• alleycat@feddit.org
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    5 days ago

    “If, for example, you ignore paying your debts, if you don’t comply with decisions from Swedish authorities, if you cheat the benefits system, if you cheat your way to a Swedish residence permit… then you do not have the right to be here,” Forssell said.

    Other examples the government cited as examples included working without paying taxes or not paying fines.

    “Just don’t be poor.”

    “Statements – that is, things a person says or expresses – should not in themselves be regarded as evidence of lack of honest living, but they may be an indication of, for example, links to violent extremism, which can then be a sign of deficient character,” Ludvig Aspling, migration policy spokesman for the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats which is propping up the government, told reporters.

    Absolutely dystopian.

    • Pip@feddit.org
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      5 days ago

      Please stop equating being poor with being fraudulent and criminal. The list of fraudulent behavior has nothing to do with being poor.

      And fighting violent extremism is in no way dystopian.

      • Tiresia@slrpnk.net
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        5 days ago

        “The law in its majestic equality forbids both the poor and the rich from sleeping under bridges, beg in the streets and steal loaves of bread.”

        - Anatole France

        In the Netherlands, there was a massive scandal a few years back where the government had declared thousands of migrants to be fraudulent based on an automated system that used their ethnicity as sufficient cause, driving those people into debt and forcing many to work illegally to avoid homelessness.

        Please develop some class consciousness. They will come for you too when the exploitation of those below you no longer satisfies their lust for power.

      • Mirror Giraffe@piefed.social
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        5 days ago

        These guys are not in any way stopping att violent extremism.

        The guy on the photo, Johan Forssell, had advocated - and slammed on social media - that we should send home entire families based on a single individuals crime. Yet when his own son was found to be part of a violent nazi organisation it was handled like a case of boys will be boys. He’s constantly generalising over immigrants and yet he’s only part of the conservative party that have been paving the way, openly, for the party that started as a nazi party in the 90s, in order to get to power.

        These changes might look harmless but these fucks are just power hungry sell-outs that have decided that nazis are fit to rule if it allows themselves to stay mildly relevant.

        There is no current definition of honest living and everyone from the ruling parties that was asked about it have answered wildly different.

      • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
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        5 days ago

        And fighting violent extremism is in no way dystopian.

        Violent extremism like checks notes opposing Israeli colonialism. See: Germany.

      • doleo@lemmy.one
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        5 days ago

        And fighting violent extremism is in no way dystopian.

        Sweden going to cut ties with the USA, then?

    • DigitalAudio@sopuli.xyz
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      5 days ago

      Nah man, I’m poor as fuck right now, I barely make minimum wage, but I properly file my taxes and you know what? Because the system in my country is good, I don’t have to break the bank to do so either.

      Fraud, debt evasion, tax evasion etc are not a consequence of poverty and instead do affect all other people who do things right. You can’t benefit from tax money and from the system if you’re actively cheating it.

      • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
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        5 days ago

        Fraud, debt evasion, tax evasion etc are not a consequence of poverty

        Except poverty is the single best predictor for crime. Also laws like these can be and are used in combination with purposely obtuse laws and bureaucratic barriers to harass immigrants who didn’t do anything wrong. The debts thing in particular reminds me of Japan, where paying a bill late for any reason (even if it’s not your fault) can be used as reason to deny PR and give shorter visas. You should question the motivations of politicians more.

        • Pip@feddit.org
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          5 days ago

          Isn’t extraordinary wealth the single best predictor for crime?

        • DigitalAudio@sopuli.xyz
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          5 days ago

          But then if poverty is the best predictor for crime, that begs the question why would any country want people who are inherently more prone to crime in the first place?

          Wouldn’t it make more sense to precisely discourage that type of immigration if you were trying to bring crime down?

          The thing about Japan is complex for several reasons. On the one hand, late payments only affect your PR application if they took place within the last two years. So it’s not like you’ll be perma-banned from the PR if you paid your National Health Insurance slip late once because you forgot.

          But if you do pay late consistently, that’s when it affects your PR. And again, you need to be consistent for two years to be eligible again.

          • 🌞 Alexander Daychilde 🌞@lemmy.world
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            5 days ago

            why would any country want people who are inherently more prone to crime in the first place?

            Have you not heard of people trying to escape war or death threats? Countries love to gain highly educated immigrants, but many countries also open their doors in cases of need. And more typically, those tend to be poorer folks. That said, at least for the US, undocumented immigrants tend to commit less crime, although poverty is also a big factor in predicting crime. But it’s complicated and rather more nuanced than simple little pat phrases.

          • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
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            5 days ago

            But then if poverty is the best predictor for crime, that begs the question why would any country want people who are inherently more prone to crime in the first place?

            Labor? Something something declining birth rates. It’s not like flipping burgers in Berlin or Stockholm will let one live in anything but poverty conditions. That’s what needs to change if you want to reduce crime, not heavy handed enforcement that’s almost always just going to be used as an excuse to harass immigrants. I’m not clear on the details of the Swedish immigration system, but European immigration systems in general definitely don’t need to be more draconian; it’s a solution looking for a problem.

            The thing about Japan is complex for several reasons. On the one hand, late payments only affect your PR application if they took place within the last two years.

            “Oops, your bill came late, no PR for you for two years” isn’t my idea of a fair or productive system.

      • John Richard@lemmy.world
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        5 days ago

        Imagine thinking US tax dollars impact people doing the right thing. If you mean using their own tax dollars to make them poorer & bombing innocent people maybe.

    • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
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      5 days ago

      Poor people have a smaller tax burden for their socialized healthcare. “Don’t pay taxes” isn’t a “poor” thing.