MALMO

Malmo: 7 176 ha for 292 201 inhab (d/4 072 hab./km² )

Although the bridge construction sure helped the economical growth of the region, Malmo has always been the third biggest Swedish city even before its construction in 2000. But what really changed? We can only suppose that the activity between helsingor and heslsingborg was more dynamic because of the small dimension of the Detroit which made easier to cross the border. Now it only takes 15min to go from Malmo to Copenhagen and guess what? You don't have to park your car on a crowded ferry, and you don't even have to get off your car to show your passport. In fact Malmo became so close to Copenhagen that it became a little like its suburb. Between 2000 and 2009, 180 000 persons have moved from one side to the other with an average of 1 500 person/year then since 2008, 3 400. Surprising thing is the difference of immigration rate from the danish ORSN and the Swedish ORSN is not that big: 3 200 from the danish side to the Swedish and 2 900 from the Swedish side to the danish side. One people move to get economy and jobs and the other to get healthy home and land.

After describing the big picture, we can notice that Malmo, always had an industrial potential (small city with an important industrial area and port), on the contrary of Copenhagen. What happened when the bridge opened? The migration rate exploded and a lot of people wanted to go the Swedish side but not to necessarily to Malmo itself. Danish people are fed up with Copenhagen obsolete dwellings under equipped (85% of Copenhagen city multi dwellings buildings were constructed before 1961, 37% before 1971 and 12% of the overall doesn't even have modern amenities such as toilet, bathroom etc.) and a 80m² flat costs less than 134 000E on the Swedish side, even though it costs 228 000E in Copenhagen. Beyond the Danish immigration to Sweden, there is also a large proportion of foreign immigration from East Europe, Turkey, Greece, middle east which makes Malmo a new multicultural pole. As a matter of fact, Danish immigration law has always been tough for foreigners. You can't get married with a foreigner before you are 24 for example. Where people who want to get married to live whit their boyfriend? To Malmo where the price are cheaper, the taxes less strict and the housing prices lower. In fact Malmo just reacted as a European capital's suburb, because it naturally dragged middle class people which created a real multiclass and multi cultural city. It can also be seen from an architectural point of view: all along the freeway starting from the bridge, one can see the succession of urban slabs (just like ours in France).

Sometimes multiculturalism has a cost. In 2008 and more recently. Malmo became more famous for its urban violences caused by Muslim youngsters demonstrating against their mosque closure. Those violences might be taken under consideration knowing that ¼ of Malmo population is muslim.

Malmo is the best example of a changing city. It takes all the advantages and disadvantages of the bridge construction by gathering rich Danish executives living in large family ranches out of the ring of Malmo, but also all the Greek community trying hard to get into the Swedish lifestyle, Malmo is surely becoming the most emulating place of all the Skane region or even say, the all Oresund area.