So first of all, I’ve lived in Sweden, Denmark, and Norway. I can’t speak much for Finland, but if I say something that’s wrong, feel free to chime in. So here’s the situation. Denmark is small and doesn’t feel like their society could integrate more refugees, nor could their infrastructure and organizations support it. Norway is the one country I should be the most familiar with, but for some reason, they barely have taken in anyone and I have no idea why.
So a little bit of history. The Scandinavian countries all entered an agreement in 1952 to open to immigration, establishing a common labour market and free movement and so opened their borders to migrants so that the economy could grow, so that their workforce would gain more strength. That was literally it, the countries had no other intention than to ride the wave of immigrants leaving central Europe in the aftermath of WW2 to bolster the growth of their own economies. Sweden really benefited from this. Finland grew quite a bit too but was never really interested in becoming an international player in economics and politics as much as Sweden was.
I lived in Gothenburg when in Sweden and in Oslo when in Norway. Both cities have sizeable populations of immigrants. Oslo is the easy one so I’ll get it out of the way first. The demographic across Norway is mainly comprised of Poles. There are tons and tons of Poles over there, and they are generally known for being hardworking, honest people (if I were to go more into detail then it would get far too drawn out). Around the 5 largest cities there is a larger concentration of African, Middle Eastern and Sri Lankan refugees. I never ever heard of conflict as a result of these people. Most of it stemmed from stupid teenagers doing foolhardy idiotic things while blazed. In fact, the old industrial part of Oslo, the geographically larger part, Gamle Oslo, is filled with immigrants. Is the standard of life lower there? Yes. Is there drug dealing etc? Yes. Actual violence and crime? Very little. And you’ve to realize this is in a country where policemen don’t (can’t) even carry guns.
Gothenburg also has a massive population of migrants. All of the eastern far side of the city as well as the northern island is just them, majority Somalians. In the two years I lived there things really started to change, and this is during the time the Syrian war was on, the Sudan conflicts between South Sudan and Sudan proper, and ISIS stuff started hotting up. Within a year of coming there, Sweden began taking in a load of refugees. And interesting things happened. This place in the city, Järntorget, became a hub for dealing illegal weapons. The gang shootings and stabbings in the north island became more and more frequent. By the time I left at the end of the following summer, every time you went into the city center there were policemen frickin everywhere. EVERYWHERE. One of our family friends tells us that they’re too scared to continue living there in the north island, sending out their kids to school alone every day because there was an event where two kids died in the crossfire of a gang shootout about 3km from their place.
And I just want to pause to make a point. I too have been an immigrant almost my entire life. It doesn’t make sense, and it’s unjust to generalize immigrants, or Muslims, or refugees. It’s understandable to be wary of something that you’re unfamiliar with.
Now to continue with Gothenburg. A local university did a study and found that the more divided society seems, the more segregation people feel, the less productive they are. Especially if they are living in a neighborhood with an average low income, they lose motivation to try. This is a point many Swedes now are quick to bring out. We want to change our immigration laws because they’re coming in and sucking up tax money without contributing to the economy. This, sadly, is not false. It’s all gone a bit pear shaped for Sweden and people are getting angry about it.
The unfortunate fact of reality is that these refugees already come from countries that are vastly different to the backgrounds of the places they move to. The most noticed incomers are the loud obnoxious ones who refuse to fit in, who refuse to appreciate a new lease on life, who have no respect for the country. The matter of fact is that in these so called Muslim countries, religion is being used as a smokescreen for nurturing blind hatred and depriving people of a proper upbringing where they are taught values. They are putting up a bad image for immigrants, for their own race and for their own religion.
So I realize I’m rambling on at this point and the thread has moved on considerably, but I just wanted to bring in a different angle, and some anecdotes.
There will always be a someone with malintent but you can’t just deny people the chance to a new life based on some crippling fear of uncertainty. You know what that is? That’s plain cowardice.
There’s more to it of course, on a countrywide scale, getting people to be good is no easy task. But nothing is easy. I’m not going to pretend that you should let any and every person in with no regard to the safety and well-being of those already in the country. If you cannot culture people then how is your country even coming along? You’ve got to instill respect, honesty, kindness… I could go on listing values, but what I’m trying to get at is that values are the backbone to everything. Keep the people who are genuinely grateful to have been given a new life and train them, I am sure they will not mind.
