March 21, 2010
Published: 11 Sep 09 08:08 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/22008/20090911/
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The government has proposed a sweeping overhaul of Sweden’s system for supporting newly arrived immigrants in their search for a job in hopes of getting them established and working more quickly.
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More than 50,000 households in the Karlstad region in western Sweden were without water on Saturday due a serious water leak. Although service has been restored, residents are advised to boil drinking water for the next several days. READ »
American tennis star Andy Roddick beat out sixth-seeded Swede Robin Söderling on Saturday in a 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 victory during the Indian Wells Masters 1000 on Saturday. Roddick will now face Ivan Ljubicic in Sunday's tennis final. READ »
A young Swedish woman who falsely accused her father of rape will now face charges of her own. The father had received a five-year prison sentence in 2007 after the then 17-year-old girl reported he had sexually assaulted her. READ »
A 19-year-old male sustained serious injuries during a knife fight on Saturday night in the neighborhood of Varberga in Örebro in central Sweden. Another 16-year-old boy was later arrested for the assault. READ »
Negotiations between the Commercial Employees´ Union (Handelsanställdas förbund) and the Swedish Federation of Trade (Svensk Handel) employers' organisation have stalled, according to the trade union. READ »
In the first case of its kind in Sweden, a Stockholm court has found two men guilty of human trafficking after they lured two teenage boys from their home in Romania to a life of crime. READ (7 COMMENTS) »
Sweden’s convicted double murderer Annika Östberg Deasy, who is due to be released in May 2011, has been moved from a female prison to a rehabilitation centre where she will work at a day nursery for dogs. READ »
Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt retains his position at the top of the party leader board in a new survey on voter confidence while support for opposition leader Mona Sahlin continues to decline. READ (6 COMMENTS) »
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"Recently I’ve been thinking of how much mental space we could create if we collectively agreed to get rid of stereotypes. All of those small compartments we walk around with in our heads would suddenly be cleared away and we’d feel so much lighter. Just think of all of that space for real new perceptions..." READ »
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Round 1......................Calling for Swedish Immigrants on 1 side...................................... and Swedish on the other side.
Who will take the 1st punch?
The simple fact with a declining population is that the government needs to find a way to pay for ever rising social maintenance cost. So immigrants will always come no matter Swedes like it or not. Just imagine no immigrants coming to Sweden in the next 25 years, how can the state afford the cost of welfare?
Back to integration. The government first need to understand various cultural differences before passing another law on integration and learn form France and the Netherlands. Whom of you have a brilliant idea on how to integrate immigrants to the Swedish society?
I have to agree with you 100% there. There are billions of people living in poverty all over the world that would love to come here for a better life. Since Sweden can't take them all, then we should take in the ones that we think would be able to intigrate, respect Swedish society and culture. Alot of Asians are brought up to work hard, study, learn new cultures and adapt to new enviroments. It is much better for both Sweden and for the refugees themselves if they go to countries that have similar societies and cultures. If that happens then both sides will walk off as winners.
Why can't countries like Saud Arabia, Bahrain, Israel etc take in all the refugees that are of middle eastern culture? they are both MUCH richer than Sweden and they share the same mentality and societies and the refugees themselves would be much happier there.
Secondly, DreWstwd and HPunlimited... please stop with your racist remarks, it just makes you look stupid. Statements that insinuate that all violent crime is caused by people from the middle east is moronic.
I think what you are trying to say is that if you are going to let in ANY immigrant from ANY where in the world then there is probably certain criteria that needs to be checked against before allowing that person to stay in Sweden. For example check the police records, education levels, conduct issues in childhood or school, socio economic status, etc.
But what you can't do is say "ok no more arabs, how bout some asians" that is not how the world works.
"Statements that insinuate that all violent crime is caused by people from the middle east is moronic."
You are right mate, crime is not caused only by people from middle east they are also, in great part, caused by Africans.
Well said mate...
I would not usually reiterate what has already been said, and quite rightly so by RoyceD, however in this case I feel it necessary.
You are obviously racist, and ignorant towards the real problems any country faces with immigration. I suggest you do not let your personal racist opinion towards certain minorities cloud your judgement on what would be best for this country.
Please note that I'm referring to political refugees from countries that are currently at war...
You should also know that usually, refugees repartition is decided at a very high level by negotiation and long analysis. Every country has to accept some part of big wave of refugees, Sweden just gets the middle eastern.
It seems Sweden is one of the most "open minded" countries when it comes to accepting immigrants.
Some people respond to any reference to cultural, racial or religious by accusations from racism. I don't know about Swedish figures, but now if I say that more than 30% of crimes in Italy is caused by illegal immigrants, is that racist? No matter what label you put on this statement, first of all it is a TRUE statement, and it cannot be ignored.
As for the middle east: they have simply a bad reputation, and it is a work for them to improve it. I agree that Sweden should simply pick those refugees, for who it has a reason to believe that the country will benefit from them. And the middle east area really has enough oil money to care for the refugees from their own region.
Those who discriminate need to be fined and loose there jobs if done in the workplace.
Those who dont want to integrate, should loose their finacial support .
No more free lunches.
National Socialsm is floored and doomed to fail.
Figures are easily manipulated to justify any argument.
A population of 2 tortoises who live on a vast playing field. The next day a couple of bunnies hop in and you have a 100% immigration increase per/day.
The tortieses would be hopping out of their shells if they new about the sickening depravity and fall down of playing field society if they just new what was going on.
But then there is always a greedy tortoise who is ready to manipulate of the stupidity of other tortoises for their own gain.
1492 and 1498: Columbus and da Gama travel west and east to the Indies, inaugurating an age of European seaborne empires
1650: the expansion of the slave trade expanded was dramatic during the seventeenth century -- and it sustained the expansion of Atlantic Economy, giving birth to integrated economic/industrial systems across the Ocean -- with profits accumulating in Europe during the hey day of mercantalism and rise of the Englightenment. (estimates of slave trade population)
1885: Treaties of Berlin mark a diplomatic watershed in the age modern imperial expansion by European and American overseas empires, beginning the age of "high imperialism" with the legalization of the Partition of Africa, which also marks a foundation-point for the creation of international law. Cry woe all you can, you started it. GLOBALIZATION IS HERE TO STAY!!! FACE IT OR LOOSE OUT. Sweden must find a way forward.
...Ur can somebody fetch a strait jacket please. send everyone back to their original country. What side of the moon are you living on.
So let me get this right.
Your saying every swedish person living and working in the UK or America or where else they happen to live, should bugger off back to Sweden?
And by this you believe that no swede should ever have the right to seek another life in another country.
WAKE UP you imabsile!
Say what you want, but the fact is that most middle eastern immigrants don't integrate well into Swedish or western society and from my personal experience in SFI they don't want to. They're getting free housing, healthcare, money, education etc and they know that they'll never be required in Sweden to integrate.
The only middle eastern refugees that I have seen actually trying to learn the language in SFI is the women. I'm assuming that they're more interested because they know they might have a chance at having more rights here and a better life. In contrast to that are the few asian immigrants at my SFI, they're there studying, trying to speak swedish and interacting with all the other students, not just themselves.
I know the muslim religion is supposed to be peaceful but I think it's hard for alot of the world to see that. Everyday there's stories on the news about muslim/middleeastern countries fighting each other, stoning women to death or muslim people living in western countries commiting crimes.
I know most muslims & middle eastern are good but there's an actual higher rate of crime commited by these people. It's the same with black people in america, there is factual evidence of more crimes being commited by black people than non-blacks. If anyone other than a black says this though they're automatically labeled racist.
I do believe the crime rates are higher due to poverty, culture and lack of education. That needs to be changed but it also shouldn't be used as an excuse.
"A Brief History of Globalization: The Untold Story of our Incredible Shrinking Planet (Paperback) by Alex MacGillivray"
Good Politicians and Economist understands the game. All you do is shout and Cry woe about Sweden/Europe taken over by foreigners. It is a whole new order of the day. People come and go. As much people that migrates to Sweden yearly equals the number that leaves every year to another. You must calculate the economic imbalance. Its not a simple and easy task to deal with on both sides, but it is too simplistic thinking to just say Europe must close her borders. After all my grandfather fought in the British Colonial Army in the liberation of Europe even though he is an african.
This is the second time I ask you a question. The first you didn't reply, maybe you'll this time, we'll see...
You speak so much about black supremacy, however, if so, I'd like to know why Sweden having a fraction of Africa's population and land size still holds a GPD 54 times bigger than the whole continent?
How can such superior people live in such misery when the inferiors have so abundance?
I presume you can explain this with real facts and objective logic, otherwise your self-pitying comment is simply more trolling, and I won't bother ask you again.
Your remarks are really ignorant and racist. They are even too stupid to even remark on, go to school and get some education please. Why does race have to come into the picture?
If Swedes are so colorless and mutant and can't produce babies, then why do you even come to Sweden? And if the Swedish society is so bad, then why is it that Sweden is swelling over with Africans and not the reversed? let me guess..its a "white mans" conspiracy? Now please stop the racist crap and write something intelligent next time!
Thank god there are people like you here in Sweden. Sweden needs more people like you and less people that wants to destroy this country.
Peace!
A person who genuinely wishes to become part of an adopted society would not want to dress so extremely opposite to the norm of that society.
Those who insist on wearing islamic dress for religious reasons should, i think, remain in the middle east or in those countries where it is the norm to do so.
Sweden is a secular country where religion keeps a low profile.
Also..yes..at least a 5 year test period before the 'knot is tied'!
I agree with you mate. Religious dress should be wear in religious places like a mosque or in their home, not in public to rub in everyone's face how different they want to be.
However that's not their point, Islamic dresses in general , the Burqa in particularly, are used as weapons in a cultural jihad, fought against the west.
Muslims just want to sent a clear message to all of us. They just won't adapt, not matter what we do, and how much money we give to them.
Spend a few minutes and watch Pat's new video. It explaining beautifully what this is all about...
http://www.patcondell.net/
Excellent n thanks for sharing!
He is sooo absolutely dead on target!
My hat off to pat condell!!
real asylum seekers in middle eastern countries should seek refuge in neighbouring countries than traveling half of the world and coming to sweden.
this is weakness of swedish government that is allowing these people to lie about being gay,or want to be christian or mullas in iran are after them and another billions lies.....
so i think one in 100/000 asylum seekers are genuine one and the rest are just bunch of liars and must not allowed to live in sweden. you just think about city of uppsala its got easy over 10/000 iranians who came to live during last 15 -20 years and still are coming.are they all in danger of getting killed or tortured?i dont think even 100 of them have told the truth in their cases!
so there is no reason for our government to allow them to live here just like this.
no more asylum seekers for sweden.
Luckily I know that Re-Horakhty does not speak for most Africans. If you really want to help, dont donate, loan money. You can contribute to a micro-loan to a business owner in almost any 3rd world country on Kiva.org. I am not affiliated with this website, but think it is a great idea. If we could improve conditions in these poor parts of the world through stimulating business ownership emigration from these places would slow if not stop.
Beynch...LOL!!
I just want to say i am first generation born Australian but i have middle eastern descent. So ofcourse naturally i look arab but act and sound Australian so it throws people off.
Judgement is passed very quickly on people here in Sweden very stereotypical, which is what i really dislike about Sweden and they put you in a category regardless. It is ashame that people have this mentality in this day and age, because i really love Sweden but not when i get judged.. thanks!!! And i have a few aussie friends here and they dont get the same judgement as i do... ???? wonder WHY? perhaps arab looks are not the go in Sweden .. boy did i get a shock when i got here! But hey i think they get over it if you walk their walk and talk their talk... its all social politics deal with it, because i think swedes are quite fair people... and use it to your advantage! The glass is always half full !!
Lets face it a large proportion of US Europeans are at least a little bit racist or at least Xenophobic. You see it in little sideways glances or turning away. You see the cogs turning - He is DIFFERENT, I don't want to know.
Perhaps I see it more than most as I have a adopted Pilipino son who's skin is light brown in the winter but becomes darker in the summer. I have lost count of the number of times I have observed hate, disgust whatever in people looking at my son over the past 24 years only for it to change when they realise that he is part of a WHITE family (British/Swedish). He is a Swedish national has done his military service ( he did not try to get out of doing it as so many so called patriotic Swedes do) yet here in Sweden, as he did in England, he still gets the same looks as anybody else of 'colour'. Maybe the fact that I have travelled the world ( some 86 countries in every continent) and have been keen to experience different cultures, that makes me less critical of immigrants. If we Europeans started to look for the best the myriad of cultures that we have in our countries rather than want to lead insular lives, we would not only promote better integration of immigrants into our society but also broaden our own culture. It is no good accusing immigrants of not wanting to integrate when the indigenous population sends out a strong message of go away. How can immigrants integrate if the massage is 'go away'.
When I first came to Sweden to live 30 years ago, It was a very boring place Sweden closed at 6pm, restaurants served boring food and closed by 8pm - and I'm talking a major city not a small town. Today immigration has changed all that, the same city -Linköping is full of life until the wee small hours and every variety of cuisine is there to be tasted.
So all you immigrant bashers, try to enhance your own life by getting to know and understand the immigrant population. Pushing out the immigrants would make Sweden a very dull place to live
But talk of Swedish companies they are closed, protected and protectionists. This is a global world and atleast Skanska has road contracts in my country that runs to several billion Krones, Ericsson does bag several billion dollars worth of contracts every so often and Volvo is a class of its own in the transport segment. They are there because they are the best.
As someone who has friends working in China, as someone who has Chinese friends working in Brazil and as someone who has worked with Brazillians. I was quite stumped to hear a representative for Capgemini at a Career fair tell me I need to be fluent in Swedish before I could apply for a job or internship. Most companies in Sweden are no different, they generally expect someone to be 'Swedish enough' to be even considered. Personally I hate to say this but I started hating to idea of having to learn Swedish simply because the fun of learning a language has been replaced but the dread of a military drill.
- I don't recommend Sweden for immigration, especially to people from developing countries, who have high ambitions, they will become very disappointed.
- I do recommend Sweden to refugees, because refugees have different calculations and reason for their motivation to move to another country, however I warn with all peace and quite that they find in here, they'll never be consider and be treated as a Swede, even if they prospect in here by luck (chance is very low), and if they plane to move from here to somewhere else, they should try to make it happen in less than 7 years, otherwise it'll be very hard to start a new life somewhere else; after all we all have a limited period to live a life, and you'll loss that chance!
Welcome to Sweden, check one block up, the comment of @waspy, it's what I am trying to warn about!
Firstly, as an EU citizen, the state is VERY quick to issue me with a personnummer in order to pay taxes but I still can't get a #¤%&ing ID card - and my EU passport is not accepted as legal ID. Not only does this contravene EU regulations on identification, it effectively makes me a second class citizen - Valkommen to Sverige - not!
Secondly, I appreciate the effort being made to provide free Swedish lessons courtesy of SFI - but I would like them to focus on the language and not the additional indoctrination about how great social democratic politics are. I am an adult and I can decide for myself whether I think these politics are great or not!
Thirdly, it is incredibly hard to connect with Swedes on a social level - they simply tend to stick to their comfort zone and ignore foreigners (the exceptions being Swedes who have spent a significant amount of time abroad). In many cases, Swedes are not even aware of their tendency to xenophobia - but just watch what happens when a black person sites down in the tunnelbana - no-one will sit next to them even if the carriage is full.
Fourthly, there is such an immense social pressure to blindly conform to the Swedish way of thinking. If you have a different point of view, people will politely nod their heads and listen, and then tell you you are completely wrong - why - because it is just wrong (i.e the state says so, the law says so etc.) There is a resolute lack to even try to understand different points of view. It it always black and white: the Swedish way is right and other ways are wrong!
Lastly, although I am fortunate enough to have missed the palaver of getting a work permit from the ever slow moving morass that is migrationsverket, I have a number of highly skilled colleagues (one a Russian systems analyst, one an Australian lawyer amongst others), who have had endless delays and issues getting their work oermits sorted out - even after they have been offered jobs. Come on guys, this is just lost tax revenue and not exactly helping get even skilled people into the work force quickly and efficiently.
So, whilst my gripes are, no doubt, paltry compared to the experiences of many other immigrants, they still illustrate that Sweden is pretty poor at integrating foreigners full stop - regardless if they are from London, New York, Moscow, Sydney, Baghdad or Timbuctu.
I don't know how long you have lived in Sweden but you got it very good; however, I disagree with some points, for example I don't think Swedes unaware have tendency to xenophobia. I can tell you they have tendency to be racist and deep in heart mostly are racist, but they are not aware that they are racist. Their moral issues force them to hide it. They are very careful about the world's opinions about Sweden, it's important for business as well.
I don't speak Swedish, so can someone please tell me the word for "suckers".