SWEDEN

Reinfeldt's aide counters: Immigration was a big mistake
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Anders Borg who was finance minister in Fredrik "open your hearts" Reinfeldt's government is now crawling to the cross and says that they made big mistakes with their migration policy. Furthermore, the former M summit singles out Muslims as a major problem when it comes to integration.

After the election loss in 2014, Anders Borg participated in an interview with Sweden's Radio Ekot where he defended the "open your hearts" policy and also tried to sell mass immigration as a recipe for success by looking at what he himself saw on the streets during his visits to New York and London .

READ ALSO: Reinfeldt: Sweden has not failed with immigration

- A multicultural society is an effective and strong society. There is now a very strange debate in Sweden as if it is a problem if people immigrate here. I think it is a great advantage that tens of thousands of people have come from Syria, Iraq, Iran and Somalia. They contribute to making Sweden better and to a more dynamic and exciting society, Borg told SR in 2014.

In another speech at The Peterson Institute for International Economics in 2015, Anders Borg presented it as a recipe for success when the US starts a war - because Sweden then receives refugees.


But in an interview with Expressen on Saturday, Anders Borg, the coalition government's finance minister between 2006 and 2014, has a completely new view of immigration to Sweden.

Borg, who is now active in business, says that his dream of creating a multicultural kingdom of happiness in Sweden has changed.

- The whole of Sweden has reconsidered its view on these issues. So it's clear that my vision has also shifted. The costs of immigration have become significantly greater than we thought, Borg previously told Expressen.

But despite this, Borg is still adamant that he is convinced that immigration enriches Sweden. According to him, it's really just about the size of the migration.

There is, however, a particular problem with immigration to Sweden, and that is Muslims. The former finance minister singles out immigration from the Middle East and North Africa as very difficult to integrate into Swedish society.

- We made mistakes, quite big mistakes, and it will take quite a long time to fix it. Now we have to have a migration that is significantly smaller, notes Borg.