Three of four Swedes consider issues which address integration and immigration to be a contemporary Swedish problem, with four in ten sceptical of the experts on the issue, a new survey published on Tuesday shows.
“Xenophobia and democracy issues have come into focus with the Sweden Democrats’ (SD) entry into Sweden’s Riksdag,” wrote Camilla Modéer, secretary-general of Public & Science (Vetenskap & Allmänhet – VA), with Arne Modig from Novus Opinion, in an opinion article in the Dagens Nyheter daily on Tuesday.
The survey shows that 74 percent of the 1,000 Swedes interviewed believe that experts and scholars hold the necessary knowledge to handle the issues of immigration and integration “in a positive way”. However, four in ten respondents remained skeptical of how accurately the picture presented by experts meshes with reality.
The subset of respondents who believe that integration and immigration is a large problem were more likely to be suspicious of experts, with 65 percent questioning the accuracy of findings presented by experts. Among respondents who identified themselves as supporters of the Sweden Democrats, mistrust of experts rose to 90 percent, according to the survey.