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Record numbers emigrating from Sweden

A record number of people emigrated from Sweden last year, with double the amount leaving the country compared to 30 years ago.

Published: 12 October 2016 14:45 CEST

Record numbers emigrating from Sweden

A Swedish passport. Photo: Christine Olsson/TT

Citing figures from state-funded number crunchers Statistics Sweden (SCB), newspaper Dagens Nyheter reports that 55,830 people emigrated from the Nordic nation in 2015.

That is even more than during the height of Swedish mass emigration to the US in the 1800s, when poverty-stricken Swedes left in pursuit of a better life. The largest amount of people to leave in a single year during that time period was 50,786 in 1887.

The total population of Sweden in 1887 was 4.73 million however, less than half of the current population of 9.85 million.

A key reason for 2015’s surge in exits was an increase in foreign-born residents in Sweden opting to return home. Around 24 percent of those who left were born in Asia, for example, while ten percent were born in another Nordic country.

Less than a third of those who left were born in Sweden on the other hand, with the proportion of native Swedes leaving actually decreasing.

Other figures reflect how the economic situation in Scandinavia has changed compared to previous years. Fewer Swedes are choosing to emigrate to Norway these days, for example, which was once considered a popular and relatively straightforward option for youngsters hoping to earn a better salary compared to back home.

Emigration from Sweden to Norway has decreased by 58 percent since 2011, with fewer jobs in business, the service and fishing industries one explanation. Last year only 5073 Swedes moved to Norway officially.

At the same time, fewer Danes are opting to move across the Öresund strait, with only 1850 doing so last year. A 15-year-low, that is less than half of the 4370 Danes who moved to Sweden in 2007.

In contrast, the number of Finns moving to Sweden has grown in the last four years. The 2733 people who moved from Finland to Sweden in 2015 is the largest amount since 2005.

In September, The Local reported that Finns are by far Sweden’s biggest foreign-born community, with 156,046 of them now residing across the border.

READ ALSO: Here's where Sweden's foreigners come from

EXPLAINED: What we know about the attack on a Swedish anti-fascist meeting

What happened?

Several masked men burst into a Stockholm theatre on Wednesday night and set off smoke bombs during an anti-fascism event, according to police and participants.

Around 50 people were taking part in the event at the Moment theatre in Gubbängen, a southern suburb of the Swedish capital, organised by the Left Party and the Green Party.

“Three people were taken by ambulance to hospital,” the police said on its website, shortly after the attack.

According to Swedish media, one person was physically assaulted and two had paint sprayed in their faces.

“The Nazis attacked visitors using physical violence, with pepper spray, and vandalised the venue before throwing in some kind of smoke grenade which filled the foyer with smoke,” Expo wrote on its website.

The magazine’s head of education Klara Ljungberg was at the event in order to hold a lecture at the invitation of the two political parties.

What was the meeting about?

According to the Left Party’s press officer, the event was “a meeting about growing fascism”.

Left Party leader Nooshi Dadgostar described the event to public broadcaster SVT as an “open event, for equality among individuals”.

As well as Ljungberg from Expo, panelists at the event included anti-fascist activist Mathias Wåg, who also writes for Swedish centre-left tabloid Aftonbladet.

“They were determined and went straight for me,” Wåg told Expo just after the attack. “I received a few blows but nothing that caused serious damage.”

“I was invited to be on a panel in order to discuss anti-fascism with representatives from the Left Party and the Green Party,” he told the magazine. “I didn’t know this was going to happen, but there’s obviously a risk when Expo and I are in the same place.”

What has the reaction been like?

All of Sweden’s parties across the political spectrum have denounced the attack, with Dadgostar describing it as a “threat to our democracy” when TT newswire interviewed her at the theatre a few hours after the attack occurred.

Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, from the conservative Moderates, called the attack “abhorrent”.

The Moderates, Christian Democrats and Liberals are currently in government with the support of the far-right Sweden Democrats, while the Social Democrats, Left Party, Centre Party and Green Party are in opposition.

“It is appalling news that a meeting hosted by the Left Party has been stormed,” Kristersson told TT. “I have reached out to Nooshi Dadgostar and expressed my deepest support. This type of abhorrent action has no place in our free and open society.”

“Right-wing extremists want to scare us into silence,” Social Democrat leader Magdalena Andersson wrote on X. “They will never be allowed to succeed.”

“The attack by right-wing extremists at a political meeting is a direct attack on our democracy and freedom of speech,” Green Party co-leader Daniel Helldén wrote on X. “My thoughts are with those who were affected this evening.”

Sweden Democrat party leader Jimmie Åkesson wrote in an email to TT that “political violence is terrible, in all its forms, and does not belong in Sweden.”

“All democratic forces must stand in complete solidarity against all kinds of politically motivated violence,” he continued.

His party has previously admitted to being founded by people from “fascist movement” New Swedish Movement, skinheads, and people with “various types of neo-Nazi contact”.

“It is an attack not only on the Left Party, Green Party and the Expo Foundation, but also on our entire democratic society,” Centre Party leader Muharrem Demirok, who referred to the attackers as “Nazis”, wrote on social media. “Those affected have all my support.”

Christian Democrat leader Ebba Busch and Liberal leader Johan Pehrson both referred to the attackers as “anti-democratic forces”.

“It is never acceptable for a political meeting to be stormed by anti-democratic forces,” Busch wrote. “There is no place for this in our society.”

“Anti-democratic forces like this represent a serious threat to our democracy and must be met with society’s hardest iron fist,” Pehrson said.

What about the attackers? Has anyone been arrested?

Not yet. The police had not made any arrests at the time of writing on Thursday morning.

According to TT, police did not want to comment on who could be behind the attack.

It is currently being investigated as a violation of the Flammable and Explosive Goods Act, assault, causing danger to others and disturbing public order.

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