Why This Immigrant Rejects Sweden's Immigration Model

STOCKHOLM -- Nima Gholam Ali Pour is an immigrant living in Sweden at a tough time for immigrants. Sweden's notorious open-door policy collapsed after the nation literally ran out of places to house migrants and a massive crime wave hit asylum centers, including reports of boys being raped and an asylum worker murdered.

Sweden's immigration policy has been failing for so long that a few years ago Pour joined Sweden's anti-immigration party.

It says a lot about just how far Sweden's immigration program has run off the rails that an immigrant has joined a political party that wants to restrict immigration.

Pour said his decision had some Swedes scratching their heads.

"They believe I am confused because they ask me, 'You came here as an immigrant. Why don't you want other people to come?'" he said.

And why would he join the Sweden Democrats, a party that is regularly branded by the Left as a "racist" party?

But Pour says with a smile that it's not a racist part, rather "It's a conservative party."

Sweden's Immigration 'Disaster'

He explained that he's not against immigration per se, just the way Sweden has done it. He came here as a boy from Iran. Today he is a member of the board of education in Sweden's third largest city, Malmö, which has suffered from immigration.

But Pour is not what you would call a "booster" for the city of Malmö or for Malmö's troubled schools.

"No, no, no, no. They're very bad," he said about the schools. "The city of Malmö is a very segregated city with a lot of unemployment."

Some schools in bad areas have run out of teachers who speak Swedish.

"We use Syrian teachers and teachers from Arab countries or Afghanistan and they don't speak Swedish," he noted.

Pour, who has a Master's degree in International Migration and Ethnic Relations, calls Sweden's immigration policy "a disaster."

He also lives it, explaining that he wears a hoodie through some Malmö neighborhoods so he doesn't get attacked by immigrant gangs.

"I have a hoodie so no one, like, does anything. You know, you see a group somewhere and if you live in Malmö, you know that you should avoid them or else you will get beaten up," he said.

Immigration Cover-Up

It was a trip to the United States that led to his joining a right wing party. He saw immigration debated openly and honestly in the United States, something he wasn't seeing in Sweden.

"There are a lot of cover-ups about immigration here in Sweden," he told CBN News. "The Sweden Democrats are growing because people don't like the cover-ups in Sweden."

The Swedish government and media have long suppressed bad news about immigration. But it all blew up in a major scandal when the public learned that sexual assaults by migrant males against Swedish girls at a summer music festival last year had been covered up.

It seems the one group that isn't afraid to tell the truth about immigration in Sweden are some of the immigrants, like Swedish economist Tino Sanandagi, who is a Kurd from Iran.

"Immigrants are committing the majority of violent crime," Sanandagi told CBN News. "We've reached that point. This is not reported and, in fact, the media will say this is a myth and if you believe it, you are a racist."

Chickens Coming Home to Roost?

Polish immigrant and Malmö resident Barbara Trusz warned that the future of Malmö would be "hell."

Sweden thinks of itself as a "humanitarian superpower," but Pour says the nation will not escape the consequences of a reckless immigration policy. He said Swedish society is "shattered" and ethnic conflict is coming.

"We have a majority of children in school who speak a different language, so in a generation Malmö will become a city where ethnic Swedes become a minority. We have had riots before and we will have them in the future," he said.

For his part, Pour has gone back to university to become what Sweden needs more of these days: an elementary school teacher.

*Dale Hurd also reported from Malmö for this story.