What happened
In August, the government inquiry Parallel Social Structures submitted its final report to the government. The inquiry proposes, among other things, a national coordinator and measures against negative social control. Principal secretary Pernilla Andersson Joona states that the concept lacks an established definition and that its extent in the country cannot be measured. Meanwhile, the Norwegian research institute Fafo, after a review of 90 Nordic studies, warns that labeling areas as parallel societies has real negative consequences for residents.
Our analysis
The inquiry wants the government to appoint a national coordinator against a phenomenon that the state's own investigators can neither define nor measure. When vague concepts are made the basis for state policy, areas where many new Swedes live are cast under suspicion as a whole. Fafo's review of 90 studies shows that this type of labeling harms residents instead of solving their problems. Mainstream coverage has missed what happened in Denmark, where similar concepts led to public housing being sold off and families forced to leave their homes. Now the report lies with the government, which must decide whether the coordinator will become a reality.
Explained
A Swedish Government Official Report (SOU) is a report that the government commissions from experts to provide a basis before new laws or initiatives are decided.