Non-Fiction Reading Response

     In the Upfront article, "No Job? Get Lost!" written by Andrew Higgens, he discusses the northern territory Svalbard, Norway. Svalbard is a very small town in an archipelago that is located 800 miles from the North Pole. The small town has a very cold temperature, with snowfall continuing into the summer. This results in having a very unique type of law. Caused by Svalbard's difficult climate and geography, there is a law where unemployment is not allowed. 

     Svalbard holds the status as Europe's closet thing to a crime free society. With a police force of only six officers and a single jail cell for an area that is twice the size of New Jersey, it seems impossible to keep a crime free zone. According to the article, "...Nobody has been locked up in the capitol, Longyearbyen, since the summer of 2013. And that was for just two days." Svalbard only handles about 100 cases a year, and most of those cases are reckless driving, and shoplifting. According to the article, the reason there is hardly any crimes, is because that unemployment is illegal. Governor Odd Olsen Ingero says, “If you don’t have a job, you can’t live here.” Higgens says that this policy is enforced by, “…deporting the jobless. Even retirees are sent away unless they can prove they can support themselves. Homelessness is also banned; all residents must have a permanent address.” Even though this law ensures less crime in the area, it is unfair. Deporting people, simply because they don’t have a job can be really hard on them, especially if they are retired and has lived their whole life in Svalbard. 

In conclusion, while reading this article, my first thoughts were about how great it must be to have a crime free area. Residents can leave their front doors open, and leave their car keys in ignitions. They don’t have to worry about robberies. This is a huge contrast to living in New York, where there are many crimes. It made me think that maybe living in Svalbard would be a safer place. However, as I read on my opinion changed. Svalbard, Norway does not seem as great of a place to live because unemployment is illegal. There would be a lot of pressure about your job, because if you lose that, you will be deployed from there. This makes me wonder, would living in a crime free zone be better?