Sweden

The cost of Sweden’s generous asylum policy can now be seen in its unemployment data (not just the rising crime rate). While a reinvigorated economy is driving down the overall jobless rate, Bloomberg notes that recent arrivals are being left behind as the majority of Sweden’s unemployed are now foreigners, up from about 40% two years ago. 

Number of people born outside Sweden registered as unemployed was 188,000 in March vs total number of 372,000...

While Sweden's seemingly self-imposed refugee crisis continues to roil the nation's population, it appears a different and potentially just as problematic social unrest looms. As Gatestone reports, for the last few years, immigration-welcoming Sweden has been overwhelmed with Roma beggars from Romania and Bulgaria who have turned "panhandling into an occupation."

Uppsala is Sweden’s fourth largest city with around 150,000 people.

That means more migrants entered the country last year than there are people in Uppsala. On a per capita basis, Sweden lets in more refugees than any other country in the EU. At 20,000 asylum applications per million people, the rate is twice that of Germany.

Sweden is too generous for its own good as the country most beloved by Bernie Sanders is pressured by huge migrant flows. As Bloomberg reports, when it comes to wealth, health and hospitality, Sweden has few rivals. But the same qualities that make the country a beacon of hope for the world’s huddled masses are straining it at the seams.

It was just a little over a week ago when we reported that Sweden had begun a 5-year countdown to becoming a cashless utopia.

As The Local reported, “cash transactions today represent no more than two percent of the value of all payments made in Sweden, [and that estimate] will drop to below 0.5 percent within the next five years.”