While the 163,000 asylum-seekers who entered Sweden last year have been a boon for the country’s low income and temporary housing contractors, the jury is still out on whether the immigrants have helped the country’s economy.

Meanwhile, the government’s Migration Board wants to provide modular housing for 2,000 on the little island of Ivon, on Lake Ivonsjon, in Sweden’s southernmost province of Scania, as sputniknews informs MHProNews.

The 137 inhabitants are less than pleased. Hoping that planning permission for so many homes will never be granted, Kristianstad Mayor Pierre Månsson said, “It feels more like an April Fool’s joke, and we will do everything we can to stop such a large housing scheme.”

The company Svenska Semesterhem is trying to take advantage of the lucrative new housing contracts the Migration Board has offered to private companies.

Ivön island is designated a Natura 2000 site, requiring higher environmental protection standards under a project mandating the strict regulation of sewage disposal. Additionally, the ferry that serves the mainland could not meet the demands of so many more people.

Meanwhile, 30 of the country’s largest home builders billed the Swedish government for around $100 million. ##

(Photo credit: AFP/Jonathan Nackstrand-refugees in Sweden)

Article submitted by Matthew J Silver to Daily Business News-MHProNews.