The Champion Sweden Lost: Khamzat Chimaev, Immigration, and the Price of Segregation in Sweden

On the 17^th of August 2025, at the main event of UFC 319, Khamzat Chimaev became the Undisputed Middleweight Champion. While Chimaev’s performance was a brilliant masterclass of wrestling and pressure, this article does not focus on the performance or the sport as much as it focuses on Chimaev as an example of European and Swedish segregation.

Khamzat Chimaev was born in Chechnya, but he emigrated to Sweden at the age of 18 with his family. During his stay in Sweden, Chimaev became a three-time Swedish national champion. When Chimaev made his UFC debut, he instantly became a hot topic, not only for his wrestling and dominance, but also because he came from the same training dojo as Alexander Gustafsson, another former UFC fighter most known for his fight-of-the-year against Jon Jones for the UFC light-heavyweight championship, which he lost at UFC 165. Chimaev expressed his deep, unforgetting gratitude to Gustafsson, who helped Chimaev at a time of personal financial crisis to stay afloat, going as far as buying the Chechen new shoes; a story which had been shared numerous times on different platforms, sports-news websites, and podcasts.

One thing that many websites neglected to mention when it comes to the newly crowned UFC champion? His citizenship.

One newspaper wrote in Swedish, “Swedish ‘profile’ champion in UFC – Thanks the King,” a heading that suggests something quite different from what actually happened. The newly crowned champion has not fought for Sweden in years. In fact, he moved to the United Arab Emirates and carried the UAE flag on his shoulders at least during his last fight. There were speculations on why Chimaev abandoned Sweden for the UAE, including speculations by another UFC fighter, Sean Strickland. However, Chimaev addressed the speculations and clarified that he has never been granted Swedish citizenship: A citizenship that has grown progressively harder to obtain over the past few years.

According to a press release from the Swedish Ministry of Justice, 

“Minister for Migration Johan Forssell received a report on the introduction of stricter requirements for Swedish citizenship. The report includes proposals aimed at tightening the status of citizenship and increasing individuals’ opportunities to actively participate in society.” 

However, the difficulties of individuals’ participation in Swedish society can be limited to their residency and citizenship status. The limitations of where to go and what to do are not only due to the limitations that many immigrants face, but also due to the circumstances that they face when they arrive to Sweden.

Having lived in Sweden for nearly six years, I have witnessed firsthand experiences of how difficult it is to become part of a Swedish community; firstly, because such a thing as a Swedish community, to me, is nothing but a myth. There are no Swedish communities; there are only Swedish neighborhoods. The problem, therefore, does not become a problem of self-sufficiency or language, but it becomes a problem of integration. For instance, there are, to my knowledge, three kinds of neighborhoods in the city of Malmö: Swedish areas, such as Limhamn; immigrant areas, such as Rosengård; and expat areas such as Nydala and Möllan. One could make a distinction between mixed areas and areas for students, but to keep things simple, I will briefly dive into the three different areas I mentioned above. Rosengård, which is highly regarded as the most dangerous area in Sweden, is an area of Arab immigrants and Arab immigrant families. Upon walking into Rosengård, one would hardly see a person with blonde hair or blue eyes. Other areas like Nydala have the occasional blonde, but mostly consist of poorer, working-class people and families. Swedish areas, on the other hand, are often difficult to move to. The complications are not only financial or societal but deeply rooted in a systematic form of racism that is not evident on first glance, or tenth glance for that matter. Many studies have been developed and focused on urban segregation in Sweden over the past two decades. However, one thing that remains certain is that there is deeply rooted segregation and preference when it comes to housing.

The only reason I mentioned housing is to dive deeper into the topic of “active participation in society”. As I said before, there is hardly a Swedish society. Swedish societies function in a questionable way. They are tightly knit, perhaps even too tightly knit, communities that develop around very young ages, where friendships often start with children in school. Those friendships, while they last quite long, are often too closed to any outsiders. However, when it comes to integration into that “society”, perhaps one of the most important things for a newcomer to understand is language and traditions. And what way is better to learn those things than by practice and deep integration?

In Trollhättan, I was fortunate enough to move apartments, which led me to an area not unlike Rosengård, where, if one travels two minutes south, one will only meet Arabs and Somalis, with the occasional person from another African country. If one travels two minutes north, one will only encounter Swedish working-class people. When I moved there, the only language to speak was Arabic. Even the Somalis and the other Africans learnt a little bit of Arabic to get by in those areas that were often frequented by the police sirens. The very few Swedes that I have met in that area were ones at the bottom of the Swedish “society”, often drowning in debt or in drugs, or both.

The unfortunate truth is that the housing system, of the many systems that work against the immigrant in Sweden, are not built to support, but to oppress, discriminate against, and isolate the immigrant. In truth, those immigrant areas like Rosengård and Kronogården, among many others, are so poorly maintained, so highly policed that they become isolation camps to immigrants; isolating them from the true blue-eyed Swedes who are fortunate enough to live in high-rent areas. The problem becomes deeper when those immigrants do not move out of the area; therefore, tainting the area with their old habits, traditions, and tasty food.

Away from areas and neighborhoods, the idea of immigration and the idea of integration become entirely separate topics despite supposedly co-existing. Additionally, with the American policies shifting towards a dangerously extreme right in recent months under Trump’s authoritarian regime, deportation policies have increased drastically. How does that matter? Sweden often follows American mainstream policies. While there tends to be a time gap between Sweden following American policies, and a much politer manner of displaying racism, that gap has all but vanished in recent months.

While Sweden has always had long queues for citizenship and permanent residency, recent months have been marked by a massive delay in processing times. Additionally, restrictions on temporary residence have increased dramatically over the past few months, and it appears that these restrictions are only going to worsen. 

Those restrictions are, however, not new or singular to the current right-wing government. Restrictions on travel were quite tight in the late 2010s. While I consider myself fortunate enough to have obtained Swedish citizenship without too many complications, I have endured a lot of complications that I often neglect to think about. Initially, when I was requested by the company I applied for to visit Sweden, I received a rejection from the Swedish embassy in Cairo, citing that I was young, unmarried, and without many assets to force me to return to Egypt. My visitor application was rejected on those bases, despite explaining in the application I sent that I would be visiting only to see the country that I would live in. This same reasoning is happening in all of Europe at the moment, as many visa applicants get rejected despite providing documents that ensure they would need to return to their home country. The visitor visa rejection was not the end of my troubles with Swedish migration; in fact, it was only the beginning. From work permit rejections to the need to return to Egypt during the heat of the COVID-19 pandemic, only to have a meeting at the Swedish embassy in Cairo, a meeting that could have been resolved over a Zoom meeting or through a visit to the esteemed Migration Agency. Again, I was fortunate enough to obtain citizenship soon after based on sheer luck.

Thousands of people live the life of Khamzat Chimaev without having the talent or the skill that Chimaev possesses. Many people hope to obtain citizenship or even permanent residency just to live securely in the country that they have been forced to live in by circumstances beyond their own will. Many dreams lie in that letter that comes with the request for a passport or further questioning.

However, the current Swedish government relies on AI instead of human reasoning. It is lazy, with far-right, extremist family connections. The idea that someone with Chimaev’s caliber has abandoned Sweden and migrated to the UAE to receive citizenship so soon after should not be surprising. The only surprising fact is that he was asked if he could speak Swedish by a Swedish reporter following his title victory. The questioning manner that the reporter used is part of the polite racism that is so deeply embedded here.

The question that showcases racism always appears in a manner of explanatory questioning. Much like the manner in which the reporter questioned Chimaev about whether he still spoke Swedish. The question follows the tone of “this is how we do so-and-so in Sweden,” an unnecessary manner of explaining that Swedes are more civil.

Chimaev’s story is not one that should be ignored by Sweden. Instead of raising the Swedish flag, Khamzat Chimaev raised the Emirati flag. Instead of thanking Carl Gustaf, Chimaev thanked Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed.

Before Chimaev, there was Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who became one of the most famous Swedish athletes. Ibrahimovic, born to a Muslim Bosniak father and a Catholic Croat mother, has addressed the inherent racism that he has faced during his life. Despite being born in Sweden, Ibrahimovic claimed that he has not been treated as a Swede for the longest time. It was not until his rise to fame in the world’s most popular sport, soccer, that he truly became an icon for Sweden. However, even with his fame and his accomplishments, the soccer star believes that he was never paid his due in Swedish media due to what he dubbed “undercover racism”. Ibrahimovic said, 

“This is about racism. This is about racism. I don't say there is racism but I say there is undercover racism. This exists, I am 100 percent sure. Because I am not Andersson or Svensson. If I would be that, trust me, they would defend me even if I would rob a bank. They would defend me, I tell you.”

There are many young people awaiting updates for their applications, just to feel safe and start producing more without having to worry about the next day and whether they will be deported or allowed to stay in the country that they made home. There are many more who have become devoid of any social life due to the rise in racism. The concentrated areas that Arabs and immigrants are put in point only towards a rise in systemic racism in Sweden.

Written by Amr Abbas.

Cover photo by Lee Brimelow (Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic).