Swedish Muslims face discriminatory practices over their names

By Yahia Abu Zakariya, IOL Correspondent

STOCKHOLM, September 9 (IslamOnline.net) – Many Muslims and immigrants, feeling the pinch of an evident racial discrimination in job recruitment in Sweden, have changed their names to make a living in the European country, said a report by a mass-circulation daily.

Dagens Nyheter published a detailed report on September 6-7, on how many Swedish citizens had to replace their Arabic or Islamic names with Swedish ones in order to conceal their racial or religious identity – all in the hope of securing a job.

Boyan Asghari, an Iranian, went for Steven Sandneil, Mohamed opted for Anderson – a typical common Swedish name – and Khaled chose to call himself Stevenson.

"I had to do this to find a job. For the Swedish labor market is discriminatory toward Arabs and Muslims," Anna, formerly Amani, told the Swedish daily.

Field Survey

The paper carried out a field survey on the job search mechanism and selection, and whether the process is discriminatory against those of Arab and Muslim origins.

Four Swedish citizens, two from Swedish origins and two others hailing from Arab or Muslim origins with Arabic names, were assigned to contact employers for filling same vacancies.

Applicants from Swedish origins got the jobs instantly, while the other two with Arabic names were not that lucky, the results revealed.

According to the Swedish civil affairs department estimates, dozens of Arabs and Muslims in Sweden had applied to change their names during the second half of 2003, in an effort to snatch a job opportunity.

Changing names in Sweden is a common procedure, available to any one. You just need to fill in a form.

Second-Class Treatment

Many social institutions in Stockholm have also been receiving complaints from several Arabs and Muslims as they were sacked from jobs or their job applications were turned down.

Sweden is home to 400,000 Muslim strong community, many have reportedly faced discriminatory practices due to their Arab or Muslim origins since the September 11 attacks on Washington and New York .

The government do well realize the extent of the racial discrimination against Arabs and Muslims in job-recruitment issues.

Minister of Democracy and Minority Integration Issues Mona Sahlin had said the government has spent millions of coronas for convincing the Swedish citizens to be more open to the immigrant communities in the country.

The Swedish daily agreed, saying that Arabs and Muslims in Sweden are receiving a second-class treatment, making them increasingly dependable on the financial assistance from social affairs institutions.

Further, these institutions ask those getting the aid to carry out such lower-wage jobs, such as cleaning services.

Swedish newspapers have recently put at one million the number of those getting social aid all across the country.