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Total population | |
---|---|
543,350 (People from Arab league nations according to the Statistics Sweden)[1] | |
Regions with significant populations | |
Stockholm, Södertälje, Malmö | |
Languages | |
Arabic • Swedish | |
Religion | |
Islam • Christianity | |
Related ethnic groups | |
Arab diaspora |
Arabs in Sweden are citizens and residents of Sweden who emigrated from nations in the Arab world. They represent 5.3% of the total population of the country.[2] About a quarter of Arabs in Sweden are Christians.[3]
Many of the Arabs in Sweden are migrants from Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria and Saudi Arabia.
In September 2013, Swedish migration authorities ruled that all Syrian asylum seekers will be granted permanent residency in light of the worsening conflict in Syria. Sweden is the first EU-country to make this offer.[4] The decision means that the roughly 8,000 Syrians who have temporary residency in Sweden will now be able to stay in the country permanently. They will also have the right to bring their families to Sweden. While Malek Laesker, vice-chair of the Syrian Arabian Cultural Association of Sweden, welcomed the decision, he also warned it could create issues. "The fact that Sweden is the first country to open its arms is both positive and negative," he told the TT news agency, explaining that it may be a boon for the growing people-smuggling market.[4]