Syriacs in Sweden
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 150,000 | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Södertälje, , Gothenburg, Örebro, Västerås, Norrköping, Linköping | |
| Languages | |
| Aramaic · Swedish | |
| Religion | |
|
Predominantly Christianity (majority: Syriac Christianity; minority: Protestantism) |
Assyrians/Syriacs in Sweden (Swedish: Assyrier/Syrianer) are citizens and residents of Sweden who are of Assyrian (also known as Chaldean or Syriac) descent, there are approximately 150,000 Assyrians in Sweden.
Assyrians/Syriacs first came to Sweden from Lebanon for work in the late 1960s when Europe needed laborers for its industries. However, with increased ethnic and religious persecution in their homeland, which is located in present-day southeastern Turkey, northern Iraq, northwestern Iran and northeastern Syria, Assyrian immigration to Sweden increased. Those who had lived in Sweden for a longer period of time were granted residency for humanitarian reasons given the conflicts in their place of origin.
Södertälje is seen as the unofficial Assyrian/Syriac capital of Europe due to the city's high percentage of Assyrians/Syriacs. According to Assyrian organization estimates, there are approximately 150,000 Assyrians in Sweden. The Syriac Orthodox Christians number an estimated 30–40,000 people (2016), while higher estimations is 70–80,000, out of which an estimated 18,000 live in Södertälje.
According to Statistics Sweden, as of 2016, there 22,663 are citizens of Iraq (12,705 men, 9,958 women) and 116,384 citizens of Syria (70,060 men, 46,324 women) residing in Sweden.
The first Assyrians arrived in 1967 from Lebanon, numbering some 200 people. The migration to Sweden may be broken up into a number of distinct periods. The first group consisted of those that came to work at Swedish manufacturing plants, such as Scania. There were then the subsequent waves after the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974, The Lebanese Civil War in 1975, the rise of Baathism in Iraq & Syria, the Iranian Revolution of 1979, and more recently, from Iraq and Syria as a result of the Iraq Wars (Gulf War in 1991, Iraq War in 2003, Iraqi Civil War in 2014–present) and the Syrian Civil War in 2011–present.
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