The Way Forward

of social democracy, where we have vibrant (and very regulated) capitalist economies that synergistically work hand in hand with expansive social welfare states to provide some of the highest standards of living on the planet.

In terms of immigration here in the Nordics, my nation, Sweden (I have tripartite citizenship, US via being born in Los Angeles, and then British, as I grew up post 2 years of age in London, and Swedish, as my father is Swedish and we (my wife and I) moved to Stockholm in 2018) is the big outlier.

We let in (both in terms of raw numbers and deffo in terms of percentage of population as Sweden is roughly twice the population of the other 3 main Nordic nations) far more immigrants (mostly refugees) than the other 3. We have, over the past 30 or so years, and especially from 2003 onward (Iraq US war and then the Syrian conflict later on) brought in a US population-adjusted equivalent of over 50 million.

We have done a shit job at integration, we have created many areas where the immigrants are isolated and vulnerable to Islamic radicalisation and also extremely violent gang activity. In January 2025 alone we have had over 30 bombings, all gang-related, plus over the past decade our gun murders have increased (again mostly gang related).

Norway, Finland, and especially Denmark have looked on at us with horror for the last 20 or so years, especially the past 10 to 15.

This all has also led to the rise of the far right Sweden Democrats (Sverigedemokraterna aka SD) in our Riksdag (they are now the 2nd biggest party, surpassed in size only by my party, the Social Democrats). All of the other Swedish political parties for years refused to even talk about potential issues, and most even swung hard (or maintained) to a 'let in as many as possible' stance. This allowed the Sweden Democrats to enter the Riksdag (our unicameral national parliament) in 2010, and then to grow and grow, until they now, since the 2022 elections, are in a confidence and supply scheme with some of the centre right parties to form a government ruling majority.




The explosion of Syrian refugees during the mid 2010s (roughly 2013 to 2018), plus the surge in gang violence and murders greatly aided the rise of SD, and also, finally changed the stances of many of the other political parties to retract much of the 'bring in as many as you want'.

Sweden, for 6 decades plus post WWII, was either first, second or third on the planet in terms of wealth equality, which is the number one interlocking statistic that determines the social-political health of a nation. We now have allowed a semi-to-perhaps permanent underclass to bloom within the immigrant cohort. We have done such a poor job at integration (as I already stated) and it is not aided by so many of the refugees who detest our pluralistic, tolerant, pro woman-empowerment, pro-LGBTQ Swedish culture, and also not aided by the ones who also detest democracy overall. It is a tragedy that is negatively impacting so many, especially the younger refugees, who preyed upon by the gangs and the religious radicals.

I have posted on this whole thing dozens of times in my 6 and half plus years here on DU.