Children's gulag
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Children's gulag (Swedish: Barngulag; in German: Kindergulag) was a metaphorical expression coined by the German magazine Der Spiegel in 1983, for an alleged scandal regarding children being taken from their families on weak legal grounds in Sweden.
Description
In August 1983 the German magazine Der Spiegel published a long article titled "Kindergulag im Sozialstaat Schweden."[1]
In response to this accusation and to correct West Germans, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs called a press conference with over 150 journalists on 8 November 1983, because it was believed that West German media had given a very wrong view about the welfare state in Sweden. The Minister of Foreign Affairs was then accused of trying to 'control' the reporting and trying to give them the "correct" picture of Sweden, and the meeting became chaotic. As emerged later, it was a deliberate attempt by domestic lobby groups to use the international press for their purposes.[2]
Even a school superior, Åke Elmér, responded to the accusation and presented the below comparative table on the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter, proposing that the real problem was just in West Germany:[3]
| Total number of children taken into care under the age of 18 at the end of 1978 | Sweden | West Germany | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | % | Total | % | |
| In prison, youth care school or equivalent | 300 | 0,02 | 7,300 | 0,05 |
| In an orphanage or youth home | 1,500 | 0,07 | 73,000 | 0,49 |
| As a foster child | 14,300 | 0,7 | 65,000 | 0,44 |
| Total sum | 16,100 | 0,79 | 145,000 | 0,98 |
See also
References
- ^ "'Kinder-Gulag' im Sozialstaat Schweden". Der Spiegel (in German). 1983-07-31. ISSN 2195-1349. Retrieved 2022-10-05.
- ^ Gilbert, Neil (1997-04-03). Combatting Child Abuse: International Perspectives and Trends. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-535661-8.
- ^ Elmér, Åke (1983-11-15). "Större andel barn samhällskontrolleras: "Kinder-Gulag" finns i Västtyskland!" [Larger percentage of children are socially controlled: "children's gulag" exists in West Germany!]. Dagens Nyheter.