In the land of the bajariye

“North to Another Country” by Ulf Björklund is an anthropological study of the Assyrian-Syriac immigrant community in the Swedish town of Södertälje, just south of Stockholm. The book was published in 1980. Still today, Assyrians (the term used by the author) are a highly visible immigrant group in that town. The book contains both general information on Assyrian history, and more specific information on the 1970's immigration of the Suryoyo (Syriac Christians from Tur Abdin in Turkey) to Sweden. Both the reactions of the authorities, those of the general Swedish populace, and those of the Suryoyo themselves are described. With the exception of an incredible complex chapter on various Suryoye lineages, the book is surprisingly free from high-brow scholarly theory, and can therefore be perused with ease by the general reader.

While Björklund's sympathies seem to lie with the Assyrians, none of the actors emerge completely unscathed from his study. The Swedish authorities come across as incomprehensible, first attempting to stop Assyrian immigration altogether, but then extending a very friendly welcome once they had been given the status of “B-refugees”. Of course, the Swedish welcome came in the form of social workers, family pedagogues, language teachers and bureaucrats. While talking about “pluralism”, they also wanted to socially engineer the Assyrians to fit the mould of the Swedish welfare state. Another contradiction: despite this warm welcome, the Swedish authorities often attempted to stop Assyrians from moving to Södertälje, since their numbers there were considered too high. (Much housing in Sweden is publicly or cooperatively owned, making it possible to some extent to control migration within the country. The welfare system could also be used for this purpose.) Björklund makes the interesting observation that the pluralist idea of preserving the culture of the Assyrians is really a *Swedish* angle on the problem, which often led to severe conflicts within the Assyrian immigrant community when “ethnic” organizations recognized by the Swedish authorities should be formed. Perhaps the Suryoyo community didn't acquire a “real” ethnic identity until they reached Sweden?

In contrast to the authorities, ordinary Swedes were more forthrightly negative to the new-comers. During the 1970's, Södertälje was a stronghold of the “raggare” subculture, today often considered a comic anachronism, but regarded as a public nuisance at the time. Björklund's book starts with a tabloid headline referring to the “first race riot in Sweden”, between raggare and Assyrians in 1977. More regular Swedish Joes didn't like the Assyrians either. They often referred to them as “Turks”, believed that all of them were welfare cheats, and spun urban legends about what kind of welfare payments they received. Huge Assyrian purchases of fruit at a local market gave rise to the rumour that the Assyrians were receiving “fruit payments” from the local authorities!

However, it also turns out that the Assyrians themselves had pretty wild expectations of Sweden. Many really did expect free housing and large handouts. A popular urban legend in the Assyrian community claimed that the money paid to Assyrian immigrants weren't really Swedish tax money, but came from the World Council of Churches in Geneva. Sweden supposedly confiscated most of the money, thus cheating the Assyrians of their fair share. Therefore, Assyrians could be on public welfare without incurring a sense of shame (“shame” and “honour” being important in their community). They were simply taking back money that rightfully belonged to them. It's not entirely clear from Björklund's narrative whether the Suryoyo community in Södertälje *really* believed this, or whether it was a kind of “white lie” to avoid being shamed, perhaps by other Assyrian communities?

The author also mentions other clashes between Swedish and Assyrian values, such as the liberal Swedish attitude to sex, different senses of propriety (Swedes – paradoxically – being more prudent in public), the positive Assyrian attitude towards child labour and early marriage, etc. The Assyrians were also intrigued by the large amount of Tayye (Muslims) being allowed into the “Christian” country of Sweden. In general, Assyrians regarded Swedes as extreme “bajariye”. The term “bajari” is apparently difficult to translate, but in this context means something like “impure” or “immoral”.

A follow up study might be interesting…

Five stars.