Strangelove wrote: ↑Mon Sep 10, 2018 6:41 am
Not everyone taking an "anti-immigration" stance belongs to that particular party amirite?
(though the fact that party is dramatically increasing in popularity is entirely relevant)
Also it is
not racist (you seem to imply it is racist) to take an anti-immigration stance.
Not just them, but mainly them. Both the conservatives and the social democrats have lost voters to the Sweden Democrats, and have to some extent tried to win them back by becoming more "tough on immigration". It kind of backfires though, because that has caused them to also lose voters concerned about human rights to other parties that are softer on immigration.
You see, most Swedes are convinced the influx of immigrants makes us stronger:
https://nordic.businessinsider.com/this ... er-2016-7/
Which I fully believe as well. Historically, the nations that have had the most immigrants have been the strongest. Look at the Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire, the USA at its peak, etc.
Furthermore, the aging population in Sweden (and basically all of Europe + Japan) is a ticking time bomb. As people live longer and longer while people choose to have less than two children per family on average, there is no way we are going to be able to take care of our elderly.
There are basically four possible solutions:
1)
Kill people once they reach a certain age.
For moral and ethical reasons, this is a no-go.
2)
Get rid of retirement, or at least raise the retirement age to 75.
Possible, but highly impopular.
3)
Force people to have more children.
Again, moral and ethical reasons make this problematic. See the Handmaid's Tale.
4)
Maintain a steady inflow of working age people
to keep the economy growing so that we can afford pensions and care for the elderly.
Personally I think number four is the only workable solution.
Sweden is bigger than Japan. We have ten million people, they have 120 million. There is plenty of room to take in more people here, and as I see it that is the only possible way we can afford to maintain the well fare society we have today.
As for your last suggestion, technically I am sure you can be against immigration without being racist, but in my experience racism is the most common reason for it. At least if you oppose all immigration.
Most sensible people realize that immigration needs to be controlled. Mainly because other countries control it. If migration was completely uncontrolled, Ii think it would regulate itself, just like the free market is the best way to determine price and production levels. But since almost all countries regulate migration, it can prove disastrous for a single country to allow free immigration, as the influx would be to dramatic to handle in the short term. Sort of what we experienced in 2015.
Sweden has now adjusted its rules to standard EU practice, and the pressure is off. Most Swedes would prefer more generous rules, but we realize that we need to be in synch with the rest of Europe. Thus we are now trying to make the entire EU become more like Sweden or Germany, but many of the former communist countries in the east disagree.