Shift in Swedish Politics – Integration-Immigration Policies a Strong Public Concern

The increasing globalization and mobility around the world has caused accelerating pressures on improved integration-immigration policies. In Europe, the integration-immigration policies moved very high up in the political agendas in many countries. The outcome of the integration process versus the immigration policies achieved very much different results in Europe (see the 2007-Analysis of Integrating migrants, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7043918.stm). The importance of integration-immigration policies is reflected in the public influence on the political structure in the European countries especially in the past decades. Among the recent measures implemented by the European Union, is an initiative of 12 European Foundations, The European Programme for Integration and Migration (EPIM). It has the objectives to strengthen the civil society in advocating for constructive approaches to migrants in Europe through grant making, capacity building and networking (http://www.epim.info/). Also the issue of illegal migrants in Europe and the difficulties associated with having a decent life are being addressed. An important question that is being discussed is the actions to remedy the situation  (http://www.debatingeurope.eu/2013/11/19/is-there-solidarity-in-europe-over-illegal-immigration/#.VBbdvSjFr7s)..

The actual fate of individual immigrants is the responsibility of member states.  As elsewhere in Europe, 2014-elections in Sweden demonstrated that there is strong public concern about the integration-immigration policies with a clear message to all political parties to deal effectively with integration-immigration policies without delay (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-09-14/social-democratic-bloc-emerges-as-largest-in-swedish-election.html).

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