LostInTheWoods

After a long discussions with Leslie regarding immigrants from Mexico making their way into the US and not learning the language, I thought I would share my meeting of a Mexican guy here in Sweden.

He works for SAAB, and it seems a few do. His English is word perfect, with no accent, and his conversational Swedish is much better than mine even though he has been learning for only a fraction of the time I have (I hate him.....).

But I know it is only the middle class well educated Mexicans that are likely to be found in Europe. I am guessing most of the people from Mexico trying to get across the US border are economic migrants. If there was less of an economic imbalance in the world, people would be more likely to stay where they are. We can either share the planets wealth and resources, or we can fence ourselves in.

I know this is an over simplification of the problem, but the UK has recently had a huge influx of Polish workers, doing all the jobs Brits wont do (sounds familiar). But the prediction is, as Poland's economy grows, many will return to Poland and create a skills vacuum in the UK. So economic inequality does seem to be major factor in economic migration.

As I have hinted before, most of the immigrants at my school are fleeing war and oppression, and maybe they are pleased that they now live in a country with a more powerful, stable economy. But, I am sure some would prefer to live in their home land, surrounded by familiar things and culture, and something I can relate to; their extended family.

The Mexican guy I have met, I can bet will work his way around the world and may head back to Mexico at some point. Where Swedish may not be very useful and by then he may have learnt a few more minority languages along the way... Git.

That is all.

LostInTheWoods