Rosengård Malmö – Welfare state ghetto

The neighbourhood of Rosengård represents the past and present of the Swedish welfare state. It is the outcome of Swedish Social Democratic Party’s Million Programme, stating back to the early 1970s. The idea of this housing programme was to build a million new homes during the programme’s ten-year period. This resulted in the emergence of new suburbs consisting of mass-produced tower blocks with a distinctive design. The ideological aim with the Million Programme was to create living areas for “good democratic citizens” and fill the neighbourhoods with various public services. Today, Rosengård is hosting a large amount of immigrants and the majority of its inhabitants have a foreign background, which is seen to contribute to the high level of recorded crimes in the area. Due to this, Rosengård has gained a reputation of being ‘one of the most dangerous ghettos in Sweden’ over the years.

Leaving the negative stigma of Rosengård aside, the area itself is nice and green and comprises many parks. You either love or hate the aesthetics of the housing complexes, but Rosengård is worth visiting in order to get a better understanding of the other side of Malmö.

Bus lines 35 and 5 (check out my article) will take you to Rosengård, and the ride from Central Station takes approximately 20 minutes. The suburb area consists of six different neighbourhoods. I recommend getting off at Rosengård Centrum and continuing by foot, exploring the Herrgården area and heading towards Thomsons vägen.