveyed readers after the 2022 election on their experiences of discrimination in Sweden we were inundated with detailed and depressing responses.
“Sweden is decades behind on racism and diversity,” the headline read.
That sentiment is shared by Greg Fernando, the Canadian founder of New to Sweden, a group working for greater workplace diversity.
“I was born in Montreal and I liken 1980s Montreal to present-day Sweden – it’s almost 40 years behind where it needs to be,” he tells the Sweden in Focus podcast.
“There’s a lot of behavioural changes that need to occur for Sweden to truly embrace what diversity and inclusion can bring them.”
‘There is a huge misunderstanding about equality data in Sweden’
After UN racism experts visited Sweden in 2022 the head of the delegation, Justice Yvonne Mokgoro, who passed away in May 2024, was adamant that Sweden must begin gathering equality data.
“The collection, publication and analysis of data disaggregated by race or ethnic origin in all aspects of life, especially regarding interactions with law enforcement and the criminal justice system, is an essential element for designing and assessing responses to systemic racism,” she said at the time.
To avoid any risk of abuse, both the EU and UN stress that statistics on ethnicity should be voluntary and anonymised.
But to even raise the prospect of gathering these statistics is controversial in Sweden where “there is a huge misunderstanding about equality data”, according to Sayaka Osanami Törngren, associate professor in international migration and ethnic relations at Malmö University.
Swedish commentators often conflate equality data with state-run ethnic registers compiled to sinister ends, she said in an earlier episode of the Sweden in Focus podcast. Discussion grinds to a halt once the spectre of government oppression has been invoked, despite the fact that countries like the US, UK, Canada, Ireland and Mexico routinely gather these kinds of stats.
But Sweden can point to plenty of places that don’t make ethnicity a voluntary option on questionnaires, with Germany and France serving as prominent examples in Europe. Like France, Sweden takes a “colour-blind” approach to fighting discrimination and has even gone so far as to remove the concept of race from its statute books.
“I think this is tied to the question of whether Sweden really believes that there is structural racism, and that you want to address it,” Osanami Törngren said.
“We all know that it’s not about biological race. But race is real for those who are racialised because they have their daily experiences of being treated differently because of their skin colour, because of the way they dress, because of the religion they signal.”
She wondered if Sweden could ever properly tackle racism without knowing how people define their own ethnicity.
“I normally say that the level of gender equality that Sweden has achieved today would not be possible if there were no statistics about sex.”
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‘The risks are greater than the benefits’
All the available evidence from Sweden shows that visible minorities are treated worse than others in the workplace. But the available evidence is extremely limited.
To counter this, three trade unions – Vårdförbundet, DIK and Kommunal – recently joined forces with an appeal to Sweden’s government to start collecting equality data.
“Looking at origin (where a person and their parents were born) provides some information,” the unions wrote in their joint appeal. “But it doesn’t tell the whole story and misses out many of those who are subjected to racism due to the colour of their skin.”
The unions are far from alone. Like the UN, the European Commission too wants all EU member states to add equality data to their anti-discrimination toolkits.
But Sweden’s minister for gender equality and working life, Paulina Brandberg, believes the tools the country already uses to combat discrimination are sufficient.
“We are of course listening to what the Commission says and the criticism that we’re getting,” she tells The Local.
“That of course is very important for us to analyse, but I can assure you that we have already done a deep analysis.
“Our analysis has told us that the risks are greater than the benefits.”
She noted that Sweden’s Equality Ombudsman compiles annual reports based on the complaints the agency receives from the victims of discrimination.
In 2023 the Equality Ombudsman hosted a conference in Stockholm on “Equality Data as a Tool for Combating Discrimination”.
Speaking at the conference the head of the agency, Lars Arrhenius, indicated that “there are some gaps” in Sweden’s statistics. “So we are also looking forward to the concrete actions from the government.”
But the prospect of Sweden collecting equality data any time soon is slim. Six of Sweden’s eight main parties oppose the idea, with only the Green and Left parties arguing for Sweden to heed the advice of the EU and UN.
For his part, Greg Fernando strongly believes that Sweden should follow these high-level recommendations.
“You don’t even know if you have a problem yet until you measure it and figure it out. But it’s apparent to absolutely everybody with the eye test that there is a problem.”
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Listen to the full interview with Greg Fernando in this week’s Sweden in Focus Extra, out May 29th.
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