Some time ago, I read an analysis on why left-wing parties were allegedly more successful in Scandinavia than other parts of Europe. It claimed that, for all their pro-social domestic policy, they weren’t as immigrant-friendly as many other left-wing parties. Supposedly, that approach helped undermined the narrative that “I have nothing, yet these immigrants come here to get stuff for free at my expense.” By putting their own country’s needs first, they won over voters that worried they were being screwed over.

I have no way to verify how accurate that analysis was, nor do I have any sense of how dated it might be, so I’ll be sceptical, but the idea stuck with me. I can’t really blame people for putting their own needs first, and I wonder how much that influences the popularity of right-wing parties all around.

Of course, health care should be a universal good anyway and the US system definitely needs fixing, but I can understand how the “freeloader immigrant” propaganda would work on people suffering from that system – misery breeds bigotry and all.