Sweden ranks high for expat integration

Sweden

A new study has revealed Sweden to be an excellent country with regards to expat integration.

The Migration Policy Group and the British Council recently examined the level of successful expat integration in 31 different countries, and they decided that Sweden was amongst the very best.

A number of different factors were taken into consideration when ranking the 31 countries, including employment prospects, level of discrimination, education and more. Sweden came first on the list, followed by Portugal, Canada, Finland and the Netherlands.

An analyst from the Migration Policy Group, Thomas Huddleston, noted that there had been general improvements since the previous report in 2007. Huddlestone also praised Sweden for its efforts: “Sweden’s legislation and policies are based on the idea that if you have legal status in the country, you will be treated the same as everyone else, which is very beneficial to immigrants.”

However, he also state that some countries need to do more to tackle discrimination: “Overall, although anti-discrimation laws might be in place, there is often very little help in supporting immigrants to fight against discrimination. And while immigrants can usually gain citizenship, you find there are a lot of obstacles put in their way.”