ROSENGÅRD - GHETTO OR STIGMATIZED AREA

Rosengard is located in the municipality of Malmo, Sweden and is often referred to as the suburbs of Malmo regardless of its central location in the city. It is more notably characterized as a "Ghetto" and it boasts a population of approximately 25,000 of which it is estimated that 86 percent of the residents have immigrant backgrounds, with most having roots in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia and the former Yugoslavia.

I remember when i first arrived in Sweden and I begun to hear about Rosengård; it peaked my interest as coming from a ghetto in the small island of Jamaica I was very familiar with ghettos. Moreover, from my experiences I had a certain stereotypical view of a ghetto. So when i heard of this 'Swedish Ghetto' located in the heart of Malmo City, i wanted to know more about it . I remember the first time I visited Rosengård, I was rather baffled at how aesthetically pleasant it looked. It had beautiful high rise buildings with very sophisticated infrastructure. From what I could see Rosengård was a very self-sufficient area, which boasted shops, a local supermarket, a shopping centre and even a public library. This puzzled me as it totally differed from what I anticipated and what I imagined a ghetto to be like.

Unequivocally, for me a ghetto was a dilapidated area plagued with lots of social and economic problems. It was not after I had this experience that I realised that my definition of a "ghetto" was skewed. That my idea of a ghetto was just limited to a certain kind of situation. However, a " ghetto" could also be defined as a place inhabited by those citizens who are at the lowest class stratum. Consequently, an area could have beautiful block buildings and modern infrastructure and still be characterized as a ghetto because of the social stigma's attached to a certain set of people occupying the area.

Upon further travels I realised that this was not unique to this beautiful area in the Southern part of Sweden but it was the same everywhere I went. Any location that was predominantly occuppied by immigrants was considered a ghetto. This led me to think about the social stigma's that were attached to the immigrant populations in this country and in Europe in general. Immigrants are often automatically thought to be at the lowest class stratum of society. Evidently, they are often stigmatized and seen as subordinates. This often places them in a disadvantaged social position which contributes to segregation.

Consequently, if we look at the history of Rosengård and its construction; one would find that it was a section of the city predominantly created to house the immigrant population. Soon after it was charcterized incorrectly as a "suburb" to segregate it from the rest of the city, when it was a very central and culturally significant aspect of the commune. Today the more common conception of this area is that it is a ghetto. A ghetto, not by international standards but one that is bred by the stigma that dominates the society as it regards the migrant population.

I believe there is so much beauty in Rosengård and I have never seen a more fascinating place and in my opinion I do not think its fair to call it a ghetto rather it is a highly stigmatized area. How do we get rid of that stigma which is obviously stifling the existence of communities like Rosengård is a question that needs to be reviewed.