[sfjailbird]

People here in Scandinavia are very worried because their cozy little village of a region is being infused with massively different cultures.

Can't really blame them, and to be sure crime and social costs are higher as a result of immigration. That said, there is every reason to believe that these effects will diminish over time as immigrants start to integrate, even some beneficial effects are already showing.

The problem is that 'integration' takes generations, and a very large influx jeopardizes this process. So the adverse effects remain very visible and most people are too short-sighted to take the long view. At the same time Europeans are so hypersensitive about 'racism' that the topic can't even be discussed in polite company (which leaves it to actual racists to even talk about the issues).

[_delirium]

Here in Denmark, in my opinion much of the worry is not based on first-hand experience with actual immigrants who have moved to your town and are not integrating well, but rather with a more generalized worry that the culture in some sense is threatened. That's harder to solve with practical measures like integration assistance, because it's not based on specific daily problems but more general ideological worldviews.

If anything it seems anti-correlated with presence of real live immigrants. The largest group of immigrants to Denmark go to Copenhagen. But Copenhagen isn't where you find the strongest anti-immigrant sentiment, as you'd expect if anti-immigrant sentiment were caused by contact with immigrants. Such sentiment isn't absent, but Copenhageners are comparatively okay with immigration and the majority take moderate views, focused on practical issues like programs to improve integration. The strongest worries and the more "militant" style of anti-immigrant politics comes from rural and small-town areas which do not really see large-scale immigration.

I believe this is also the case in a number of other European countries, for example in Austria and Switzerland, where immigrants go mainly to the cities, but anti-immigrant sentiment is concentrated in the rural areas and small towns. Some of this probably has nothing to do with immigration per se but is a result of preexisting cultural splits between cosmopolitan, liberally oriented cities, and more conservative countrysides (a 19th-century sort of romantic nationalism is very strong in rural Scandinavia).

[MrBuddyCasino]

That is absolutely correct. But Switzerland has a different kind of immigration - its mostly highly skilled workers, working in IT or as doctors, and some lower skilled labour in the hospitality industry. The total amount is very high though (20%+), which makes people uncomfortable - and understandably so.

The situation in Sweden is a bit different though. Many of them are people that have no chance of finding a job in the Swedish market, which leads to crime, ghettos and separated societies. Its essentially mis-managed on a political level. This will only lead to resentment, the rise of right-wing parties and social problems. I don't think this is a desirable outcome for either the immigrants nor for Sweden as a society.

[stefantalpalaru]

http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/immigration-policy_-in-switzerla... :

> At the end of 2012 there were 1.87 million foreigners in Switzerland, the equivalent of nearly 23.3% of a total population that has passed the 8-million mark. In addition, more than 270,000 cross-border workers hold a job in Switzerland.

I bet that most of the permanent residents and virtually all of the seasonal workers are in the low-skill category.

[MrBuddyCasino]

No need to guess. Quote [0]: "The admission of people from non-EU/EFTA countries is regulated by the Foreign Nationals Act, and is limited to skilled workers who are urgently required and are likely to integrate successfully in the long term."

And the previously non-regulated EU residents are from a more similar cultural background, so there is a qualitative difference from the situation in Sweden.

[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_to_Switzerland

[dimitar]

Are you sure that an European equivalent of white-flight hasn't happened? People who are less likely to like living with immigrants are likely to move to suburbs or not move to the cities in the first place.

Enclaves are caused by "tipping" in a Schelling check-board model. It would be interesting to check the data to this type of model.

[simongray]

The only flight we see in Denmark are people fleeing the quiet rural areas and moving to the big university cities, primarily Copenhagen and to a lesser degree Århus.

[jerf]

What a shocking expression of cultural imperialism and contempt. "Yes, your culture is being disrupted by massive immigration that I freely admit you can't assimilate very well, and is causing significant problems. But it's OK, go ahead and suffer through the negative effects that are frontloaded into your lifetime, because I'm sure that in a few generations, after you're dead, it will all work out."

Are you really surprised that with a pitch like that that Europeans aren't falling over themselves to shape up? Especially if they lack your great and frankly historically baseless belief that their culture and their children are guaranteed to have a place in it?