Malmö is Sweden’s third largest city, with 280,000 inhabitants in December 2008. During the period 1990–1993, the city lost almost 20% of its job opportunities. The crisis coincided with a strong increase in the immigration of refugees and other new immigrants from war-torn areas in eastern Europe and the Middle East. The proportion of the population with a foreign background now stands at 37%. Today, Malmö may be described as ethnically and socioeconomically segregated, with middle class neighbourhoods in the west and working class neighbourhoods in the south and east. Currently, 171 different nationalities are living in Malmö.