Attitudes toward immigration

[Meticulous Man]

How big an issue is immigration from outside the West in your country (assuming you are a Westerner) and how well do you perceive integration to have succeeded?

Here in Finland, the immigration issue has not been perceived important enough for a large ultranationalist movement to grow, I think. The most prominent organization in this field that I know of is Suomen Sisu, which I think has a core of only some 100 members or less. A notable personality is Jussi Halla-Aho, an Internet demagogue with a PhD in Slavic and Baltic studies or somesuch who now is running for a seat in the parliament.

I have personally once seen immigrant teens beat up a person here in Helsinki. The victim was a middle-aged man who, at a metro station, started shouting racial slurs at a gang of teenagers who I think were from the Balkans. The guy was visibly drunk and seemed to actively seek confrontation and didn't retreat though I think he had many possibilities to do so. Finally the teens followed him into the metro train and beat him up rather brutally. That was obviously a crime, but I wonder how large a share of the violent crimes committed by foreigners towards natives that you often hear about are due to this kind of provocation from the native population's side.

I live in one of the parts of Helsinki that are most thickly populated by immigrants (that means some 15-20% of the residents are of foreign origin, nothing like what I've heard you have in the rest of Europe) and I've personally never experienced any trouble because of them. I've also worked as a cashier at different locations in the city for half a year and haven't seen immigrants in particular cause noticeable trouble.

[Dinner]

OVer all immigration is good though it needs to be spaced out so as to allow for integration to occur. I'm especially worried about possible terrorism threats which makes me lean towards not accepting immigration whole sale from the muslim world. At least not until the terrorism wave passes.

From the parts of the world where there isn't a terrorist threat though. And if the immigrants are skilled in things we need then.

Now if they're just lazy bastards who want to spunge off the system (and that does happen).

I also think it is the immigrants job to try to fit into his new society. Activities which run counter to basic western values should not be tolerated (female genital mutilation, forcing women to wear burkas or head coverings, etc...) and doing such things should be grounds for refusing to admit such people.