Sweden Immigration Crisis Analysis

Mawi Asgedom, an author, public speaker, and a refugee from Ethiopian origin, in his TEDXGRANTPARK talk, How Immigrants Make America Great (2016), addresses the topic of immigration in the United States of America and argues that immigrants make America “more safer and prosperous” and bring “stronger values” because they are simply living in the nation. He backs up this claim by doing the following: first, he refers to examples on how immigrants make sacrifices to make this country safe; next, he gives staggering statistics on the percentage of immigrants living in America today; last, he provides many cases of companies founded by immigrants that creates thousands of jobs for Americans. Mawi Asgedom, an immigrant himself, wishes to convey to readers the importance of how the “bedrock values” of immigrants, which are generosity and entrepreneurship, make them a “10” and how immigrants make America’s economy better overall. The author’s audience likely consists of those interested in immigration policies as is evident through his references to the immigration statistics and the response of the increased job market here in the United States due to the immigrants; he addresses readers with a tone that is very formal and serious but adds some humor to capture his audience, the viewers of TEDXGRANTPARK and other interested in the approach to immigration in the United States.

Immigration has played a large role in the history of the United States since the very founding of the country. As even the founding fathers of the United States were immigrants coming to the U.S. to seek a better life. For varies reasons, immigrants have been traveling to America to seek a better life whether to achieve better economic opportunity, religious freedom, and/or political refuge (Jiménez). These reasons have caused immigrants to flood into the U.S. In the most recent years’, weather to allow immigration to keep going as it is has been a hot topic for America. This controversy over immigration has grown as Americans continue to wonder if immigration is still good for the country. Therefore, the immigration controversy has many Americans

“Sweden is the home of my ancestors, and I have reserved a special place in my heart for Sweden.” - Carl D. Anderson. Vast mountain ranges, ancient glaciers, crystal clear lakes, vibrant meadows, and a global reputation of peace and neutrality resides over Sweden. Yet, from 1851 to 1930, about 1.2 million Swedes (25% of Sweden's total population) moved to the United States. One of those 1.2 million immigrants who came fleeing over to America is my Great Grandmother, Linnea Gertrude Lindmark.

Refugees have been the spotlight in many countries in the past few years. In Canada, refugees where mainly sourced from Syria, Eritrea, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Congo (Puzic 5). The difference between refugees and immigrants is “refugees are people who have fled their countries because of a well-founded fear of persecution. They are not able to return home” (Government of Canada 1), but immigrants are people who chose to leave their country and settle in another for their own reasons. A lot of people do hate the fact that refugees have been the main focus recently, and how “they have been treated better” than our own people, but that does not beat the fact that there are many advantages that come from the refugees. Refugees bring the advantages of increasing the country’s population, boosting the country’s economy, and increasing the country’s diversity.

Immigrants are hard workers; however, the Americans are viewing the immigrants as lazy and as a burden to The United States when in actuality, research shows that, some immigrants come to The United States legally although they may not have papers to work legally when they first arrive. For many immigrants the process to get legal documentation to work is a long, tedious, and expensive process. Even though this issue is very common, many immigrants are positive and productive contributors in society. On the other hand, there are immigrants who are roaming around the streets, and looking for places to sleep on the roads. As an immigrant in any country, these things can happen to anyone, due to the fact that some immigrants do not know anyone as they migrate to a foreign land. Many immigrants are struggling and are facing many problems that come along their way as they try to become stable and achieve their goals in The United States. In an article written by Octavio Blanco titled “Immigrant workers are most likely to have these jobs,” he states, “That is especially the case in America’s beauty business, where immigrants made up 63% of those that provide services as manicurists and Pedicurists, makeup artists, shampooers and skin care specialists. Slightly more than half of these workers (51%) were

November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall falls amid the thawing of the Cold War. Consequently, an elated Europe welcomed a new ‘borderless’ continent. The Schengen agreements dissolved anachronistic boundaries that once separated nations, allowing peoples, such as the Ruthenians, to exercise a loyalty to the states within their immediate realm of influence, while simultaneously preserving their independent identities. A quarter of a century later the continent is amid a refugee crisis unseen since World War II. Detention, deportation, bureaucratic barriers, military, and satellite technologies have all been a part of the some of the most extensive and aggressive border enforcement programs in history. Endeavors that have stoked xenophobic fears and spawned grievous confrontations between some of the wealthiest nations on earth and a stateless people from the most impoverished.

There needs to be reform not only the issue of illegal immigration but also on legal immigration and refugee and asylum policies; the three main reforms that I will cover in this paper. Current immigrant policy allows for around 1 million immigrants allowed into this country every year. Although this may seem like a low number compared to the current population of nearly 300 million people who currently live in the unites states the

Immigration is a kind of movement of people into destination land, which can be traced back to a million years ago. Also, the debate over whether immigrants should be given more rights has been an intractable problem for a long period. According to statistics from Wikipedia, as for 2005, the United Nations reported that there were nearly 191 million international immigrants worldwide, about three percent of the world 's population (Immigration). Although it does not seem to take up a large proportion, actually the amount of the immigrant population is particularly huge. In this way, policies on immigration are considered remarkably significant. Moreover, recently the attacks in European countries have also poured fuel on the already-heated debate over immigration policy. In most cases, local citizens and governments do not welcome immigrants into their own country, which is partly due to the discrimination. Obviously, it is unfair to them. Immigrants should be treated equally and given more rights than the rights they possess now because they contribute to boosting economy, creating a harmonious society and they are legal immigrants.

Perhaps many the troubles that plague Scandinavian-Americanist historians and scholars stem from the general lack of public attention to their topic of study. Although many Americans still claim Scandinavian roots and Swedish and Norwegian communities still remain lively in several regions of the United States, the migrant group lacks the impact or presence (both in popular culture as well as demographically) that Irish of Italian migrants register in the mind of the American public. Regardless of the reasons for the field’s lack of prevalence in the greater field of U.S.-immigration studies Scandinavian-American migration studies remains difficult to penetrate for outsiders to the field. A small section of the published works covering Scandinavian-American

those who oppose them seem to score equally with no solution (Kourtsounis, 2014). The groups

In the attempts to “manage the immigrant crisis” several strategic mistakes have been made, which have shaken the functioning of migration policy in the European community. Particular controversy was stirred up by a plan for the relocation of 120,000 refugees suggested in September 2015. Some months later (April/May 2016), the European Commission came up with the idea of fines for those countries which would not receive the relocated refugees. The fine for one unaccepted foreigner was supposed to be €250,000. The attempt to impose a quota of immigrants on member countries together with high fines contributed to further divisions inside the EU.

In her article, Kaur provides three statements by three different Danish politicians to premise her conclusion. The first premise she presents is a statement from Martin Henriksen, the chairman of a parliamentary committee on immigration, integration, and housing. On a televised exchange Henriksen said “This is not how one becomes Danish, one can’t say

Sweden’s political reaction is both measurable and significant in terms of the incessantly evolving political climate of Europe towards the immigration issue. Since 1989, the Swedes have been asked annually what issues they think are the most important in Sweden

Since 2011, Syria has been engaged in a Civil War with protestors against the government and members of the extremist group ISIS, and approximately 7.6 million people have been displaced from their homes (usnews.com 2015). As the conflict destroys more homes and livelihoods each year, an increasing number of civilians have been forced to leave Syria and try to find safety elsewhere. Already a contentious issue, the Syrian refugee crisis has awakened tensions, both economic and social as debate erupts over what to do with the refugees.In response to the crisis, while some countries like Germany have pledged to help the refugees, (New Statesman 2015 1) only 2,340 have been admitted. Clearly, more needs to be done in order to help the refugees. Although there are economic and population concerns to be considered, the humanitarian conflict that faces the refugees and solutions already available are reason enough for Europe to increase the numbers of Syrian refugees allowed in.

Latvia did not have any experience receiving or integrating refugees from other parts of the world before refugee’s crisis in Europe. At this moment, in Latvia the number of refugees is 776. Unfortunately, the society’s attitude towards refugees is negative in Latvia, if Latvia could- they would not take any more refugees, however, because Latvia is in EU- Latvia has received an quota- 1,29% of refugees and Latvia needs to give them