In the run-up to the elections, a Swedish city reflects the country's ambivalence in immigration: NPR

On Sunday, Swedes will vote in national elections for the first time since a wave of immigration changed the country's tone. Sweden has begun to open its doors to hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers after the last elections in 2014. Since then, more than 300,000 people have applied for asylum, mainly in Syria, as well as In Iraq and Iran.

Nationalists report an increase in crime rates and gang violence as proof of the need for closed borders. Those on the left point out that Sweden's strong economic growth, low unemployment and overall relative well-being show that more countries could follow the example of this humanitarian superpower.

What is certain is that the attitudes of Swedes vary considerably from one country to another – and this will be reflected in their way of voting. A single day in Sweden's third largest city, Malmö, from three different perspectives, reveals a country – and a people – at a crossroads.

An optimistic tour

In cool, cloudy weather, Eva Winberg and her friend Birgitta Lybergård decided to pay 25 crowns ($ 2.74) for a bus tour of the city. Winberg's youngest son is getting married to an Iranian woman he met at the university, but not until the next day, so she thinks she can tour the city with her friend.

The two women board with about 50 Swedes at retirement age. But none of these people are tourists. They live here. As the bus runs, it's easy to see why they might need an update.

Malmö, a city of about 330,000 inhabitants, is growing by 5,000 people a year. About a third of the city's inhabitants are born outside of Sweden.

Cranes pierce the horizon line and the bus passes in front of a new building after another: a new glittering school, a rainbow-colored shopping center, the site of 39, a future police station. Malmö from an industrial pole to a city of the future financially diversified and sustainable.

The bus also stops in some of the most notorious areas of Malmö, where the National Police has been known to work alongside local agents in the face of growing gang violence.

"I've never been to this place before," Winberg said, lowering his voice. "It's one of the places you avoid going there."

The guide, however, portrays a different and positive story – it highlights physical improvements aimed at fostering integration and reducing crime. Winberg seems particularly impressed by a housing complex where a resident-owned café attached to a well-lit launderette encourages social interaction.

"It's a social thought," she says. "They did a lot of things like that here!"

This is good news: the guide is the Deputy Mayor of Malmö, Andreas Schönström, and it is one of about 20 visits that his party, the Swedish Social Democratic Party in office, is organizing for elections.

The social democrats are the driving force behind the country's generous and popular welfare state. But they have been losing strength for decades. More recently, the party has been accused of being naive in its management of the refugee crisis and for failing to mitigate the gang violence that has made shootings and even grenade explosions regularly in local news.

But Schönström says the vast majority of people are not affected by the violence.

"When we look at numbers today, Malmö is growing rapidly, we have tremendous economic growth, unemployment is falling," he told NPR.

And Schönström says that his party speaks honestly about the problems plaguing the city – "but we will not admit that the problems concern Muslims".

"It's not a question of what kind of religion you have and whether you eat pork or not," he says. "These are social problems: unemployment, school, education, segregation in our areas of residence ….

A nationalist rally

This story proves difficult to obtain against the anti-immigrant message of the Swedish Democrats. Supporter Tommy Johansson says it succinctly: "We have too many strangers in this city, in Arab countries".

Johansson is part of a large crowd that gathered in the center of the city to hear an afternoon speech by Swedish Democratic leader Jimmie Åkesson – "The King", according to Johansson.

Like most Swedish Democrats, Johansson draws a direct line between immigration and crime.

"We can not go out when it's dark," he says. "We have to take taxis, it is not safe."

While the rate of some violent crimes is on the rise in Malmö, the overall reported crime rate has decreased. Given that Sweden does not keep records of the ethnicity of the perpetrators, the rationale for a connection between immigrants and crime is largely speculative.

But political scientist Mikael Sundström from Lund University says it does not matter.

"You do not need solid data to sell the idea, from the point of view of the Swedish Democrats, that immigrants are related to crime," he says. "You just have to make sure that it stays in the public mind that this or that crime has been committed by an immigrant."

And in that, he says, they succeeded. Polls suggest that the Swedish Democrats, a party rooted in the neo-Nazi movement, could collect 20% of the vote this weekend, potentially becoming Sweden's second largest party.

The experience of an immigrant

On a square in the Holma district of Malmo, Ibrahim Taha and his colleagues from a proxy group have set up a small table with snacks. This quickly attracts the attention of several 12-year-old boys on scooters and motorbikes, talking to each other in Swedish and Arabic.

As the boys take handfuls of chips, Taha begins to question them in Swedish.

"How many years between elections?" he asks.

"Four!" They shout

"Who is the prime minister?"

"STEFAN LÖFVEN!"

The competition is warming up.

"Stronger?" he asks.

More difficult questions

"In what year did women in Sweden get the vote?"

With barely a break, one of the boys launches the answer – "1921!" – before zooming in on a victory lap.

Half of these boys are born here, half elsewhere. This area, without being one of the most dangerous, is considered a risk area. In two hours on the square, no native Swede passes.

Taha moved from Iraq to Sweden in 2002, at the age of 9. He did not have a Swedish friend of ethnic origin until the age of 16. Nine years later, integration is still a real problem. A "two-way racism" permeates Swedish society, he says, "and this creates very big problems."

And yet, he says, at least to some extent, the boys in this neighborhood are all growing up with two identities: Swedish and Palestinian, Iraqi, Syrian or whatever.

And this double identity, says Taha, is Sweden of the future. This is also why, he believes, the Swedish Democrats will eventually lose their momentum.

"They tell you that you have to be loyal to Sweden, and it's a big problem for people like me, and there are a lot of people like me," he says. "The Swedish Democrats are of the opinion that you can only be black or white, and the reality is not like that.You can be a lot of people at the same time.The Swedish Democrats do not understand that Is a contribution to society. "