Syrians whine about life in Sweden

Oh brother!   We have Sweden literally destroying itself with its wide open borders and these Syrian young men are whining about their miserable lives there.

One of Sweden’s Syrian refugees—how would you like some like him in your home town? A “young professional” for Casper or Gillette Wyoming perhaps? Photograph: Matilde Gattoni

From The Guardian—cold comfort indeed.  (Hat tip: ‘pungentpeppers’ who pretty much wrote this post!):

Salah Debas, 23 struggled to arrive in Sweden (smuggled in the luggage hold of a bus), but complains how unhappy he is in Sweden now that he’s there:

“I feel I am just throwing away another year of my life.“Here, on a farm-turned-residential-complex for asylum-seekers, Debas clearly struggles to adapt. “I feel like shit,” he says. “Life here is just pressure, pressure and more pressure.”

There are no jobs for Syrian young men:

The majority of those who make it [to Sweden] are young single men, whose main goal is to quickly find a job and send money to their families back in Syria. This massive movement of people has created a severe housing backlog, forcing Arbetsförmedlingen, the Swedish government’s employment agency (which also assists recent arrivals in finding accommodation and subsidises their rent) to allocate newcomers to remote and isolated villages in the north. Conditions here are tough and work hard to come by.

Big cultural differences between Europe and Syria. (Warning for Wyoming, you want “young professionals”? Don’t look to get them from Syria.):

Many of the young Syrians who arrive here are successful professionals – architects, academics and businessmen – who held a prominent place in Syrian society and, unlike economic migrants, would not have left their country if it wasn’t for the war. “They had a very good position in Syria and they want the same position here. But they will not get it,” explains Elias Kasgawa, a 47-year-old Syrian from Hassake who has lived in Sweden since 1970. Sweden and Syria are worlds apart in terms of food, weather, political systems, gender relationships and the way society is organised. “Syrians are raised in a more hierarchical way. You always have a leader figure, your parents, your relatives or your teacher,” continues Kasgawa, who lives with his family in Sweden and works as in hotel construction. “In Sweden, you don’t have many guidelines. You must develop yourself.”

Bleak outlook:

After an adventurous trip through Greece and Italy that lasted more than a month and cost him around €16,000, Giwara finally settled in Helsingborg, where he now shares a hostel with 10 other immigrants. “We have only one kitchen and one bathroom. Some of these guys have stayed in this place for 15 years,” he says. His face leaves no doubt that he fears the same fate.

‘Pungentpeppers’ directs us to a commenter at The Guardian who said this:

C’mon its not enough to simply give them a free wage, shelter, healthcare, education and citizenship. Sweden has to give them private bathrooms and kitchens in Stockholm and fulfill their career dreams.

Editor’ comment:  Here is what I don’t get about these men—why the h*** didn’t they just stay in Syria and fight for whichever side they believe in in their civil war?  Someone used a phrase to me the other day in regards to the State Department not holding hearings this year, and I shouldn’t really repeat it in light of my admonition to commenters about foul language.  But, this makes one want to swear—these men are “chickens***s!”

We have a huge archive on Sweden (click here).  My bet is on Sweden to be the first European country to crash from the immigrant invasion of Europe.  Others have their money riding on the UK or France.

 

Today’s episode of the Somali stowaway teen’s family soap opera

Actually it was Tuesday’s episode as reported by West Hawaii Today on Wednesday.

Step-mom Saiban Abdi leaves Santa Clara County family court in San Jose Tuesday, April 29, 2014. http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_25660547/father-flies-hawaii-pick-up-teen-stowaway

The step-mother, described in some accounts as the reason the Somali refugee boy stowed away on a Hawaii bound jet, was in court to defend charges that she isn’t properly taking care of an elderly uncle (taxpayers are paying her to take care of the relative).

Meanwhile, the boy’s father flew to Hawaii to retrieve his son and according to this account, he wasn’t allowed to take him back to California.  Watch for more in upcoming episodes!

From West Hawaii Today:

SAN JOSE, Calif.—The same day the father of the 15-year-old stowaway was in Hawaii trying to reunite with his runaway son, another family drama involving the teen’s stepmother unfolded Tuesday in a San Jose courtroom.

The stepmother, who had been accused by her cousin of treating her stepson “like trash,” defended herself in court against another accusation by the same man—that she didn’t properly care for an elderly uncle.

“He’s not being truthful,” Sainab Abdi said of the cousin as she stood outside the courtroom Tuesday. “Don’t believe this guy. This is wrong.”

[….]

For the family of Somali refugees, who fled their war-torn country and lived in a refugee camp before moving to America, it’s been a tough 10 days in their adopted home.

Cousin claims she was neglecting elderly Uncle, but the judge dismissed his petition.

The stepmother’s cousin, Mukhtar Guled—a San Jose insurance agent and security guard—told this newspaper last week that Yahya was unhappy at home because his stepmother, Sainab Abdi, treated his six youngest siblings like “king and queens,” but that Yahya and his older sister and younger brother with a different mother were treated poorly.

On Tuesday, Abdi defended herself, saying Guled had an ulterior motive to make her look like a bad person: He was losing his battle to care for his uncle and be in charge of his affairs—a job that Abdi held until last week and came with $600 a month in government assistance.

Teen is in the custody of Hawaiian social service agency.

Meanwhile, it was unclear when Yahya’s father, Abdulahi Abdi Yusuf, would be able to return home with his son. An e-mail sent to the Hawaii Department of Human Services was not returned. The teenager has been in the agency’s custody since shortly after he was found on the Maui tarmac. His father has said he was being treated for breathing difficulties at a Honolulu hospital.

I feel sorry for this kid and I feel sorry for the US taxpayer.  As I said previously, the new Somali government is looking for Somalis to return from the diaspora, maybe this family could sort out their domestic problems back home.

Refugee Resettlement Watch readership grows every month

I think this issue is beginning to resonate with people around the country and around the world.  For new readers, we have been blogging since 2007, but just about a year ago at this time readership took a huge leap forward and every month we add subscribers and visitors to our facebook page.

Our goal is to add one new subscriber a day, but in April we added 85 bringing our regular subscriber number to 1,220.  That sounds modest and by big-blog standards it is, however, for a narrowly focused blog, we are thrilled.    And, last week alone our facebook page reached 22,551 visitors (this week it is over 27,000 already!).

A month ago I made this report on how we are doing.  In that post I reported on the top countries from which our readers are coming.

In a post the other day I said I would tell you what our top most-visited posts of all time are, so here we go with the top five:

Fact Sheet is number one with 46,581 visitors.  Followed by:

How did we get so many Somalis….  (22,727)

Why so many Somalis in Minneapolis (23,360)

Asylum seekers head for Israel (12,718)

They are fighting back in Sweden (12,466)

Our “About” description is important for new readers to see as well.  I hadn’t read it for years, but it is still operative, except maybe my cynicism has grown!

Because we are getting so many new readers, let me direct you to first the fact sheet, then if you are trying to find other available reports and documents check out our ‘where to find information’ category.

We have an excellent search function and if you would like to know if we have written on a certain subject, a person, an organization, or a location, type a key word or two into the search field to see if we have covered the topic over the last nearly 7 years.

Note to commenters!  We review our comments before posting, so keep them free of foul language or any suggestion that anyone should be harmed in any way, and don’t call people names, that is what the leftists do when they can’t argue with facts!  If there is a delay in posting your appropriate comment, then it is because I am away from the computer.

If you don’t want to become a subscriber (upper left), then follow us on facebook or twitter (AnnC@RefugeeWatcher).

Thanks for your continued loyalty!

Update May 3:  I see that as of today we have posted 5,555 posts since launching RRW in 2007.