Every other MENA immigrant convicted of crime

In Denmark, the state is very clear about the consequences of immigration and how integration is progressing. The statistics show, among other things, that every other immigrant man from the Middle East, North Africa, Pakistan, and Turkey born in 1987 has been convicted of a crime by the age of 35.

Since 2012, the Danish government has continuously published what they call an integration barometer – a measure of how the integration of immigrants is progressing with nine indicators such as work, education, and crime.

In addition to the barometer, the report “Criminality among immigrants and descendants from MENAPT countries” is also published, showing that overrepresentation remains significant. 31 percent of immigrant men born in 1997 have been convicted of a crime by the age of 25, compared to nine percent among Danish men of the same age.

A year ago, the Swedish government commissioned Statistics Sweden to develop a Swedish equivalent of the integration barometer. One of the five indicators is social and cultural integration – that the fundamental norms of society should be followed with a reduced risk of crime as a result.

Therefore, it may seem surprising that Statistics Sweden has chosen not to report immigrant crime at all in the proposed barometer, notes journalist Per Gudmundson. Instead, parameters such as perceived discrimination, feelings of insecurity, low economic standard, or disability are listed under social and cultural integration.

This may possibly be the price we pay for having liberals in charge of integration work. The Liberals do not consider that the “fundamental norms of society” have much to do with lawfulness, but rather with compliance with so-called “liberal values”. When the then Minister for Integration, Mats Persson, announced a year ago that the government would establish an integration barometer, the focus was consequently on controlling “values” rather than outcomes. “It is important that we are very clear that in Sweden, these liberal democratic values apply,” said Mats Persson.

Finally, Gudmundson writes that he assumes that Swedish immigrant crime is similar to the Danish, but it would have been good to know for sure.