Parallel social structures in Sweden should be addressed through a broader mix of integration, youth, housing and resilience policies rather than through law enforcement alone, according to a new state inquiry published on 19 August. The report, SOU 2026:53, identifies five main areas for action and calls for cooperation between national authorities, municipalities, regions, civil society, businesses and property owners.
The inquiry, titled Parallella samhällsstrukturer – ett kunskapsunderlag för förbättrad integration och minskat utanförskap, was commissioned by the Swedish government in July 2025 to map the presence and development of parallel social structures, examine why they emerge and persist, and assess their effects on integration and social exclusion.
It is a state inquiry and knowledge base, not a government bill. The legislative process published alongside the report shows that no government proposition has yet followed the inquiry.
What Sweden means by parallel social structures
The original government mandate focused on social structures that operate partly outside ordinary institutions and can affect people’s ability to participate fully in Swedish society.
When the inquiry was launched in 2025, the government specifically referred to clans and kinship-based networks, as well as problems including social control, honour-related oppression and criminality. The new report has a wider policy focus, examining the conditions that allow such structures to emerge or remain influential and the consequences for integration and exclusion.
According to the final report, efforts to counter parallel social structures need to operate across several policy areas and at national, regional and local level.
Five areas for tackling parallel social structures
The inquiry groups its recommendations into five broad directions.
The first is to improve knowledge about parallel social structures and strengthen how public authorities manage, monitor and evaluate the issue.
The second concerns integration and gender equality, reflecting the inquiry’s assessment that exclusion cannot be addressed solely through measures directed at crime or security.
A third area focuses on strengthening preventive and supportive work for children and young people, whose opportunities and exposure to restrictive social environments were already highlighted in the government’s original mandate.
The fourth calls for measures to reduce segregation and strengthen neighbourhoods where social exclusion is particularly widespread.
The fifth is broader and concerns strengthening society’s resilience, including the capacity of institutions and local communities to resist structures that weaken participation in ordinary social and democratic institutions.
Municipalities, businesses and civil society are part of the response
One of the report’s main conclusions is that the issue cannot be handled by central government alone.
The inquiry says the response should involve state agencies, municipalities, regions, civil society organisations, businesses, property owners and other local actors. This places housing, schools, local associations and neighbourhood development alongside more traditional integration and security policies.
The approach also reflects the nature of the inquiry itself. Rather than introducing a single new legal instrument, SOU 2026:53 is intended to provide the government with a broader evidence base for deciding which measures should be prioritised in future policy.
The report could shape Sweden’s next integration policies
The publication of the inquiry completes a process that began when the government issued its mandate in July 2025. The final report was published on 19 August 2026, after examining the scale, causes and effects of parallel social structures and reviewing possible areas for intervention.
What happens next will depend on which recommendations the government chooses to take forward. For now, the report is significant because it frames parallel social structures in Sweden not only as a policing or criminal justice issue, but also as a question of integration, equality, segregation, youth policy and institutional resilience.
That broader framing could influence the next phase of Sweden’s policies on social exclusion, particularly in areas where authorities see weak participation in ordinary institutions and persistent territorial segregation.
