ECCAR European Coalition of Cities against Racism

Botkyrka is a municipality characterised by contrasts. As an example, the 90.000 inhabitants have origin in over 160 countries and speak about 100 different languages. Many have been settled in Botkyrka for generations and 89, 5% of the children between 0-15 years are born in Sweden. We estimate that the majority of the population in Botkyrka live in multilingual and multicultural settings, and the majority of our youth is trilingual.

Botkyrka is located 20 km from the city of Stockholm and is divided into five districts: Alby, Fittja, Hallunda-Norsborg, Tumba-Grödinge and Tullinge. The municipality is governed by a coalition of Social Democrats, the Left Party and the Green Party.

Botkyrka has everything, from lively suburban centres and pleasant residential districts with interesting architecture to rural districts with beautiful nature, forests, meadows, lakes and coastline. Here entrepreneurial activities are encouraged, small enterprises mix with international conglomerates, and many cultures, languages and religions meet together.

Botkyrka has a young population, in comparison both with other towns in the county and with the country at large; the average age is 37 years.
A lot of help is available to you in Botkyrka – you can obtain advice about your rights as a consumer, about energy, about budgets and debts, about alcohol, drug or gambling addiction, and there is special advice available to you as a woman. For young people, there is a youth reception, a reception for young people with addiction problems, and support for those with children or teenagers. There is also a guidance centre for adult education, an employment and competence centre and a job centre.

Information on the number of persons who could be victims of racism and discrimination

The latest citizen survey indicates (by extrapolation) that there could be about 6.500 persons that feel that they are restricted in their lives because of discrimination on the grounds of skin colour, language or religion. For the moment the results from the 2016 citizen survey has not yet been processed so it is difficult to say anything about the development since the 2015 survey apart from that the result might be less reliable due to a poor response rate. 16% of the 1619 respondents state that they have been discriminated on any ground the last 12 months, which is a higher rate than the years before. The largest groups identified at risk to be discriminated or victims of hate crime are inhabitants from the African countries and from the countries in the Middle East.

The municipality cooperates with the local Antidiscrimination Bureau Stockholm Syd, ADB Stockholm Syd from now on, in order to get additional qualitative data about the situation. Only about a third of the cases stems from citizens of Botkyrka. Citizens living in municipalities close to Botkyrka also look for assistance from this bureau. The 2015 yearly report from the bureau shows that 53 women and 41 men out of a total about 300 different kinds of contacts, established cases within the bureau. Of these 94 cases 80 were closed by either negotiation between the victim and the perpetrator, legal consultancy or referring to the relevant institution. Somtimes supportive listening and recognition of the experience of the client has been the way to deal with cases. The most common referred ground of discrimination in the bureau statistics was ethnicity, where 23 women and 19 men made notifications to the bureau in 2015. Women are also overrepresented in complaints referring to religion as ground of discrimination – 8 as compared to 4 cases. The second most common ground of discrimination in 2015 was disability, 13 woman and 9 men turned to the bureau for this reason. Number 4 on the list was complaints due to discrimination on the ground of sex – 4 women and 2 men made notifications. Discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation, age and transgender identity/expression were very infrequent, while unclear grounds of discrimination added up to 10 cases.

The Ombudsman against Discrimination – DO from here - gives us general information about the amount and character of the reports about racism and discrimination. In the year of 2015 altogether 2393 persons notified DO and on this national level men were overrepresented by about 100 complaints while behind 70 of the complaints sex was not stated. The most common ground of discrimination was disability, closely followed by ethnicity, each making up for around 25 per cent of the complaints. The Third most common ground for discrimination among the notifications was sex, 13 per cent, and the fourth was religion, 7%. Out of these complaints some 260 were chosen for further processes. Today DO directs almost all cases to the antidiscrimination bureaus around the country. DO also give information about how to contact lawyers and where to find economic support to engage a lawyer for a legal process. The union and some NGO:s are other organizations that can give support – according to DO. The antidiscrimination bureaus are entitled to speak for the plaintiff in court.

Information on the relevant laws, judicial decisions and regulations which frame the city’s actions

Framing Botkyrkas actions against racism and discrimination is both the Swedish national law against discrimination and the strategy for an intercultural Botkyrka.

The Swedish national law covers different societal sectors like labor market and education and is organized around prohibitions and preventions. In 2017 legislation on preventive actions against discrimination in the labor market and education has been emphasized and extended. Today all 7 prohibited grounds of discrimination (sex, ethnicity, religion, transgender identity/expression, age, sexual orientation, disability) are included in the compulsory discrimination prevention. Preventive programs can take the form of an action plan for diversity in a work place or the compulsory “plan for equal treatment” in all Swedish schools. From Januari 2017 employers and educational institutions are not only to plan for the preventive work, they also have to document proscribed progressive steps.