The Swedish exception : A postcolonial analysis of exclusion in the Swedish Covid-19 strategy

Sammanfattning: This essay seeks to understand the possible reasons behind the high rates of non-white ethnic minorities, such as the Somali-Swedish community among hospitalized Covid-19 patients in Sweden. It interrogates the possibility of a White middle-class bias in the Swedish government and the National Pandemic Group’s management of the covid-19 crisis. I analyze data from daily press conferences held by the National Pandemic Group and public statements from government and national pandemic group representatives regarding updates in the management of the covid-19 crisis. In analyzing these statements, focus has been on assessing the risk analysis and citizen recommendations presented to the public by the national pandemic group. Results show that the specific vulnerabilities of ethnic minorities and the socio-economic inequalities between majority White Swedes and ethnic minorities has not been taken under much consideration by the Swedish government or the national pandemic group, which can be interpreted as resulting from a white middle class bias. The conclusions of this essay show that this may have contributed to the high rates of Swedish-Somalis and other ethnic groups such as the Iraqi-Swedes and Turkish-Swedes among hospitalized Covid-19 patients. This might have been prevented, had the Swedish government acknowledged and acted upon the socio-economic inequalities between different social groups.