After 25 years of förortsjournalistik – now she returns to Jordbro

It is soon lunch. Güley Kücükgöl, chef at Söderbymalmsskolan in Haninge, sweden, has seen to that 55 kilos of chuck steak into a hearty stew. In the kitchen have the tranquility put themselves before the onslaught of students.

"It was good to finish," says Güley and smiles wide and warm against Katarina Gunnarsson when they meet again – it was 23 years ago last.

It will be a happy reunion. Photo: Anette Nantell

When was the Güley unemployed and could barely speak English, despite the fact that she lived for 14 years in Sweden. She lived in a residential area in Jordbro, which was completely dominated by the turks. She ended up there as a 17-year-old been married off by her family in Turkey – married with a man she did not know. Her ”destiny” was predetermined; she would take care of the four children she gave birth in Sweden, but also about the in-laws who lived with the family.

" When I first met Güley remember that I thought: here one can live all his life without having to get into the Swedish society. That one in the cage, " says Katarina Gunnarsson.

a voice. On the tapes she recorded when you hear Güley tell you about their concern for the future.

" I can't English much, you hear her say on the bands.

" My children will be socially handicapped. Miss say – do not speak Turkish. But all the kids here talking Turkish, not Swedish. Though they are born here", she continued with both concern and fear in his voice.

for 23 years. Katarina Gunnarsson have looked up Güley again – and found her – in a completely different place in life. She is still married to the same man. But twelve years ago left the family in the Turkish quarter for the benefit of a residential area a kilometer away. The children are expatriates, Güley working as head chef and has fulfilled one of his biggest dreams:

I took the driver's license when I turned 45 years of age, says and she beams.

Güley Kücükgöl ended up in Jordbro as a 17-year-old been married off by her family to Turkey. Photo: Jimmie Eliasson/Sveriges Radio

get the shivers. In all his years as narrator of the increasing segregation in Stockholm, there are so many people and twists of fate that stuck with her. Güley are one of these people, so even the teenage boys who robbed on their mobile phones of killgäng with a foreign background at the train station in Sollentuna, sweden, 1999. Hate they still, they still want the revenge? In Her follow-up story we get to know that they still carry a feeling of insecurity.

" When I went down in my basement and found all the old tapes, some of them beset by mold, I felt that I had to try to look up some of these people again. It is a untold contemporary history of a Stockholm that has changed, " says Catherine.

in Farsta and in the Apo – in a secure Swedish welfare state Sweden. The schools she went to were mixed, seen from both a class and an ethnic point of view. Those with foreign background came from Finland, Yugoslavia, Turkey and, to some extent, Chile. After high school she received a scholarship and studied a year in East Orange, New Jersey, united states.

" It was the first time I came in contact with a hard segregated society, where vulnerable and poor was a fully visible part of the cityscape. And where fully independent churches affected people's everyday lives. I remember thinking, so it would never be able to be in Sweden, it has our social security system vaccinated us against such large divisions based on class.

of the 90's, when Katarina Gunnarsson started working as a journalist, she saw that something had changed. When she fotpatrullerade among the ”ordinary people” – on the square, at youth clubs, schools and workplaces – she discovered that many people already demonstrated a concern for community development.

– It is a untold contemporary history of a Stockholm that has changed, " says Katarina Gunnarsson on the new reportageserien. Photo: Anette Nantell

– A insecurity had begun to sprout. I felt instinctively that I wanted to try to understand what was about to happen. But for many years I felt that politicians and other influential people did not take the development seriously. They did not raise the problems that segregation meant, you so wanted that it would resolve itself with time, " says Katarina Gunnarsson.

the high-profile story on the beginnings of religious radicalisation, if hedersförtryck and fully independent churches long before the issues were considered relevant. She also lifted early, the question of how the free skolvalet came to reinforce segregation. In the day she may feel a frustration over how long it took for the established society to lift the lid.

" There was a widespread fear to talk about what happened and about the cultural differences that chafed. I think that if more people listened to the people who lived in the environments which are already segregated so we had perhaps been more vigilant in the development, " says Katarina Gunnarson.

those who finally ”escaped” söderförorten. The wave of ethnic swedes that left the suburbs did to the end of the of the politicians desired ”diversity” impossible. What would the newcomers be integrated with? Not with the ethnic swedes in all cases. Not with the resourceful persons with an immigrant background – they also left the areas that today are described as ”vulnerable”.

– Now we have our ”gated communities”, just as it was in the united states. Perhaps the bottoms parts of my motivation to tell you about the people who are in what we call the exclusion of a sense of guilt that I am so privileged, considering Katarina Gunnarsson.

the Neighborhood in Jordbro was previously entirely dominated by Turkish community. Photo: Anette Nantell

Güley, they become both very touched. Güleys daughter, who barely spoke a word of Swedish when she, as a 7-year-old started school, came to an end catch up with the language. Today all the kids jobs and own homes, Güley would never dream of marrying them or require them to take care of their old parents.

None of the children live either remain in Jordbro. Where has the tight Turkish community have been replaced by people from the Middle east, Africa and Asia.

" a Lot has changed. We had to fight hard, but we also had the help. Today, I think it is harder to get when it comes to Sweden, there are so many new people, so many who do not have the energy to take care of their children, " says Güley.

Güleys history is a story of a struggle to get into the society with a good ending. For others, it has gone much worse and the challenges are growing.

" the Debate about the problems is better, more open now. But when I am in this reality to portray the people, I also see how it still goes in the wrong direction. there is a strong feeling of insecurity among many, we know, as well as not real where we are going, " says Catherine.

straight up and down and tell you about what she sees and meets, without trying to bring up.

" This is an incredibly privilege to be able to a profession that goes out to be genuinely curious about how people think. I just wish that we had listened to what many of them said much in the past.

Güley working in the day as head chef fulfilled a big dream when she, at the age of 45, took the driver's license. Photo: Anette Nantell

Listen on the radioreportaget if Güley Kücükgöl here.

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