Swedish town restricts 'immigrant weddings'

A local politician from Landskrona in southern Sweden has decreed that only one “immigrant wedding” can be held at the town’s local community centre every month. “We don’t want to have too many,” Lars Svensson, the centre's manager and Social Democratic member of the Landskrona local council said. Svensson then went on to explain what he meant by the term “immigrant wedding”.

“It’s those who live in the city. There are quite a lot of Kurds and Palestinians who get married. There's something about having an oriental background; there can be between 400 and 500 guests,” Svensson explained, adding that "European immigrant groups" aren't included in the term.

According to Svensson, the policy comes following repeated complaints about the noise and untidiness associated with “immigrant weddings” held at Landskrona’s Folkets Hus, translating literally into English as “The People's House”.

But in Landskrona, Svensson’s policies have left members of some immigrant groups shut out of using the community centre. Moreover, it seems that weddings thrown by some European immigrant groups are in fact included in Svensson's category of "immigrant weddings". Local resident Habib Ramadani, originally from Kosovo, has lived in Landskrona for ten years and had hoped to hold a wedding reception for his son in the town’s community centre last year. But Svensson rejected Ramadani’s request, citing the proud father’s immigrant background.

Per Holfve, a lawyer with Sweden’s Equality Ombudsman (Diskrimineringsombudsmannen – DO) think’s Svensson’s policy of limiting the number of “immigrant weddings” could violate the country’s anti-discrimination laws requiring everyone to have equal access to the facility, regardless of ethnicity. “I think it sounds like they are on thin ice. It’s one thing if someone wants to rent the space and there are concerns about problems maintaining order, but then they have to be concrete; it’s not enough to say that it's something to do with ethnic affiliation. Then it’s nothing other than stereotyping,” Holfve said.

But Svensson doesn’t see any problem with limiting the number of immigrant weddings, claiming he is simply doing his best to maintain a balance that reflects the makeup of the community.