My taxi driver in Malmo, Sweden's third largest city, was from Iraq.
"Is your family here with you?" I asked.
"No," he paused. "And thank God I don't have a wife!"
"Why is that?" I replied. "You're scaring me. I'm getting married in a few weeks, you know…"
"Too many women here from all over the world: Russia! Lebanon! Iraq! I can't have just one!" he cackled.
At least he was honest.
Malmo is certainly a multicultural place, and because of its condensed size, that's much more apparent than on the streets of Stockholm. Like many countries in Europe, immigration has been a contentious issue here following an influx of foreigners in the past 10 years. Immigrants now make-up around 14 percent of the Swedish population, and the small town of Soedertaelje alone has taken-in more Iraqi refugees than the U.S. and Canada combined.
Here's a report from Malmo by the New York Times about the hardships immigrants to Sweden face:
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