Sweden's Unique Response To Coronavirus Is Hurting Its Minority Communities
Sweden is proudly tackling the coronavirus pandemic differently from almost any other affluent country ― with few business closures, public gatherings ongoing and only the most vulnerable encouraged to stay at home. But its approach risks higher levels of illness and death among its ethnic minority communities, advocates warn.
The country has more than 8,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. While the government has not reported a breakdown by ethnicity, local researchers noted “an astonishing high rate” of deaths among the Somali population in late March, and recent statistics suggest a disproportionate number of infections in areas of the capital and national center of the outbreak, Stockholm, with many residents from foreign backgrounds. Of the first 15 people to die of coronavirus in and around Stockholm, six were of Somali heritage ― a group that makes up less than 1% of the area’s population.
Many people in minority communities continued life as usual as the coronavirus began to spread in Sweden. They didn’t know not to: Sweden, although known for its openness to refugees and its social safety net, initially failed to release much advice on the pandemic in the non-Swedish languages spoken by thousands of citizens, including Somali. The government’s actions failed to account for cultural differences within a nation whose migrant and asylum-seeker populations have grown.
The result could provide a warning for the rest of the world of the public health costs of one-size-fits-all messaging ― and a parallel to reports from other countries, like the U.S., that the novel coronavirus is disproportionately hurting marginalized groups.
Moreover, the situation could supercharge toxic anti-immigrant voices in the country. A lingering public perception of a higher prevalence of the disease among groups that aren’t ethnically Swedish would be a gift for extreme political forces who have already found success in...
