[kzrdude]

Social capital is important in societies. Trust between people, people's trust of authorities, trust between corporations.

When people migrate from regions where there is no trust in the government, it's natural that some of these bring problems with them. You could say it's no fault of their own -- they are used to the authorities being the bad guys and don't care to follow their rules or tax law.

[hkmurakami]

Do you think that's part of the cause of (relative) turmoil with respect to the recent influx of immigrants into the (previously) culturally uniform, high-social-capital society of Scandinavian countries such as Finland?

[kzrdude]

I don't know. A north african friend of mine explained to me how important the difference was. How in his country, you were successful if you were in a situation to be corrupt and make money off your government job. The less legitimacy the government has, the more sense it makes.

To Americans reading this: You have nothing to win from discrediting "the government" or "othering" it, it does you no good. Make the problem yours and solve it; no one else but you owns your country.

[rayiner]

I think immigration has had a huge influence on those countries. It comes down to trust. The liberal policies of the Scandinavian countries work to the extent that people trust each other. And people don't and can't trust unassimilated immigrants in the same way they can trust people who are similar to themselves.

[hkmurakami]

Sounds logical that you'll get a major cultural clash when you insert people who have had to "gouge the system" and live every man for himself in their native land into a society where "helping one another" and giving for the communal good from which everyone benefits. (ex: high taxes in Scandanavian countries and great public infrastructure w.r.t. health, education, etc.)