Name: Anonymous 2015-06-13 20:32
Finally a man disassembles the immigration myth on rational grounds, even from an anti-racist's point of view:
https://caffeinatedthoughts.com/2015/06/why-immigration-wont-save-swedens-welfare-state/
50 % of non-European immigrants are unemployed. And among those who are employed, people from the US, Australia, Canada, China etc are highly overrepresented. Immigration from countries like Syria, Iraq, Somalia etc is not a net gain for the Swedish economy nor for the Swedish taxpayers – whatever tax money the working immigrants contribute are more than eaten up by the cost of unemployment benefits to the rest. When Swedish politicians talk about increased immigration saving our welfare state, they’re not talking about importing more Americans, they’re talking about people from the Middle east and Northern Africa. And that’s not going to happen.
Even without this high unemployment rate, it still wouldn’t work: Immigrants too will get old eventually and require health care, pensions etc. Therefore, in a best case scenario immigration can only kick the can down the road.
But even if immigrants won’t provide a financial profit to the state, can’t they at least fill a labor shortage by doing the jobs that Swedes don’t want to do?
I’m always shocked when I hear “tolerant” people making this argument – they’re actually suggesting that we import a servant class to do the work we consider ourselves too nice to do. The immigrants in this scenario would have the same role as the Afro-Americans used to have in the US. And they call me racist…
This argument also relies on immigrants not assimilating. Because, think about it, why are immigrants more prone to take these dirty jobs? Because they come from cultures where those jobs are not looked down on, and because they have no other choice since no other jobs are available to them (it’s hard to get a job when you can’t speak the language nor have any significant academic achievements). But if immigrants were to assimilate – adopt the Swedish culture, learn the language, get an education etc – then presumably they would no longer be willing to do these dirty jobs, just like Swedes aren’t willing to do them. Hence, in order for immigrants to fill this role of preventing a labor shortage in the elderly care and elsewhere, the state must prevent them from integrating into society. Importing a servant class and preventing them from taking part of your wider society & culture – that sounds pretty racist to me.
Immigrants are also supposed to save the welfare state by having more children. While Swedes generally stop at 1-2 kids, it’s not uncommon for immigrants from the developing world to have more. Therefore, immigrants help bring us up to the 2.1 birth rate that we need. However, again, this only works as long as the immigrants do not adopt Swedish culture & values. Once – if – they do, there is no reason to believe they would have more children than anyone else. And if they don’t? Well, then we’ll have an ever-growing segment of the population that doesn’t share our values, language or cultural identity. Do I need to explain why that’s a bad thing?
https://caffeinatedthoughts.com/2015/06/why-immigration-wont-save-swedens-welfare-state/
50 % of non-European immigrants are unemployed. And among those who are employed, people from the US, Australia, Canada, China etc are highly overrepresented. Immigration from countries like Syria, Iraq, Somalia etc is not a net gain for the Swedish economy nor for the Swedish taxpayers – whatever tax money the working immigrants contribute are more than eaten up by the cost of unemployment benefits to the rest. When Swedish politicians talk about increased immigration saving our welfare state, they’re not talking about importing more Americans, they’re talking about people from the Middle east and Northern Africa. And that’s not going to happen.
Even without this high unemployment rate, it still wouldn’t work: Immigrants too will get old eventually and require health care, pensions etc. Therefore, in a best case scenario immigration can only kick the can down the road.
But even if immigrants won’t provide a financial profit to the state, can’t they at least fill a labor shortage by doing the jobs that Swedes don’t want to do?
I’m always shocked when I hear “tolerant” people making this argument – they’re actually suggesting that we import a servant class to do the work we consider ourselves too nice to do. The immigrants in this scenario would have the same role as the Afro-Americans used to have in the US. And they call me racist…
This argument also relies on immigrants not assimilating. Because, think about it, why are immigrants more prone to take these dirty jobs? Because they come from cultures where those jobs are not looked down on, and because they have no other choice since no other jobs are available to them (it’s hard to get a job when you can’t speak the language nor have any significant academic achievements). But if immigrants were to assimilate – adopt the Swedish culture, learn the language, get an education etc – then presumably they would no longer be willing to do these dirty jobs, just like Swedes aren’t willing to do them. Hence, in order for immigrants to fill this role of preventing a labor shortage in the elderly care and elsewhere, the state must prevent them from integrating into society. Importing a servant class and preventing them from taking part of your wider society & culture – that sounds pretty racist to me.
Immigrants are also supposed to save the welfare state by having more children. While Swedes generally stop at 1-2 kids, it’s not uncommon for immigrants from the developing world to have more. Therefore, immigrants help bring us up to the 2.1 birth rate that we need. However, again, this only works as long as the immigrants do not adopt Swedish culture & values. Once – if – they do, there is no reason to believe they would have more children than anyone else. And if they don’t? Well, then we’ll have an ever-growing segment of the population that doesn’t share our values, language or cultural identity. Do I need to explain why that’s a bad thing?