Despite around five percent of Sweden’s total population living in migrant majority areas, just two percent of the candidates running for Sweden’s national election next month live in such areas.

Using data from Statistics Sweden, a new report from Swedish broadcaster SVT shows that few political candidates, only two percent of regular candidates and one percent of “top candidates” actually live in migrant areas despite many on the left being the largest advocates for mass migration into the country.

Many of the heavily migrant populated areas are also classified as “vulnerable” or known as no-go areas like the Stockholm suburbs of Rinkeby, Husby and Tensta or the Malmö suburb of Rosengard due to high levels of crime and unemployment. Malmo, which has one of Sweden’s largest migrant-background populations, has an unemployment rate double the Swedish average.

“I think it is important that, when discussing these areas in the political debate, there is representation from here, it is important both for democracy but also for a comprehensive picture,” said Social Democrat lawyer Lawen Redar from Kista, which neighbours both Husby and Rinkeby.

University of Gothenburg professor of political science Peter Esaiasson argued that without people from vulnerable areas in parliament it would be harder to assess the situation there as to whether people were being alarmist about an area or not sounding the alarm enough about hidden problems.

In the past several left-wing and feminist politicians have tried to enact change in no-go areas on a local level with the local authority in Husby attempting to implement “feminist urban planning” to improve the safety and quality of life for women in the area.

Feminist and former Left Party politician Zeliha Dagli lived in one of the vulnerable areas, the Stockholm no-go suburb of Husby, and announced last March that she was moving due to constant harassment and threats from fundamentalist Muslim migrants.