Iraqis are the second largest minority group living in Sweden, with 146,048

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...

i-born people living in Sweden and 79,732 Swedes with at least one Iraqi-born parent. They are also one of the largest Asian communities in the country. The size of this group has doubled in the period of 2002 to 2009; the influx of Iraqi refugees increased dramatically from 2006 to 2009 as a result of the US-led invasion of Iraq.

Population

Iraq-born people are the third largest minority group living in Sweden, after the

Sweden Finns Sweden Finns ( fi, ruotsinsuomalaiset; sv, sverigefinnar) are a Finnish-speaking national minority in Sweden. People with Finnish heritage comprise a relatively large share of the population of Sweden. In addition to a smaller part of Sweden F ...

(5.1%) and the Syrians (2.4%). They are also one of the largest Asian communities in Sweden.

Migration history

Iraqi immigrants to Sweden have come in four distinct waves of migration. In the first wave (1968–1978), around 8,000 Kurdish and Assyrian nationalists and Iraqi communists were escaping the Baathist regime. The second wave (1980–1988) of 10,000 people was mainly Kurds and Assyrians escaping the Al-Anfal Campaign and Iraqi men escaping forced conscription in the

Iran–Iraq War The Iran–Iraq War was an armed conflict between Iran and Ba'athist Iraq, Iraq that lasted from September 1980 to August 1988. It began with the Iraqi invasion of Iran and lasted for almost eight years, until the acceptance of United Nations S ...

. The third wave (1991–1999) was about 15,000 people, again mostly Kurdish and Assyrian people from Northern Iraq; most came with families. The largest numbers, almost 30,000 people, of Iraqis in Sweden today have migrated as a consequence of the

Iraq War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Iraq War {{Nobold, {{lang, ar, حرب العراق (Arabic) {{Nobold, {{lang, ku, شەڕی عێراق ( Kurdish) , partof = the Iraq conflict and the War on terror , image ...

of 2003 to 2010; most are Sunni Arabs and Assyrian Christians. Christian Iraqis, fearing persecution in their homeland, made up a large part of that influx after Iraq occupation in 2003. Sweden accepted more than half of all asylum applications from Iraqis in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

. In 2006, over 9,000 Iraqis fled their country and came to Sweden seeking shelter, a fourfold increase over 2005. In 2007, Sweden attempted to throttle the influx of Iraqi refugees by tightening the rules for asylum seekers, but in 2008 there were again record numbers of Iraqi immigrants, close to 12,000. In 2009, the number of immigrants fell again slightly, to 8,400. Iraqi-born persons in Sweden by year:

Refugee status and naturalization

In 2006 Sweden granted protection status to more Iraqis than in all other EU states combined. In 2005 only 0.1 percent of Iraqis were recognised as refugees, but the total recognition rate including those granted complementary protection was a relatively high 24 per cent. In the year 2006 however, recognition rates leapt to a total of 91 per cent. The Swedish Migration Board decided in early 2006 that all Iraqi asylum-seekers from Central and Southern Iraq whose claims had been rejected as part of the normal status determination process would nevertheless receive a

permanent residence ''Permanent Residence'' () is a 2009 Hong Kong film starring Sean Li and Osman Hung. It was directed by Hong Kong filmmaker Danny Cheng, also known as Scud. The film explores several themes traditionally regarded as 'taboo' in Hong Kong societ ...

permit, allowing the majority of Iraqis in Sweden to begin the process of fully integrating into Swedish society with a secure legal status. In the context of the generally low recognition rates for Iraqis in other EU states, Sweden's generosity led to a surge in the number of applications received from Iraqis. Figures increased from 2,330 in 2005 to 8,951 the following year, with a further 1,500 new arrivals per month in the first half of 2007. Most of these persons have joined the existing Iraqi community in Sweden in municipalities such as

Malmö Malmö (, ; da, Malmø ) is the largest city in the Swedish county (län) of Scania (Skåne). It is the third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the sixth-largest city in the Nordic region, with a municipal pop ...

and

Södertälje Södertälje ( , ) is a city in Södermanland and Stockholm County, Sweden and seat of Södertälje Municipality. As of 2017, it has 72,704 inhabitants. Södertälje is located at Mälarens confluence in to the Baltic Sea through the lock in the ...

, with the scale of the influx to these areas forcing newcomers to live in very poor conditions. Speaking in June 2007, Södertälje's mayor Anders Lago described the situation as being close to breaking point, with the authorities barely able to provide basic services and many newcomers sharing apartments with up to fifteen people.

Notable people

Aimar Sher Aimar Hazar Sher (born 20 December 2002) is a Swedish professional footballer who plays as a midfielder. Early life Sher was born in Iraq, but moved to Sweden at age four together with his family. He grew up in Stockholm and started to play f ...

, footballer * Darin, singer * Elaf Ali, journalist and author * Peter Gwargis, footballer * Mohanad Jeahze, footballer * Kevin Yakob, footballer * Bovar Karim, footballer *

Ahmed Yasin Sheikh Ahmed Ismail Hassan Yassin ( ar, الشيخ أحمد إسماعيل حسن ياسين; 1 January 1937 – 22 March 2004) was a Palestinian politician and imam who founded Hamas, a militant Islamist and Palestinian nationalist organi ...

, footballer * Mohamed Said, actor * Salam Karam, journalist * Modhir Ahmed, visual artist *

Abir Al-Sahlani Abir Al-Sahlani (born 18 May 1976) is an Iraqi-born Swedish Member of the European Parliament and since July 2019 a member of the European Parliament, representing the Centre Party. She lives in Hägersten, Stockholm. Biography Al Sahlani wa ...

, politician *

Hayv Kahraman Hayv Kahraman (born 1981) is an Iraqi-American-Swedish artist of Kurdish descent, who was born in Baghdad and fled to Sweden with family during the Gulf War, studied in Florence, and is currently based in Los Angeles. She is primarily a painter. ...

, artist and painter

References

External links