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SWEDISH CITIZENSHIP

How does Sweden’s new government want to change migration policy?

Tougher work permit requirements, a longer qualifying period for citizenship, permanent residency abolished, limits to family reunion, and a system of 'return migration': how will the policies in the new "Agreement for Sweden" affect foreigners?

Published: 14 October 2022 16:39 CEST
Updated: 18 October 2022 14:45 CEST
How does Sweden's new government want to change migration policy?
Parliamentary speaker Andreas Norlén and Moderate Party leader Ulf Kristersson at a press conference announcing the coalition government's policy. Photo: Jonas Ekströmer/TT

Work permits

The minimum wage for work permits will be hiked, most likely to the level of a median salary in Sweden, although the final figure has not yet been confirmed. A median salary is currently 33,200 kronor, meaning the measure will quite drastically reduce the number of people coming to Sweden to work. The current minimum wage for work permit applicants is 13,000 kronor a month before tax.

The parties will also look into developing a special possibility for residency for PhDs and researchers, which will be a welcome policy for many international PhD students affected by immigration laws for PhD students and researchers introduced in July last year.

The new government will also consider making EU citizens once again need to register if in Sweden longer than three months. 

Asylum

The parties intend to tighten asylum legislation to the “minimum level” allowed under European Union law or other international treaties to which Sweden is a signatory, with an inquiry into changes to asylum and immigration law launched next spring with the aim of passing a new law in parliament before the mandate period comes to an end in 2026.

Sweden Democrat leader Jimmie Åkesson said at the press conference that the agreement represented a “paradigm shift” in migration policy. 

The new law and its preparations will include:

  • An analysis of how asylum-processing ‘transit zones’ have been implemented in other “countries in the EU and other comparable countries”. 
  • An inquiry into whether asylum seekers could be held in transit centres while their asylum applications are being handled, and analyse whether such centres are possible under European Convention on Human Rights and Swedish Constitution. 
  • The inquiry will look into where such transit centres could be established and whose control they would need to be under, (although not mentioned in the agreement, this appears to be about the possibility for overseas processing centres such as those Denmark has been trying to establish in Rwanda or another third country). 
  • It will look into withdrawing residency from asylum seekers, or those with “alternative protection”, “if the original grounds for asylum no longer apply, for instance if a conflict has ended”.
  • It will look into abolishing permanent residency as a concept under Swedish law, in favour of temporary residence permits (the government has since confirmed that this will only apply to asylum seekers). 
  • A reduction in the scope for family reunion for those with residency in Sweden to the minimum circle of relatives allowed under EU law. This includes a spouse, domestic partner, or registered partner, and any children under 18 years of age. It excludes adult children, parents, grandparents, siblings, and all other relatives.

Citizenship 

Sweden Democrat proposals on extending the time it takes to qualify for citizenship have also made their way into this policy document, with the current limit of 5 years (3 years for spouses or cohabiting partners of Swedish citizens) extended to 8 years “in the normal case”.

It’s not clear what, if any, exceptions there will be for citizenship applications, or whether those married to a Swede or with Swedish children will have a reduced wait. 

The parties also want to launch an inquiry into tougher requirements for knowledge of Swedish culture and society for citizenship. They did not specifically mention introducing language or culture tests, but it is likely that these would be introduced if a knowledge requirement was deemed necessary.

On top of this, they want to introduce a demand that anyone applying for Swedish citizenship can support themselves financially, although again, they did not mention how much money applicants would have to have to qualify for this requirement.

They will also investigate the possibility of introducing a new obligatory ceremony, such as an ‘oath of loyalty’ or a citizenship interview which would act as the final stage in citizenship process.

Finally, they want to look into the possibility of withdrawing citizenship from dual citizens who carry out “system-threatening crimes”, or whose citizenship was granted on false premises. 

Return migration

Återvandring, or “return migration” was also included in the policy document, with the parties pledging to study any legislation developed in other countries to stimulate the return of migrants to their countries of origin. 

Sweden already offers grants to refugees wanting to return to their home countries, but the parties want to look into extending this, including analysing the possibility of offering economic incentives to migrants in order to encourage them to return home, as well as how Sweden could coordinate with destination countries.

It is not clear whether these economic incentives would only be offered to refugees, or whether they would apply to all migrants in Sweden.

Finally, the parties want to establish, through a socio-economic analysis of integration, “which conditions should be a basis of receiving support for return migration”. 

Member comments

  1. Does all the policies mentioned in the 63 page proposal will be put in to inquiry stage in Spring 2023? How long the inquiry duration would normally last and would probably come in to effect?

  2. As someone fresh to Sweden I see nothing wrong with the citizenship requirements, coming here for 5 years and speaking zero swedish/knowing nothing of the culture or country and you can be a citizen always seemed absurd

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For members

INSIDE SWEDEN

Inside Sweden: Why troll factory won’t spark a government crisis

The Local's editor Emma Löfgren rounds up the biggest stories of the week in our Inside Sweden newsletter.

Published: 18 May 2024 09:22 CEST
Inside Sweden: Why troll factory won't spark a government crisis

Hej,

News that the Sweden Democrats are operating a far-right troll factory – which among other things the party uses to smear political opponents as well as its supposed allies – has caused probably the biggest rift yet between them and the three other parties that make up Sweden’s ruling coalition.

The leaders of the Moderates, Christian Democrats and Liberals all strongly criticised the Sweden Democrats’ blatant violation of the so-called “respect clause” in their Tidö collaboration agreement – the clause that states that the four parties should speak respectfully of each other in the media.

But after crisis talks held on Thursday, the conflict appears to be dying down.

The Sweden Democrats hit out strongly at the TV4 Kalla Fakta documentary where the troll factory was revealed, calling it a smear campaign and disinformation, but simultaneously went as far as to confirm that they do run anonymous social media accounts for which they refused to apologise.

They did say sorry to the Tidö parties for including them in the smear campaigns, and promised to remove some of the posts that had offended the other three parties, plus reassign a couple of members of staff to other duties until they’ve been given training on the Tidö “respect clause”.

But that doesn’t remove the fact that they vowed to continue the anonymous social media accounts whose existence they had prior to the documentary consistently denied, or the fact that some of the social media posts shared not only vague anti-immigration content, but white power propaganda.

The Liberals took the row the furthest, with Liberal leader Johan Pehrson describing people in his party as skitförbannade – pissed off as hell. He said ahead of the crisis meeting that they would demand that the Sweden Democrats cease all anonymous posting, which the latter rejected.

The party had two choices: walk out of the government collaboration and possibly spark a snap election, or walk back its strong words ahead of the meeting and wait for it to blow over.

They chose a kind of middle way, and called for an inquiry to be launched into banning political parties from operating anonymous social media accounts. The Social Democrats immediately accused the Liberals of trying to “bury the issue in an inquiry” – a classic Swedish political method of indecisive conflict avoidance which the Social Democrats themselves are well familiar with.

The Christian Democrats and Moderates both said that the Sweden Democrats had accepted their criticism and welcomed the party’s reshuffling of staff within its communications department, adding that it still had to prove its commitment to the Tidö agreement going forward.

So why isn’t this causing a bigger government crisis?

We asked Evelyn Jones, a politics reporter for the Dagens Nyheter daily, to come on the Sweden in Focus podcast to explain it to us:

“The Sweden Democrats are the biggest party in this coalition, even though they’re not part of the government. So the government really needs them. It’s hard for them to just stop cooperating with the Sweden Democrats,” she said.

“The cooperation between the government parties and the Sweden Democrats has been going pretty smoothly since the last election – more smoothly than a lot of people thought. This is probably the biggest crisis so far, but how big it is, is hard to say.”

You can listen to the full interview with her and the rest of the Sweden in Focus podcast here. 

In other news

If you are a descendant of a Sweden-born person and would like to find out more about them, there are ways to do that. I wrote this week about how to research your Swedish ancestry.

That guide was prompted by my interview with the chair of a community history group in a small parish in north-central Sweden, which has tried to get to the bottom of rumours that US mega star Taylor Swift’s ancestors hail from their village. I had so much fun writing this article.

The EU elections will be held on June 9th, but advance voting begins next week in Sweden. And poll cards are already being sent out, so if you’re eligible to vote you should receive yours soon.

Sweden’s consumer price index fell to 3.9 percent in April, below 4.0 percent for the first time in two years, reinforcing predictions that the central bank will keep lowering interest rates.

Sweden’s four-party government bloc has broken with the other parties in a parliamentary committee on public service broadcasting, adding what the opposition complains are “radically changed” proposals. How shocking are they?

Many people move to Sweden because of their partner’s career. Perhaps you’re one of these so-called “trailing spouses”. I’ve been asking readers in this situation how they’re settling in, and will have an article for you next week. There’s still time to answer our survey to share your experience.

Thanks for reading.

Have a good weekend,

Emma

Inside Sweden is our weekly newsletter for members which gives you news, analysis and, sometimes, takes you behind the scenes at The Local. It’s published each Saturday and with Membership+ you can also receive it directly to your inbox.

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