Kristina Lindquist about migration policy as ethical vacuum

Suddenly I start to think of Willy Kyrklund. His short story « The steam roller » from 1948 feels like just the right reading in a time that seems to crush everything in its way. An electric steam roller has thus appeared in the newly built suburb and was left by its driver for the evening. When it is rolled by some playing children, we understand what is waiting. « The scream ceased. A narrow gutter of blood seeped forward under the wheel, looking for a way between the stones in the gravel. » What is a dead child for a steam roller? Nothing. A woman tries to call someone, but ends up with Miss Ur. A father sits down at the wheel, but can do nothing. « For eternity, he would drive like that, around, around, weigh for the black spot and feel the mouth of the grenades directed against him. For eternity. »

As an allegory of existential powerlessness, the « steam roller » is both fun, despairing and absurd. It « illustrates that a world order without a driver or God is a world order without grace, and life nothing but a nasty joke at the expense of man, » as Olle Widhe writes in his dissertation on Kyrklund’s early prose (Ellerströms, 2005).

The roller’s progress is both scary and comfortable. Because if the scope of action is missing, we do not need to choose or be responsible for our choices.

According to Civil Rights Defenders, the fundamental right to judicial review is now being weakened, while the risk of exploitation is increasing. And? The steam rollers roll

This week, the Riksdag decided on decisive changes in Swedish migration law. Among other things, anyone who has been rejected on their application for a residence permit will not be able to search again without first leaving the country. That many not can Leaving the country does not matter.

Imagine imagining that it is possible to build a system so perfect that it does not need any safety valves. Where people never get rejected even though they actually have protection reasons. Where the protection reasons can never arise on site in Sweden, as for LGBTQ people who finally dare to come out. According to Civil Rights Defenders, the fundamental right to judicial review is now being weakened, while the risk of exploitation is increasing. And? The steam rollers roll.

It has been A conscious strategy over the past decade, to turn Swedish migration policy into an ethical vacuum. « The big dividing line does not go between liberals and conservatives, but between idealists and realists, » one could read in a pioneering text on Expressen’s leadership page (22/8, 2015). « You have to forgive us because we were right in the refugee issue, » wrote the same leadership page the following year (6/12, 2016). No ideology, just the fact. What can be crushed should also be crushed.

It is not about politics or morality, or even what you can do to a human being. Automatic, baby. I do not control the steam roller. Nobody controls

Rarely does this void become as obvious as in the now viral parliamentary debate between Annika Hirvonen (MP) and Ola Möller (S). « Does Ola Möller really mean that if you can’t return to your home country, then you should be able to live your entire life at the Migration Board’s return center? » She asked. « The conclusion will be it, yes, » he replied. It is not about politics or morality, or even what you can do to a human being. Automatic, baby. I do not control the steam roller. Nobody controls.

Or how was it now? In Kyrklund’s short story, it actually says that the father weighs for the « black spot » of blood. Olle Widhe interprets this minimal room for maneuver as the narrator gives « place for the opportunity that man, in an interpersonal determined relationship, through ethical action, can assert a human value and defy the irreconciliation of the world ». Can assert a human value.

In addition, there are other machines in the world than steam rollers. For example, forklifts. The other week, Sydsvenskan wrote about how two people were exempt from the Migration Board’s repository in Åstorp with the help of just such (14/3). I don’t know why these people sat « stored » as old furniture. But in the larger perspective, I am pretty sure that it is a minor moral crime to frame a window – than to have the entire live life to run away in a migration policy limbo.

Read more texts by Kristina Lindquist.