Introduction
What is going on in Sweden? Riots that started in Husby, a suburb north of the capital in Stockholm, spread to ten more suburbs. Cars were set on fire, and police were attacked by mostly angry, immigrant youth. It is unemployment and a lack of education among the young that are the proximate causes for the enormous riots that only recently subsided. In Husby, 60% of the residents were born outside of Sweden, and their unemployment rate is twice the national average. Youth unemployment is 23.6%, which is three times the unemployment rate for the country. (Magnusson and Carlstrom 2013). The issue of unemployment is compounded by the fact that a disproportionate share of the unemployed are foreign-born. The foreign-born Swedish unemployment rate is 16% compared to 6% for native-born Swedes (Pollard and O’Connor 2013). One study finds that after ten years of stay 27% of immigrant women and 23% of immigrant men remained unemployed, which is among the lowest rates of employment in Europe (Local 2012b). In this political turmoil, in a country that is considered to be not only among the wealthiest, but the most socially peaceful and egalitarian, two major explanations have been found that supposedly are the causes of the riots. I will state these two major explanations, and will offer reasons why they are not sufficient or not accurate to explain the riots. I will offer a third explanation in order to explain the riots.