Iskilstuna is mid-sized and laid back city. However to get there from Gothenburg was challenging for me. I took a train from Gothenburg on Saturday morning at 10:42 a.m. – please note the specificity of the departure time of the train not 10:30 a.m. or 11:00 a.m.!
The public transit in Sweden is excellent. The trains run on time and they are clean and safe. Most people don’t even need to own cars to get to work or run daily errands. They can either bike, take a bus, or ride the train. Swedish people are very conscious of their impact on the environment. Good for them!
The first leg of my train ride was uneventful and I arrived little bit early to Katrineholm. From there I needed to change trains to get to Iskilstuna. I decided write little bit as I waited for the next train, but then when I realized I just had three minutes left to catch the departure, I shut my computer down and hurried believing I was on the right platform. Wrong!
I was at the wrong platform, and by the time I had dragged my heavy luggage to platform number 5, I was just minute late but the train had already departed. I am telling myself it had to be a joke! I am barely late but have missed the train to get to the Somali-Iskilstuna community waiting for me at our first meeting scheduled at 2:00 p.m.. So I hurried back to the information desk and met a man who hardly spoke English, and in case you are wondering my Swedish is not up to speed yet :). Somehow I told him that I missed the train and I needed to get to Iskilstuna in one hour. He more or less said it was impossible! He did point me to a bus that was supposedly departing to Iskilstuna in less than 4 minutes.
I said great let me get on this bus then. He gave me a new ticket and rushed to get to the bus that I thought was departing to the city that I am heading. The bus driver pretended that he does not speak English at first and waved me in and nodded to confirm that I was in the right bus headed to Iskilstuna. Wrong again! After half an hour of enjoying the scenery of the rural Swedish landscape something inside me said that I was heading in the wrong direction. I got up and asked the bus driver are we heading to Iskilstuna. He said no and I should have asked him more precisely where I was heading before I got on board. Now all over sudden he spoke English. I said “Great! What do I do now?!” He said he didn’t know!
After a quick moment of thinking and reflection. I asked him how long it is going to take him to loop back to the Katrineholm station. He said about 1 hour and 10 minutes. I believed him because everything runs on time around here. So I collected my thoughts sat near him and start writing and waited to loop back to the Katrineholm station. I arrived around 2:55 p.m at the station and I took the right train this time to Iskilstuna at 3:00 p.m. I arrived more than 2 hours late to the Iskilstuna City Hall (at 4:15). I hate to be late let alone to be late on very important meeting with the whole Somali community in Iskilstuna. People were forgiving and gracious to me. The upside of being lost was I saw more of the lovely landscape and saw small towns like Flen where lot of Swedish-Somali live and one day might elect a mayor who speaks Somali as the community grows closer to becoming the majority in the city.
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The Iskilstuna meeting was just magnificent. Over 180 people came to listen and engage in a discussion with me. Because I originally thought I would have time to stop by at the hotel, I was not dressed up at all and felt very conscious and underdressed throughout the meeting. I told myself to just got over it; a lot of people are fleeing for their lives somewhere in Somalia as we start this meeting, and you are worrying if you are rightly dressed for the meeting. Just deal with it! I dealt with it.
We had great meeting which lasted until 7:00 p.m. The community was engaged, lively, interesting, and wanted to work and create jobs and start businesses in Iskilstuna. The main concerns were the same across the board and at this time I am understanding a little bit more of the issues with which the Swedish-Somali community grapples. These are more or less: a lack of unified leadership, lack of jobs, lack of opportunities to creating small businesses, and lack of not being part of the old and established Swedish network. Over 80% of the jobs are filled through networking and prior relationships, but the Swedish-Somalis don’t have very deep network yet, particularly in the smaller cities. Again, the general theme is that the Somalis don’t like each other and others don’t like them either.
We ended the meeting on a high note as the Mayor of the City of Iskilstuna, who was present during the meeting, gave the best integration definition that I have heard so far in Sweden. The Mayor, who is young and dynamic, said it really does not matter how you dress and whom you worship and how often. Integration is about your willingness to build Iskilstuna and make it a welcoming city for all. It is about you learning the Swedish language. It is about you finding a job or starting a business. It is about you preserving what you deem important and the best aspects of your culture, and definitely preserving the Somali language for you and for your children. Eduction is key for your success and we will do whatever we can to help you attain it. We need you as much as you need us and we want you to stay here and make Iskilstuna your new home. I thought he was great.
A member of the Swedish-Somali community spoke on behalf of the community who agreed to continue to meet and form standing committees that will gather once a month and form leadership organizations for the community. There were lot youth and women present. They were vocal and ready to take the leadership. I was extremely pleased from the outcome of the meeting. It turned out to be a local community meeting, and I was excited for them and put these organizing skills to work.
Iskilstuna is on the move. We expect great things from them!
I stayed at the Clarion Collection Hotel overnight and left for Stockholm (on time) on Sunday. This time I was mentally prepared not to miss my train. I want to thank all of my hosts during my stay in Iskilstuna and everywhere in Sweden. They are all awesome and welcoming people. Thank you all.
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The Swedish-Somali community is currently being perceived as extremely different than the other immigrant and not-so-recent immigrant communities in Sweden. This is mainly because of their newness, color, religious and cultural differences and practices. Also the Swedish-Somali community that came early 1990s has never fully found employment and therefore is stigmatized as people who don’t want to work. After September 11, 2001, extremism and radicalization dominate the Islamic dialogue and Somalis, although they are not the majority of Muslims in many places around the globe, are defined by others and closely linked with this extremism – even though Somalis are predominantly Sunni, and are are fairly moderate in practicing Islam Somalis are struggling everywhere in the Western world to define themselves and get to know their neighbors and tell them who they are. Also, the neverending civil war in the southern Somalia, this time with a religious element, leaves them vulnerable to be labeled and in support of such figures as Al-Shabab – which is not helpful for the Somali image anywhere in the Western world.
While Somalis are predominately Muslim and truly love their religion, the large majority of fleeing Somalis find themselves in Western and pluralistic societies that visibly don’t want to mix religion and state or religion and politics. At times Somalis are seeing advocating and promoting Islam in every aspect of life. The irony though is often the countries where Islam is practiced did not welcome Somalis at all. Sometimes they are hostile to them and send them back to Somalia against their will. One case of this is Saudi Arabia. I guess life is full of ironies and this is one for me!
Somalis have no option to but to learn to be tolerant and inclusive and explain that their brand of Islam is peaceful and appreciates the sanctity of human life.
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As always, if you ever feel I have made a mistake or unintentionally offended anyone, please let me know via hsamatar@adcminnesota.org. Feedback is always appreciated.
Thank you for traveling with me and I do appreciate you reading my blog and interacting with me.
Graciously,
Hussein Samatar
Executive Director
