{"id":26267,"date":"2023-02-19T09:03:27","date_gmt":"2023-02-19T09:03:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rauhankasvatus.fi\/staging\/?p=26267"},"modified":"2023-08-18T10:31:32","modified_gmt":"2023-08-18T10:31:32","slug":"sonnect-eskilstuna","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rauhankasvatus.fi\/staging\/en\/connect-eskilstuna\/","title":{"rendered":"Connect Eskilstuna"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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younger and younger people are involved in organized crime\n<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Story of Eskilstuna, Sweden<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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\u201cWhen you are a teen and you have control over drugs and weapons, you\u2019ll go crazy \u2013 it\u2019s not a responsibility for such a young person to take. <\/i><\/b>We can\u2019t have young people running around having weapons and being criminal. It hurts them, and it obviously hurts the rest of the society.\u201d Racil, 16.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Eskilstuna is a beautiful small city located in the center of Sweden. The location of the city is excellent: <\/span>it has direct access to the sea through the bay of M\u00e4larn and it is close enough to the capital city Stockholm, as well as its many surrounding small cities and villages.<\/span><\/p>

Industries have used this logistics hub for decades, if not centuries. At the moment Volvo and several other international companies have their factories and businesses in town.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

To meet the industry\u2019s need for labor, in the middle of the last century an active recruitment of workers both from Sweden and from abroad began. Labor immigration to Eskilstuna started in the 1940s, and it more than doubled the city\u2019s population in couple of decades, rising from 37,000 in the 40\u2019s to 94 000 in the 70\u2019s. At the moment the city has 106 975 inhabitants and 34 % are from immigrant backgrounds.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Great numbers of people needed homes in the latter half of the last century, which led to Sweden\u2019s big housing investment, the miljonprogrammet (million program) that built one million new homes in ten years, started in the 1960s. It created new high rise suburbs in Eskilstuna in Nyfors, \u00c5rby and Slagsta, among others.<\/span><\/p>

Different branches of the industry are not the only party attracted by the connections of the city. Also organized crime is present. According to the <\/span>T<\/span><\/i>he Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (<\/span><\/i>Br\u00e5<\/span><\/i>) there were approximately 42 acts of crime last year per day in Eskilstuna, 15 446 in total. Eskilstuna municipality was one of the municipalities in the country that in 2022 had the highest number of reported crimes per 100,000 inhabitants. Only the three big cities had more.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Year 2022 was especially serious in gun violence. There were 32 shootings in Eskiltuna of which 15 happened in the neighborhood of \u00c5rby. <\/span>Between 2018 and 2021 there were 34 shootings in all.<\/span><\/p>

What would protect youth from getting involved in criminality? Different actors in the community are working to find solutions to this complex question that has deep roots in segregation, marginalization and mistrust. And so are members of Young Revolution,<\/i> a youth group of an NGO called Sisters in Business, that supports women with minority backgrounds\u00a0 Racil Hussein 16, Joel Almourtada 19, Anisa Abdi, Hanan Noor 17 and Emilia Selberg 17<\/i> together with their mentor Maria Nordin 24<\/i>.<\/span>\u00a0According to them, people involved in criminal gangs, drugs and gun violence are getting younger and younger every day. <\/span><\/p>

Racil, Joel, Anisa, Hanan and Emilia<\/span> all come from the most troubled neighborhoods, such as \u00c5rby, that was built during the <\/span>miljonprogrammet<\/span>. Many of their childhood friends are now members of organized crime gangs, so they see the situation from a personal perspective. It is clear that the feeling of not belonging, which spans generations here, as well as the feeling of being left out of society and the lack of future perspectives play an important role in the phenomenon.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Being an outsider for your whole life.<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\u201cWe can\u2019t have young people running around having weapons and being criminal.\u201d <\/span><\/i>Racil says, <\/span>\u201cIt hurts them, and it obviously hurts the rest of the society. I think it\u2019s such a big problem in Eskilstuna, because we have a lot of segregation.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>

Her colleague Hanan adds, <\/span>\u201cI think all this violence and organized crime is really embedded in harsh environments. I think the biggest reason for it is the segregation and poverty and mistrust and a feeling of being an outsider for your whole life. What is also problematic is that young people are easy to control or take advantage of, as they are in such vulnerable situation. They are so young.<\/span><\/i>\u201c\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

According to the team, there\u2019s general mistrust towards people living in the deprived areas and vice versa in Eskilstuna. Many of the youth in these areas tend to trust only their peers \u2013 not the police, teachers or the school staff, or any other people living outside of these areas in general. Many of them haven\u2019t got an image or a plan for a better future, where an education helps one to find a job and be part of a society.
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<\/span>\u201c<\/span>With segregation people tend to stay in the same place for their whole life and generations, you know\u201d, Racil says \u201cYour parents might not have money, but you need to get money, and you know how to get quick money.”<\/span><\/i><\/p>

Criminality is also normalized. Especially in the less privileged neighborhoods people have used to see drug dealing in the streets and according to the group all the youth in these neighborhoods know somebody, who has a link to organized crime \u2013 and to quick money.\u00a0 This makes joining gangs easier, and has contributed to the age of involvement getting lower. According to the group, the youngest people involved are around 12 years old at the moment.
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<\/span>The mistrust creates a vicious cycle. It\u2019s hard to feel safe in the city, even though one may live in the calmer areas. Violence is everywhere in the news.\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cIt\u2019s very easy to become judgmental towards people living in these places, because \u2013 of course \u2013 crimes are committed in those places every day. What are you supposed to think about that? The people outside of the segregated people feel unsafe, and judge people living there. It\u2019s almost like two-sided hate. And it\u2019s not just about the hate. It ends up in both parties feeling unsafe. This makes the whole society feel shaky.\u201d <\/span><\/i>Hanan says.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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It could have been me<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Seeing criminal activity is so normalized, that everybody is familiar with it. <\/span>\u201cWhen I was younger, we used to see these older criminals and we didn\u2019t think of them as \u201ccool\u201d or \u201cwow\u201d.<\/span><\/i> We were scared of them.\u201d<\/span><\/i> Hanan describes. <\/span>\u201cI was maybe12 or 13, when I noticed that some of my good friends started to be like: \u201cYou know what? He is actually quite cool. Wow, he has weapon, a lot of money and a nice car. Suddenly there was an interest that wasn\u2019t there when we were younger. After we finished high school, there was a long period of free time, as you don\u2019t have to go to gymnasiet. It was an eye-opener for me to realize that more than like 50 % of the people I know had become criminals \u2013 I know they are good people, but now they are criminals. It is very hurtful, as it could have been me. We grew up together, we did the same things after school. We were like the same person.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>

Racil continues: \u201c<\/span>I grew up in \u00c5rby and we played around all the playgrounds there. And to know that in the same playgrounds me and my friends played in, that someone has been shot there. It\u2019s quite scary to think of, you know? To see all of my friends, or some of my friends getting into criminality and seeing how the criminality eats them up, it hurts bad. Although I can\u2019t really understand why they ended up that way, or why it was them, and why it wasn\u2019t someone else and why it wasn\u2019t me. We grew up together, we went to the same schools, we played the same games. And they were dragged into it in some way. It\u2019s so hurtful to see someone being destroyed by being dragged into criminality in general.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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It\u2019s like in Syria<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\u201cI grew up in Syria and I came here five years ago.\u201d<\/span><\/i> Joelle tells, <\/span>\u201cWhen I came here, I felt so safe, but right now I feel quite different. In Syria, I heard bombs hitting every day, but now \u2013 shootings. I think it\u2019s even going to get worse. Maybe it\u2019s going to get from guns to bombs one day, if nobody does something about it. \u201c<\/span><\/i><\/p>

During the past couple of years, it has become normal to see crime, drug dealers and to know that someone was shot in the street day before, where you walk now.<\/span><\/p>

Maria explains the situation: <\/span>\u201cThis summer, there was someone, who stabbed someone else in a crowded bus. The bus was driving, and the passengers had nowhere to go and everybody saw that. More and more people are involved, even though they have nothing to do with the crime themselves.\u201c<\/span><\/i><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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If they would hear us<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Eskilstuna has a high unemployment rate, 11%, in comparison to the rest of the country, 6%. The number is higher among the people with immigrant backgrounds, 22%. A quarter of the total population of Eskiltuna have immigrant backgrounds and most of them live in the less privileged neighborhoods that were built during the miljonprogrammet. It is a challenging task to stop a long cycle of mistrust, gentrification \u2013 and young people joining criminal gangs.<\/span><\/p>

The group, however, come from similar backgrounds, as the majority of those young people who join criminal gangs, and see things from their perspective. They know that many of the people committing crimes as gang members were ordinary children just a couple of years before.<\/span><\/p>

\u201cFirst of all, we want people to sympathize with these kids.\u201d<\/span><\/i> Hanan says, <\/span>\u201cThey are humans in the end. Even though they have committed crimes, even though they live in \u00c5rby, even though they are not from Sweden, they are still children and they are still humans. I believe that if someone would have been there and seen them in the early stages, it could have been prevented. And that person could have been whoever. It could have been a parent, it could have been a teacher, it could have been a friend. Someone.\u201c

<\/span><\/i><\/i>\u201cTo take it one step further.\u201d<\/span><\/i> Maria continues, <\/span>\u201cWe want to create more equal opportunities, no matter where you live in Eskilstuna. So if you would take more preventative actions, you would have a more equal society. It doesn\u2019t matter if you grow up in the center of the city, or in \u00c5rby, or wherever. You would still have a good school. If you are feeling bad, someone will take care of you, will listen to you. You don\u2019t have to be afraid to go out at night, no matter where you live. Create safety, empathy and forgiveness. We have talked about this a lot: that you have a lot of your friends, which you might know. They are not bad people all the way through and I think they deserve forgiveness, and that might also be the only way forward. Because otherwise, what are you going to do with them?\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>

In order to get their voices out, the group decided to interview a couple of young ex-criminals, who have managed to get out of the gangs. They started to work on a documentary film on the topic. Solving the situation in Eskilstuna is a massive task, but you have to start from somewhere.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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A Theory of Change in Eskilstuna<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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  • People need to hear, what is happening in young people’s lives, who are in risk to join criminal activities, due to segregation and lack of resources.<\/li>
  • In order to make authorities and a wider audience, as well as youth to understand, what it is to be part of the organised crime in an early age, the voice of the youth needs to be brought to them.<\/li>
  • This can be done by a documentary film about young criminals and their backgrounds.<\/li>
  • When people start to understand the realities of the youth coming from the deprived areas, they start to sympathise and this can lead to a process, where trust can be created.<\/li>
  • With discussion and joint effort, it could be possible to start to draft an agenda, that would offer equal opprotunities to people despite which areas they are coming from.\u00a0<\/li><\/ul>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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    Documentary film: \nThe only way<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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