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IMMIGRATION

New job-seeker visa in Swedish government’s bid to overhaul work permits

The Swedish government is pushing ahead with new proposals to tighten work permit rules, including measures to crack down on "talent deportation" and a new visa for highly educated job-seekers.

Published: 22 December 2021 12:36 CET
New job-seeker visa in Swedish government's bid to overhaul work permits
Sweden's new Integration and Migration Minister Anders Ygeman. Photo: Jessica Gow/TT

In a draft bill, the government suggests introducing a new residence permit of up to nine months for well-qualified international talent to look for work or explore starting a business in Sweden.

The applicant should have completed the equivalent of a degree at “advanced level” – which in Sweden counts as studies beyond a Bachelor’s degree – and have enough means to support themselves while they look for work in Sweden.

They also need to have enough funds to cover their return journey, as well as health insurance.

The proposals were presented by Integration and Migration Minister Anders Ygeman at a press conference on Wednesday morning, but had not yet been published in full at the time of writing.

According to the government’s statement outlining the key points, the draft bill also proposes introducing new measures to clamp down on so-called “talent deportation” – which became an issue in 2017 when many work permit holders got their permit renewal rejected over relatively minor administrative mistakes, often committed by their employer and often in good faith.

The government states that “work permits should not have to be revoked in the event of minor deviations or if revoking it does not appear reasonable in view of the circumstances”. No further examples of such deviations or unreasonable rejections were immediately available.

In order to prevent exploitation of immigrant workers, Ygeman said the government also proposes that a binding contract has to be signed in order for workers to be granted a permit. If the conditions change for the worse, the employer will have to report it to the Migration Agency.

The Migration Agency should also be able to fine employers who don’t submit information.

The government also wants to introduce a new maintenance requirement for work permit holders’ families, and make permits issued on false premises punishable as human trafficking.

The proposals are based on previous inquiries into overhauling Sweden’s labour migration laws, which the government is now moving forward with. The bill will first get sent to parliament’s Council on Legislation for comment before it can be put to a vote and come into force.

The new rules are, if approved, set to come into effect on June 1st 2022.

Ygeman said they were the first in a series of new bills to revamp labour migration.

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WORK PERMITS

Employer group: work permit threshold ‘has no place in Swedish labour model’

Sweden's main employers' group has attacked a proposal to exempt some jobs from a new minimum salary for work permits, saying it was "unacceptable" political interference in the labour model and risked seriously affecting national competitiveness.

Published: 25 April 2024 17:37 CEST
Employer group: work permit threshold 'has no place in Swedish labour model'

The Confederation of Swedish Enterprise said in its response to the government’s consultation, submitted on Thursday afternoon, that it not only opposed the proposal to raise the minimum salary for a work permit to Sweden’s median salary (currently 34,200 kronor a month), but also opposed plans to exempt some professions from the higher threshold. 

“To place barriers in the way of talent recruitment by bringing in a highly political salary threshold in combination with labour market testing is going to worsen the conditions for Swedish enterprise in both the short and the long term, and risks leading to increased fraud and abuse,” the employer’s group said.   

The group, which represents businesses across most of Sweden’s industries, has been critical of the plans to further raise the salary threshold for work permits from the start, with the organisation’s deputy director general, Karin Johansson, telling The Local this week that more than half of those affected by the higher threshold would be skilled graduate recruits Swedish businesses sorely need.   

But the fact that it has not only rejected the higher salary threshold, but also the proposed system of exemptions, will nonetheless come as a blow to Sweden’s government, and particular the Moderate Party led by Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, which has long claimed to be the party of business. 

The confederation complained that the model proposed in the conclusions of the government inquiry published in February would give the government and political parties a powerful new role in setting salary conditions, underming the country’s treasured system of collective bargaining. 

The proposal for the higher salary threshold, was, the confederation argued, “wrong in principal” and did “not belong in the Swedish labour market”. 

“That the state should decide on the minimum salary for certain foreign employees is an unacceptable interference in the Swedish collective bargaining model, where the parties [unions and employers] weigh up various needs and interested in negotiations,” it wrote. 

In addition, the confederation argued that the proposed system where the Sweden Public Employment Service and the Migration Agency draw up a list of exempted jobs, which would then be vetted by the government, signified the return of the old system of labour market testing which was abolished in 2008.

“The government agency-based labour market testing was scrapped because of it ineffectiveness, and because it was unreasonable that government agencies were given influence over company recruitment,” the confederation wrote. 

“The system meant long handling times, arbitrariness, uncertainty for employers and employees, as well as an indirect union veto,” it added. “Nothing suggests it will work better this time.” 

For a start, it said, the Public Employment Service’s list of professions was inexact and outdated, with only 179 professions listed, compared to 430 monitored by Statistics Sweden. This was particularly the case for new skilled roles within industries like battery manufacturing. 

“New professions or smaller professions are not caught up by the classification system, which among other things is going to make it harder to recruit in sectors which are important for the green industrial transition,” the confederation warned. 

Rather than implement the proposals outlined in the inquiry’s conclusions, it concluded, the government should instead begin work on a new national strategy for international recruitment. 

“Sweden instead needs a national strategy aimed at creating better conditions for Swedish businesses to be able to attract, recruit and retain international competence.”

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