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ST. PETERSBURG AND STOCKHOLM – TWIN CITIES
OF PLURALISM
St. Petersburg and Stockholm two major cities in the Baltic region, not more than an hours travel by plane do have a number of things in common.
They are both capitals in their region, St. Petersburg, the larger of the two, in the North-Western region of Russia, Stockholm in the kingdom of Sweden. The cities do also share in common the fact that the population in both cities also consist of a number of ethnic and religious minorities. This paper will look at some aspects of the pluralistic situation in both St. Petersburg and Stockholm and reflect on how this is and could be handled in the time to come.
Stockholm.
When one consider Stockholm as the large, What you might call Greater Stockholm, inclusive of many different Communities (kommuner) city the population will amount to 1.85 mil[9] and when considered as the community of Stockholm the population only amount to about 758t[10]. (31.12.2002) In the case of Greater Stockholm the percentage of the population with immigrant background is 19% but in the community of Stockholm (Stockholms Stad) the percentage rises to 21%. The reason for this slight difference might be sought in the variation of the different communities which vary to a great extent from almost very few immigrants to an immigrant majority among the populations.
When looking upon the background of these immigrants the picture looks like this:
| The Nordic countries except Sweden | 30 356 | 19% |
| EU except the Nordic countries | 19 475 | 12% |
| Europe except the EU | 30 121 | 19% |
| Asia | 39 108 | 25% |
| Africa | 18 604 | 12% |
| North and Central America | 5 053 | 3% |
| South America | 10 676 | 7% |
| Pacific Ocean | 0% | |
| Previous Soviet Union | 1 580 | 1% |
| Unknown | 0% | |
| Total | 156 441 | 100% |
The figures show an overwhelming part of the immigrant to come from Europe – a total of 50%. The rest divides mainly between Asia, Africa and South America.
Among these immigrants are people born outside Sweden by Swedish parents and unfortunately we are not able to sort these out from this table of statistic, but they shoul not be very many at all.
When it comes to the question of religious groups we have no statistics available for this purpose. It is all too delicate a mater to list the population in such a way, I am told by the officer at the Statistic office in Stockholm.
Stockholm has over the centuries been inhabited to a certain extent by an international population. As a major port, capital of the country, situated as it is on the western shore of the Baltic Sea it has attracted different groups of ethnic and religious origin. In the medieval period the German influence on the city was substantial. After Reformation in the the 16th century the sole religion in the country of Sweden was the Lutheran faith. Even in the time of the Swedish grand historical period of the 18th century this principle of one religious faith was kept very strictly. In spite of the at that time international relations and communications the Lutheran Church succeeded in keeping the country and its capital «clean» off other religious groups. But at the end of the century some Jews from eastern Europe, en route through Copenhagen Denmark, and some Huguenots from France, en route via Brandenburg germany ended up settling with the Kings permission in Stockholm. These groups are still presented there in the population and some of them practice their religious speciality, but they are absorbed in the Swedish population and are seldom thought of as anything else than ordinary Swedes.
The Jewish group has grown in the latter part of the 20th Century, especially as a result of the Holocaust and later the upheaval of Eastern Europe. Today there are two Jewish Congregations in Stockholm, one liberal and one orthodox. The former with close links in many respects to American Liberal Judaism and at the same time to Jewish groups in the State of Israel.
The major part of the immigrants from Europe come from Protestant regions and is predominantly protestant by faith. But there are also Orthodox Christians among those immigrants. Some coming from Finland, (Finns are the largest minority in Stockholm) other Orthodox believers come from Greece and Eastern Europe. It should be mentioned that while the different orthodox groups have been establish recently in Sweden the Russian Orthodox presence in Stockholm dates back to the time period of vivid communication with Russia in the 19th Century.
The immigrants from Southern Europe do differ from the European pattern of Protestantism and are mainly Roman Catholic believers and together with the immigrants from South America who came in large numbers in the 1970ties and 80ties they have created a large substantial part of this religious tradition.
From Asia there are many different ethnic groups present in smaller numbers and the religious traditions of so called Hinduism, Buddhism and Chinese Traditions are easy to point out in the population of Stockholm. They have no organisations to lean up to and gather, if at all, in minor groups. However there is a Hindu Temple in Stockholm serving the many Indian religious traditions and a Hara Krishna Temple adjacent to a Restaurant, but no great numbers of people attend the religious gatherings and rituals in any of these temples.
It is different with the Muslim believers. They represent several ethnic groups, and they have a tendency to keep together if not in the same living quarters then at least in their places of worship and in free associations. There are for example Turkish mosques, Shia Mosques – with mainly people from Iran- and there are other ethnic groups gathering praying together at different places in apartments spread over the city. But the majority of Muslims no matter where they origin, will gather at the large mosques in Stockholm for their prayers and other aspects of religious and social life.
The majority of the Muslims have either a Middle East or an African ethnic background. And when you break that down in ethnic groups you will see that there are very many present here. – Under the national identity one will find many different genuine ethnic identities.
First in the latter part of the 19th Century Stockholm has become a more international city with a growing population of Ethnical, Religious population. But to name this pluralism may be going to far. One can easily assert that Stockholm is on its way to become a pluralistic city. At the same time one can find a true pluralistic situation among some of the Suburbs of Greater Stockholm where different immigrants groups have settled together. You will easily se this in the shopping areas but you will certainly see it in the schools. Here you will find the pupils of «Swedish origin» to be in a clear minority.
How then does the Swedish society handle the growing ethnic and religious pluralism? Hesitating one could assert. But there is a growing awareness about the need of integration of the «New Swedes» as they are called today. For a number of years there have been the teaching of the so called «mother language» in the schools. Up till the economic crises of the 1990ties all immigrant children would have a substantial teaching of the language of the parents – or parent – if they so wished. These language classes were incorporated in the ordinary school day schedule. Today the classes have been cut short in numbers and in many cases do they take place after normal school hours. The result of this is that many do not take these special classes and do not grow in practise of their «mother language». The idea behind this offer to the immigrants is the knowledge the one of the main factors behind the integration of new citizens is the skills of language both the new language and the one of the family. For the adult immigrant there is a whole package of teaching both language and other subjects offered to them.
All public information will be given in the major languages of the immigrant and when meeting the official persons of local administration and in like situations one is entitled to a professional interpreter. These are just a few of the offers given to help the immigrants with the process of integration. The individual is always in focus. The concept of integration can be viewed as a concept where the «New Swedes» are part of their new society – homeland- and still keep if they wish to their own personal, ethnical, religious identity. As an example of the eagerness of the Swedish society to facilitate the integration of the immigrant groups one could mention that just recently a new version of The Holy Quran was printed in a Swedish and Arabic language version with a very famous commentary on the expense of the government. A new Bible translation was published almost simultaneously, also on the expense of the government.
There is a growing awareness in society, among the decision making people and the administrative Sweden that the value system of the different immigrant groups has to be taken into consideration. The acknowledgement of the common values we all share inclusive the immigrants coming to Sweden and the specific values we all carry with us through life are cornerstones in the integration of the different ethnic, social and religious groups in the modern Swedish Society. It is being worked upon from many different sides of society, but we are not there yet.
St. Petersburg.
The city is celebrating the 300 years anniversary these days. The big city of approximately 4.7 mil inhabitants is not older. This a tremendous growth and most likely the founder Tsar Peter the Great never visualised this development.
When founding the settlement and planning and building this new city people from various parts of Russia was invited to come and settle there. Specialists from various West-European countries were also invited to take part in this process and soon the international community in the new city grew with people from many different countries. Commerce, need in the Tsar´s administration and army attracted, Swedes, Danes, Germans and many more. Up till the revolution there were large groups of both recognized accepted and not too accepted ethnic and religious minorities in St. Petersburg.
After the Revolution, during the Communist period of time, the ethnic and religious identity had to give way to the common identity of communism. Languages, cultural and religious differences were wiped almost out and replaced with the all Soviet Citizen identity. Now after the fall of Communism the ethnic, religious, and perhaps language differences of the inhabitants of St. Petersburg occur at the surface of the every day life.
Today there should be about 500 t Muslims in the city of which 200t are thought to be Tartars and an equal number of Azerbaijanis. [11]
The Jewish population counts probably around 100 t and here there are no identification on different groups of Jews, but they must all be considered as ethnic Jews.[12] Practicing religious Jews are most likely a much smaller number.
A smaller protestant group of about 4t should be compared with the obvious 80% of the St. Petersburg’s inhabitants who claim to be Russian Orthodox.
What are then the rest? Out of several thousand Buddhists only 400 can be counted as regular practitioners whatever this may mean.
These are the figures available on the Internet, and they can not tell the whole truth. There will certainly be many more groups of people who find common ties among themselves. All the different ethnic groups gathered together here under Soviet times and coming in after the collapse of the Soviet state where are they in the city?
Some of the different religious groups have the places of worship – the ethnic groups what do they have? What is done to strengthen their experiences of identity? Does the Russian society want them to visible and an asset in the society for the future? Should not only be integrated in the society but also assimilated in a Russian Identity?
The two cities, St. Petersburg and Stockholm are both so to speak pluralistic cities, but the nature of pluralism differs quite substantially. The St. Petersburg pluralism has to a large extent its origin in immigrants settling in the city from within the Russian Empire of the former Soviet Union while the new citizens in Stockholm come from all corners of the world. Consequently it might be more correct to talk about the cultures of St. Petersburg and Stockholm than the pluralism of the two cities? The approach to handle this plural situation may in some ways differ but the in the whole perspective the basic keys to the managing of such situations are most likely not so different when all comes about.
Per-Gunnar Igelström