I live in Solna, a municipality just north of the city of Stockholm. In 2006 Solna had 61,000 residents. We received a special section of the newspaper the other day that described the ongoing projects underway in the city.
Construction of a new national sports arena with 65,000 seats that will also incorporate one of the biggest shopping malls in the country, 2000 housing units, a hotel, and the head office of the nation’s water company. Cost:280 million US dollars.
Construction of a new housing area to include 4000 new homes, apartments, restaurants, boutiques etc.
Expansion of Karolinska Hospital and Medical Research and Teaching Complex, creating 35,000 new jobs and 5500 new homes. This includes a major expansion of the hospital itself, and building of a number of private bioresearch companies.
The New Karolinska Hospital and Biomedical Research Center
Expansion of the cities transportation system with the addition of two new tram lines creating a better link between the hospital and the city of Stockholm and another line into Solna Business park.
Järvastaden, previously industrial land is being converted into a new housing developement of 4000 new homes, shops, parks, schools…etc.
Ulriksdahl another area of residential development with 1500 new housing units being built.
Another office complex near the bioresearch center to include 700 new housing units and 480,000 sqft of office space
Renovation of Solna centrum, the mall across the street from me that already has 120 shops or so to include 20,000 more sqft of shops and even more housing units.
Lets see that is over 16000 new housing units, thousands of jobs, hundreds of new businesses, tons of environmentally friendly public transportation and even Crown Princess Victoria is moving here after she gets hitched next month, yippee doo!
All this growth in an area 1/3 the size of Norwalk (for those of you who know how big that is). All this growth in just Solna.
If you ask me there is one thing and only one important thing that is driving this huge boom in the Swedish economy…a huge housing shortage due to a progressive immigration policy. The population of Sweden is booming because they are taking in all of the world’s refugees by the thousands every day. Think about it.
Send this to someone you know who thinks that the US should shut its doors tighter (or just to the entire state of Arizona). We experienced huge growth when the tired and poor came to build the country a hundred years ago, why shut them so tight now?
Yesterday’s newspaper stated that the job outlook for young Swedes in the next ten years is good as a huge number of folks born in the 40’s begin to retire. In fact, Sweden is relying on immigration to help fill the job gap and to help support the growing numbers that will soon fill the state pension rolls.
It was reported years ago that a Washington bureaucrat sent a letter to the state of New Mexico requesting the number of cattle guards in the state. The state promptly responded and was told by Washington, “That’s too many. You’ll have to fire about half of them.”
people often only look at the negative on an issue. Immigration can provide a lot of benefits and it can cause difficulties. Simply shutting the doors is not the option.