Sweden was held up as a model democracy, and now due to mass immigration it's always referred to when people want to demonstrate what is wrong with uncontrolled immigration. Neighbours Denmark are just about to start a scheme whereby whole areas are to have Muslim immigrants removed from estates to other parts of the country because they have become ghettos and nobody else wants to live there. You can't force people to integrate. You only have to look at some of our northern towns where there is a literal divide down the centre of postcodes because the immigrants want to live amongst the other like immigrants and the people who aren't immigrants don't want to live amongst them. There is no integration, multi culturalism is a failed experiment, people didn't want it but we're never given a choice.
In fairness though mate, have much of that is genuinely extremists dominating the fear divide. Sweden went wrong, not because (strictly) of continued immigration. It went wrong because the right got louder, and then we had nutters burning the Quran and completely stoking the fires of hatred.
There is a reaction to that, but it doesn't always start from a place of truth. Again it's not to say their aren't issues and problems, we all know they exist, but you listen to the media and the mouthpieces and it's 100% - the reality is barely 5% absolute tops, and probably a lot less.
I've lived my life as multi-cultural, it works, it has worked and it's fine. I've said before, my old man went back to our old stomping ground and worked in a predominantly Pakistani school. As a total stranger, he made tons of friends amongst the parents and grandparents.
The extremists and those who live in fear see problems that wouldn't exist, it's the whole NIMBY approach to life moving on. If people on all sides 'think' it can't work, it won't. If they think 'fuck it' and just say hello, there's progress.
Chico made a great point about investment, when I go through my old area, it looks dirtier to me. Why? Shops with garish signs and not the traditional ones I remember (the nostalgia box), fewer bins on the street and the ones that remain are full, I'd say a standard level of graffiti - but it's no longer being cleaned by the Council, instead you see the odd family trying to repaint themselves to show some personal pride. Some would say ghetto, I call it an area ignored whilst Brum City Council gives itself bonuses and spunks money on a computer system that doesn't work.
I would clarify my comment a bit, and hope it doesn't offend, but I believe it to be true. I was bought up in Witton,Handsworth Aston areas of Brum and I agree with a lot of your post. I had Irish mates, I had black mates, and in later life great Indian neighbours. The group that always stood apart were the Pakistani Muslims. They seemed to have an aversion to anyone other than their own religious group, and it's this that creates the divides. It's been my personal experience they just don't want to mix. This causes a lot of the division we see in our towns and cities.
I don't know if this is where a generational gap comes in possibly? On my experience, I had no problems at all with people of my generation. Families were a bit more circumspect (if I can phrase it that way) but not my peers (or any colour or gender). Or whether it would be better described as a lag over from the overt racism we all know was there years back.
But parents never warmed to me, didn't really want me in the house and so on, but never an issue with kids of my age, or younger brothers and sisters. As I remember it, that was broadly true whether black, Moslem, Sikh, Hindu and so on.
Again, I know others have different experiences and I'm not saying mine are right and they are wrong, I just think it shows though that broadstroking has to be wrong as we all can't be wrong in our own lived experience. But what is true is there are nutters, wronguns and people who need better mental health care, on all sides and it's about time Government's and the media stopped playing distraction politics to divide, and instead sorted the situation out.
I mentioned the poor 6 yr old lad in the US last night, that's terrorism. Israeli's and Palestinian's being attacked in the UK right now by nutters - that's terrorism.
I know you agree, as do others, as do those in my own family who follow Islam, sort the system out, drop down on the idiots who make life hard for everyone, and stop playing the hate game.
Then we'll get somewhere.