Type of person, not ethnicity

For transparency and my own agenda, I strongly dislike our previous government, the Social Democrats with the support of the Green Party and the tacit acceptance of the Left Party, who ruled Sweden for 8 years. At the last election, I voted for the current government.

The cornerstone of Sweden's previous government was grants. It becomes particularly clear when an active defense minister, native and resident in another country, can receive both sickness benefit and economic support without any control point triggering the alarm.

The last few days, the Swedish media has done its utmost to downplay the story of the former Iraqi defense minister, suggesting in several articles that the welfare system is being exploited by ethnic Swedes who move to Spain or Thailand when they reach retirement age.

Unlike many of our ethnically Swedish friends who live in segregated areas and almost never come into contact with people who immigrated or came as refugees to Sweden, we also have friends who are either immigrants or refugees.

Few things irritate our friends of foreign origin as much as when the media downplays stories like this. They have worked and contributed to society during the entire time they have been in Sweden and under no circumstances want to be lumped together with this type of people.

The fact that the media downplays these stories can be at the expense of our friends who risk being associated with this type of people who, by the way, are found in all nationalities on earth.