"Eventually people will enter a community, become citizens and taxpayers and start contributing. During the period of two, three or maybe four years, it is not entirely unreasonable that not everything that has been built up by the country's inhabitants is automatically shared by the newcomers starting from day one,", he told, proposing to withdraw parental allowance or child benefits for immigrants.
At the same time Göran Persson encouraged the continuation of the ongoing immigration policy.
"My general opinion is that immigration to Sweden is one of the explanations why everything has been going so well for the country. Last fall, things went a bit too fast, as too many came in at once. But we should for God's sake not shut the door, as this is going to be detrimental for us all," he said.
"This is bound to run into economic problems and political tensions. There is nothing as dangerous as a nation turning back and looking at what happened 30, 40, 50 years ago. I'm scared of Europe turning backward, because then World War II is coming back," he said, criticizing the ageeing countries' fear of migration.
The 67-year-old Göran Persson, who himself recently turned pensioner, served as Sweden's PM from 1996 to 2006 and was the leader of the Socialist Democratic Party from 1996 to 2007. At present, he works as a PR consultant.
