The Country of Sweden

Sweden, a primarily secular country, a capitalistic society, an Eden of culture and progress, is where I was honored to learn and live for the past two weeks. At my home stay in Landskrona, Sweden, I had the opportunity to talk to a local college student. Her name is Tanya, and she is a friend of my home stay family. We were able to talk about many issues and benefits in the country of Sweden.

After World War II, Sweden was very welcoming to immigration, but recently it has become more and more of a problem here. Most immigrants come from places such as Iraq, Iran, Albania, and other countries suffering from war. These people all flood to the same neighborhoods in cities, causing some problems with the locals. While most people in Sweden don’t mind the immigrants, others have grown to dislike these new residents. As Tanya put it, people see these ethnic neighborhoods as slums or so called bad areas in town. This causes most people to avoid areas or towns with immigrants and these ethnic neighborhoods. Strife with immigrants has prompted a new political party in Sweden, whose aim is to close the borders to immigrants.

As some parts of the Swedish government are trying to close borders, other parts are a great help to the lives of the Swedish people. I was amazed to hear from Tanya that every part of school is free This means that school lunches are free, school trips are free, and every course fee is free. Some even get paid money each month to go to school. This system is extends to colleges and universities. The government has made school a resource available to each and every citizen to produce a well-educated population. Beyond school, heath care is free and insurance is nonexistent. Women are always paid from the government when on maternity leave from work, and the husband is paid during this time. The negative side to all of these benefits is that residents must pay high taxes and the cost of living is also higher.

This country, like any other, has issues, but it is also a beautiful and progressive place. I believe I can speak for the whole delegation when I say we will all miss this country and culture.