User:Jake.peebles/sandbox3

History
Immigration to Stockholm can be divided into three prominent parts after World War Two. From the 1950s to the early 1970s, labor immigration dominated as new fathers came back from battle looking to care for their families. The period from 1970 to 1984 saw labor immigration as well as refugees looking for better lives. 1985 to present day is known as the refugee period as we see thousands of people fleeing their home countries to move west. Since then, immigrants have become increasingly diverse in their origins, lifestyles, and work skills, causing a social distance between the locals and the immigrants. This has made integration into society even more difficult and has added to spatial segregation in the Stockholm city area. Since the year 1930, immigration has been larger than emigration in Sweden. In 1940, 1 percent of the population was born outside the country and that number rose to 12 percent by 2004. There are well over a million immigrants living in Sweden, most of them residing in Stockholm which has made immigration policy very important to the Swedish government. The labor migration period saw large amounts of immigrants from Finland, Germany, Poland, Greece, and Yugoslavia. Immigration policies in Sweden over the past decades have become more strict involving refugees and asylum, while the labor immigration remains extremely liberal and welcoming. Foreign workers can be imported for free and given the right to reside in Sweden. Some Swedish employers have taken advantage of this process and forced migrants to pay bribes in exchange for a job and a place to reside. After an agreement between the Swedish Green Party and the government, illegal immigrants gained access to education, health care, and the right to own and operate their own business. Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt was a proponent of the new policy and claimed that it will benefit immigrants and the country of Sweden for a long time.

Stockholm experienced a huge shift in immigration from labor market seekers to refugees. From 1984 to 1992, only 1 percent of immigrants coming to Stockholm were given a residence permit for labor. In more recent years and on a global scale, immigration to Sweden has been very high. Sweden saw on average 70,0000 immigrants come into their country per year in the 2000s. Only a small fraction of those people came from countries east of Sweden. This history has produced a diverse immigrant population comprised of people from over 150 countries. Many pre-2004 immigrant young males in Stockholm have come from Iran, Chile, Turkey and Finland. In Stockholm County, almost 20% of children have a foreign background and the majority of these children live in neighborhoods filled with others from foreign countries. Recently, asylum seeking has gone from a human rights issue to a security problem. It is especially interesting in the case of Sweden, a country who tries to preserve their identity of decency and humanity. With recent events taking place in Europe, Sweden has followed the general trend in Europe of stricter border controls and more difficult application process for asylum seekers.

Integration: Issues/Successes
Since the early post-war period, migration policy in Stockholm has followed the Nordic Agreements regarding free movement of Nordic people, and expected that all of the migrants will stay in Stockholm for the rest of their lives and one day become a Swedish citizen. Trade unions were forced to accept that Sweden needed foreign labor. This did not come cheap for the Swedish employers, but later studies and analyses proved that it was a benefit the the overall industry and economy of Sweden. Language classes and interpreter jobs became more prominent. Swedish employers did most of their recruiting in the neighboring country of Finland, but also recruited large numbers of people from Southern and South-Eastern Europe. Eventually, migration became easier an more popular, creating what is known as chain migration. Foreigners had social contacts and families that were already in the destination country. Also, the Swedish authorities set up campaigns to help foreigners network with local businesses and social groups. The liberalization of migration policies in Stockholm directly affected the skill level of immigrants coming from outside the country in the short run. A study was done to see if the probability of becoming an inventor had a connection to the welcoming migration policies. They found no connection. The Commission on Immigration was appointed by the Swedish government in 1968. Their job was to study the issues that immigrants faced, and to examine ways to treat these problems. They also studied the immigrants lifestyles in general to get a better understanding of their daily choices and activities. This group went on to form successful integration policies that were accepted by Parliament in 1975. Integrating into the labor market has been much easier for those who are fluent in Swedish, and for those who have social networks built up. Many employers in Sweden use the concept of “städsvenska”, which refers to the basic understanding of the language and basic conversation skills that are necessary in the workforce. One of the issues is that these immigrant workers are spending too much time working and it is taking away time that they could be learning the Swedish language and increasing their social status in society.

Many swedes are against the liberal policies that have characterized immigration to Sweden over the past 40 years. They claim that the integration techniques are too helpful and that it has hurt the employment rates of Swedish natives under 25. Many question whether or not immigration has effected public finances in a negative way. Today, the sum of yearly public expenses in Sweden is near 50% of the total GDP. 30% of that is just the welfare system, and this is expected to cause the public expenses to increase to 60% of the total GDP by the year 2030. Many studies have emerged over the past decade regarding the fiscal burden immigration has placed on Sweden. Stockholm has had the largest per capita refugee immigration rate in the Western world since the early 1980s, and significant sums of money have gone towards this. The total redistribution in 2007 corresponds to 1 percent of Swedish GDP. Four‐fifths of the redistribution is due to lower public per capita revenues from refugees compared with the total population, and one‐fifth to higher per capita public costs. In 2012, right wing enthusiasts created the REVA project which caused commotion due to identity checks being carried out by police in the city of Stockholm. Activists pointed out that the identity checks were unlawful and were being conducted solely on appearance. Police argued that they were going after 'gate crashers', but all over the media people accused the police of racial profiling. Out of 85 interviewees, 75 scored above the cut off point and were subject to clinical assessment of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Out of these 75 people, 38.1% had severe PTSD, 28.6% had moderate PTSD, and 33.3% had no PTSD. The prevalence of severe PTSD was 42.6% for men and 30% for women.

The people of Stockholm take pride in being an egalitarian society. Finding pleasure in the city is very easy because enjoyment is not class based here. Every citizen is valued the same and their are no titles given to people with lower incomes. Anyone can have a conversation with anyone on the street and their is no judging or titling involved. Many people credit this friendly nature as one of the most important integration factors.  Södertälje is a city right outside of Stockholm known for its Middle Eastern Community. This place is a great example of successful integration. This area is the global capital of the Syriac Orthodox Christian diaspora, which is a group of people leaving their war torn lives in the middle east to reside in Sweden. Many of them are from Syria, and they have transformed this small area into their own culture center. Desert style houses, along with churches and a large soccer stadium are just some of the pieces of international influence in this Suburb.

As inviting as all of this sounds, illegal immigration comes at a cost. In Stockholm, if someone purposely helps an illegal immigrant into the country without consent of the government, they can be charged with human trafficking and sentenced to prison. If convicted, they would be facing a minimum of six months and a maximum of six years.