Sweden: Electing a New People

After the uprising of the 17th of June
The Secretary of the Writers Union
Had leaflets distributed in the Stalinallee
Stating that the people
Had thrown away the confidence of the government
And could win it back only
By redoubled efforts. Would it not be easier
In that case for the government
To dissolve the people
And elect another?

Berthold Brecht, Die Welt, 1959

The Swedish government seems on a course to do exactly that which Berthold Brecht joked about during the DDR years. Via reader Guy Gadbois we get the news that illegal immigrants in Sweden will see their rights expanded.

Illegal immigrants in Sweden should in future have the right to government-funded healthcare and education, and be able to start their own companies, the government has agreed.

The move follows long negotiations between the smaller governing parties (the Centre, Liberal and Christian Democrat parties) who have long argued for more rights for undocumented migrants, and the Moderate Party, which has opposed the idea.

The Moderates have argued that giving such entitlements would legitimize people who have no right to be in Sweden.

The parties say there are still a number of questions to resolve, including the issue of who will pay for illegal immigrants’ healthcare or the kind of care and education to which they will be entitled.

Blogger Cavatus is not impressed. Being illegal will be the most favourable way of living in Sweden in the future, he writes. As illegal you will have no social security number and can avoid being chased by the Swedish Tax Agency and the Enforcement Service. As illegal, you will work on the side and thus you won’t pay any income tax, just VAT. As illegal you will get free medical care, free schooling for you children and be allowed to start and run a company. The decision amounts to free immigration and a Sweden that will be de facto borderless.

This all in a time when things are made harder for the Swedes that pay the taxes that support the expanded benefits for these illegals. Sweden has one of the highest tax-burdens in the world. There is talk of raising the retirement age with two to three years, since even the Swedes are now finding that a welfare state in the long run is unsustainable. Swedes nowadays have to apply for sick leave, with many seeing their application turned down, despite their condition.

The news sketches the contours of the shape of Sweden these days: Swedes paying for the health-care and education of non-Swedes, who are encouraged to come in illegally, freeing them of the onerous Swedish taxes. How long until Swedes decide en masse to seek friendlier shores, leaving the Swedish elite with a new people they’ve elected?

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