Malmö, with a population of 318,000, is the most populous city in Skåne County, and the third largest city in Sweden and the 6th largest in the Nordic Countries. Malmö is classified as a “global city” and “multi-cultural paradise”, ranked 5th in Scandinavia by the “Global Cities Index” in 2012.
41% of the population is foreigner immigrant; 30% is born abroad and another 11% is Swedish-born with foreign-born parents (for a total 82% of no-Swedish). In 2011, 174 countries and about 150 languages were represented in Malmö.
The 10 largest groups of immigrants have arrived from:
- Iraq (9,940)
- Denmark (8,972)
- Serbia (8,426)
- Bosnia and Herzegovina (5,969)
- Lebanon (3,780)
- Iran (3,375)
- Poland (3,053)
- Turkey (2,110)
- Hungary (2,038)
- Romania (2,014)
Last July 2015 four grenade attacks have rocked Malmo in a single week, prompting police to sound an alarm over the increasing violence. Multiple explosions, shootings and arson struck the city. The fourth of the grenade attack was detonated in a car park in the district of Värnhem in the morning, local media reported. The attack came after a blast two days early in the Solbacken neighborhood, which occurred less than 12 hours after another explosion in the residential area of Limhamn in the west, and two days after a car bomb attack that injured a man outside a community center in the south.
July’s unrest continues a series of numerous shootings, explosions and arsons that have occurred since the beginning of the year in Malmo, infamous for high crime rates, multi-ethnic and gang-related violence. Since the beginning of 2015, 30 explosions rocked the city prompting the Swedish police’s national bomb squad to be called in. Over the whole 2014 a total of 25 explosions took place, which shows a significant increase this year.
Last Septemebr 2015 a train on route between Malmö and Stockholm was robbed by illegal immigrants. The migrants didn’t feel the need to pay the regular ticket, instead they robbed the cafeteria onboard the Swedish railway train.
In Malmö the immigrants are concentrated in one pocket of the city, Rosengaard. Unemployment in the area runs at 70 per cent, stones are thrown regularly at mail carriers and police, and 150 cars were torched during summer riots in 2013. Protests for and against Muslim immigrants are frequent and tough.
There have been 137 anti-Semitic incidents reported to authorities in Malmö the past two years.
The Rabbi of the Malmö synagogue, Shneur Kesselman, says he has been spat upon and cursed. Most recently, a bottle thrown from a passing car narrowly missed his head, he says.
Some have left because they are scared. The Jewish community in Malmö has shrunk by 50 per cent to about 1,000 in the past 10 years.
Last 20th October 2015 pro-Palestinian groups organized a rally in the city center against what they consider Israeli violence and to show solidarity with Palestinians amid deadly measures taken by Israeli authorities to stop the recent spate of attacks on Jews in Israel and the West Bank. During the rally hundreds of protesters were filmed chanting in Arabic about slaughtering Jews and stabbing soldiers.
More than 75,000 sexual crimes yearly (including 6,000 rape) in a country with only four million women might explain Swedish women’s fear of leaving their dwelling without escort.