Indicator history

 On 31 July 2010, the Equality Ombudsman submitted a report to the government about discrimination in the housing market. According to the report, the most segregated groups are people of Finnish origin, Roma, Muslims and Africans. The high degree of segregation is the result of racism/xenophobia. Discriminatory behaviour and harassment by landlords or neighbours is reported to be the main reason for segregation according to the Equality Ombudsman's study. The Equality Ombudsman also revealed in its Annual Report 2010, that complaints from Roma constitute 20% of the complaints on discrimination in the housing market, both in terms of provision of apartments for rent and purchase of private apartments. The Roma are also highly segregated from other minority/migrant groups. 

 National minorities, such as the Roma are not included as a group in the statistics on segregation. The (1998:204) Act on Personal Information (Personuppgiftslagen) contains the general rules on the right to register personal information. There is a general prohibition to register (among other things) such “sensitive personal information” as ethnicity, religion or other belief and information concerning health and sexual life including sexual orientation. Therefore it’s not easy to assess how the Roma live, since statistics on segregation do not register ethnicity. What can be said is that the Swedish housing market is very segregated in the three biggest cities. This segregation is mostly two-dimensional. Some areas are “Swedish-dense”. In those areas the Swedish ethnic majority is predominant (Report on measures to combat discrimination, Directives 2000/43/EC and 2000/78/EC, Country Report 2010, Sweden, Per Norberg, p.73). Other areas are migrant-dense, but it’s difficult to assess a specific ethnic group as overly more segregated, since these areas are generally of mixed etthnic population. 

Report on measures to combat discrimination, Directives 2000/43/EC and 2000/78/EC, Country Report 2010, Sweden, Per Norberg