From Araminta Wordsworth in the National Post’s “Full Comment“:
Swedish voters say no to immigration
Even Sweden, it appears, is tired of being a nation of open borders.
Often held up as an example of a country Canada should emulate — high taxes, plentiful social services, hockey players who don’t fight — Sweden appears to be going the way of the Netherlands, that other allegedly tolerant country that makes an exception when it comes to immigrants.
On Sunday, Fredrik Reinfeldt’s centre-right coalition won marginally under 50% of the vote in Sweden’s general election and will take 172 of the 349 seats. The Prime Minister also logged a personal victory by winning more votes for his party, the Moderates, than ever before.
Also entering Parliament — for the first time — will be the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats, with 20 seats. Their success follows a string of electoral gains for similar parties across Europe in such countries as the Netherlands, France, Austria, Hungary, Slovakia and Britain.
As in much of the rest of Europe, immigration was the issue that propelled them into power, more specifically Muslim immigration. Relative to its size, Sweden has been among the top five nations in the European Union in taking in refugees and asylum-seekers, including those fleeing the Balkan wars of the 1990s and Iraq after the U.S. invasion.
The new arrivals have changed the demography of the once-homogenous Scandinavian country. Today, one in seven residents is foreign-born. The Sweden Democrats say immigration has become an economic burden that drains the welfare system, one of the most generous in Europe…
Mark
Ottawa
I can hardly wait until that movement which matches my attitude with regard to Muslim immigrants and illegal refugees gets to Canada. Our immigration policies should be such that they advance our country and only desirable people should be accepted.
The illegal immigrants and refugees should be sent back to their place of origin as soon as they are apprehended. All of them not just the handful they deport now after 5 or more years before the courts and inquiries. All the resources they waste now could be used to track them down and ship them out. If they do not want to come through the front door and follow our laws we do not need them.
Immigration is the big issue in Sweden and rightly so. Sweden is a small country that had a very distinct and homogenous people that has been bombarded with immigrants. Worse still the immigrants have not been of high quality, which Sweden should attract based upon their global reputation, but a burden for which the country wrestles with. What we see over there is coming here too, you can count on it.
The political agenda of vested interests will continue to hinder all common sense discussions. However it does seem appropriate to take time to assimilate the new Canadians for a generation or two.
Having time to adjust will enhance Canada’s culture with new insights and new Canadians will have time to assimilate into Canadian culture.
Why there is a hurry to bring in more and more unassimilated people is understandable on only a personal level. Recent studies on the benefit of immigration as available to this ordinary citizen show previous immigration policy decisions based on data more than a decade are flawed. There is not an economical benefit to Canada.
There will be as many innocent people wanting the better life they see as a Canadian citizen in one or many more generations from now.
The national benefit for these future Canadians and the present Canadians surely rests on the side of maintaining what is presently available and not jeopardize the future for political opportunism.
Focusing on refugees and alleviating pain and fear where possible is surely a better approach than upsetting the apple cart for a few wanting their apple right now. Cheers;