How Other Countries Deal With Immigration

Though it’s made an exception for asylum seekers from Syria, Sweden typically grants access to only few immigrants — but the access comes with comprehensive rights and support. The strategy is called mainstreaming, and it has garnered Sweden the top ranking in the Migrant Policy Group’s comprehensive Migrant Integration Policy Index. 
Swedes provide interpreters and Swedish-as-a-second-language courses to immigrant schoolchildren, and they give adults orientation programs at work and opportunities to learn Swedish. Special interest groups foster political participation among newcomers. Sweden’s strategy “is about overcoming barriers to the mainstream system, as opposed to creating alternate pathways,” says Madeleine Sumption, director of research at the Migration Policy Institute. 
Meaning the Swedish government tries to ensure that those who come thrive. Studies that show countries that follow an integration pathway tend to reap benefits for everyone, like higher economic growth and levels of entrepreneurship and innovation.
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