Since the middle of the 1970's, foreign citizens in Sweden have been more likely than Swedish citizens to be convicted of crimes. However, the media debates on the subject are unrelated to variations in the level of immigration which reached its first peak at the end of the 1960's. The overrepresentation of foreigners in criminal statistics has been variously interpreted as meaning that immigration should be stopped, that the criminal justice system is discriminatory, and that the immigrants' higher level of criminality reflects their overall living conditions. Although no definitive conclusions have been reached, it is clear that foreigners have become a political issue in Sweden today and that criminality is used as an argument in this political debate. Appended figures, tables, discussion of arrest and conviction statistics, and 43 references