Open Door Immigrant Policy of Sweden

The costs of refugee programs--now up to about $35 to $57 per person--are forcing Swedes to question their liberal impulses. Even in good economic times, the system would have staggered under so many people. Currently, the Swedish economy has been slowing down since 1990. Increasingly, the country's world-renowned social welfare system is having trouble providing for its own citizens.

The Swedes have a history of being tolerant toward immigrants. However, judging from a recent opinion poll, those attitudes are changing. According to the poll, 66 percent of the respondents disapproved of Swedish immigration policies, saying they cost too much and encouraged "the wrong people to come." This is because at least 45 percent of the non-Nordic immigrants are unemployed. Centers built to house immigrants are overcrowded--and the welfare system cannot afford to build more shelters.

The Swedish welfare system has always been regarded as a "Third Way" between capitalism and communism. This third way meant giving private firms free rein, taxing earnings hard, and administering w

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countries all have similar welfare systems but each country differs more than outsiders realize. Denmark already belongs to the European Community, where its manufacturers and agro-businesses have done well. Norway's small industrial base is sustained by oil from the North Sea. Finland, with its timber and its own industrial specialists, has seen its biggest market, the former Soviet Union, disappear. Sweden, where the welfare business really started, has a larger industrial base, with giant concerns such as Volvo, the Wallenberg industrial and banking empire, and giant paper companies. Still, there are similarities within the Nordic countries. The region went on a credit-and-property binge in the second half of the 1980s, leaving governments to deal with bank failures. Big budget deficits, and general economic uncertainties, exposed all four currencies to speculation in 1992. Only Denmark escaped devaluation. The Nordic countries also share a consensus with the type of government they have. Their electoral systems give them all coalition governments, with Sweden and Finland led by conservatives, and Denmark and Norway led by social democrats. Committees involving unions and management proliferate, with the issues being
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1450
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)