Sweden’s integration minister has suggested that a mandatory social integration course focusing on liberal values and gender equality could help reduce the number of rapes committed by foreigners in the Scandinavian country.
Mats Persson, of the co-governing Liberal Party, offered the remarks in an interview with the Expressen newspaper, following the publication of a major study from Lund University which found that 63 percent of those convicted of rape between 2000 and 2020 were either born outside Sweden or had parents born abroad.
The study further revealed that the risk of conviction for rape was highest among men who had spent the least amount of time in Sweden.
Persson argued that cultural differences, particularly patriarchal values from migrants’ countries of origin, play a role in these statistics.
“You cannot turn a blind eye to the fact that values matter. Men who grow up in patriarchal structures where they don’t have the same view of equality as we have in our liberal Sweden — this is clearly part of the problem,” he said.
To address the issue, Persson emphasized the need for stricter penalties and increased deportations for foreign nationals convicted of serious crimes but also called for greater education including new social tests and integration courses.
“First, it is about being very clear that there are high penalties and deportation for those who commit this type of crime. Secondly, we are now introducing a new language and social test for those coming to Sweden, and in it, we will emphasize equality and liberal values to a great extent,” he stated.
Persson supports further increasing the minimum sentence for rape — which was raised to three years in 2022 and is still one of the most lenient in Europe — arguing that tougher punishments serve as both a deterrent and a means of ensuring justice for victims.
“The government has a general direction that we want to increase punishments in Sweden. It is incredibly important for people to feel that the system is fair and that crime victims get the redress they deserve.”
Beyond punitive measures, Persson argued that education and cultural integration are crucial to preventing sexual violence. Currently, Sweden offers a 100-hour social orientation course for new arrivals, but there are discussions about extending it and making it compulsory.
“We need to realize that values play a big role,” the integration minister claimed.
The proposed course would place greater emphasis on women’s rights, honor-based violence, gender equality, and sexuality to ensure that newcomers understand and accept Swedish values. Completion of the test could become a requirement for obtaining a permanent residence permit.
“You can have whatever religion you want and speak whatever home language you want, but we have to be clear from day one that whoever comes here needs to support our views on sexuality, child-rearing, women’s rights, gay rights, and so on,” Persson stated.
The government is also developing an “integration barometer” — an annual survey to anonymously measure the values held by new arrivals to gauge the majority views held by specific communities.
“When it comes to rape, it is above all about having harsh punishments and clarity about which laws apply. But in the future, you can certainly imagine that you have different reinforced efforts for the groups that come from regions where the view on gender equality is very different,” Persson added.
His Liberal Party is part of a coalition government led by the Moderates, but can only pass legislation with the support of the right-wing Sweden Democrats (SD), which attempts to move policy further to the right. The SD has long called for significantly more restrictive immigration rules and harsher punishments to crack down on violent offenses for which foreign nationals are becoming increasingly overrepresented.
The recent Lund University study built on previous research from 2021 found that nearly half of all individuals convicted of rape between 2000 and 2015 were born outside Sweden. Among foreign-born convicts, 34.5 percent came from the Middle East and North Africa; 19.1 percent from sub-Saharan Africa; and 15 percent from Eastern Europe.
