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IMMIGRATION

What’s the latest on Sweden’s planned salary threshold for work permits?

The Swedish government is still planning to introduce a salary threshold for work permits, Migration Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard told The Local. But when? And how much? Here's what we know so far.

What's the latest on Sweden's planned salary threshold for work permits?
Swedish media report that the coalition parties can't agree on whether to make exceptions for certain jobs, such as assistant nurses. Photo: Fredrik Sandberg/TT

What’s the background?

In November parliament passed a bill put forward by the former Social Democrat-led government to raise the required salary that non-EU citizens have to earn to qualify for a work permit.

It stated that the new threshold would be introduced by a date to be decided by the government – which as of September 2022 is a new, right-wing government.

The exact figure hasn’t been set, but the government and its far-right Sweden Democrat partners have previously, in the Tidö coalition agreement after the September election, proposed setting it at the median Swedish salary, which is 33,000 kronor a month.

What now?

Not much has been announced since November, and Swedish media have been pressing the government for answers on when it is going to introduce the new salary threshold.

The Local did the same when we recently met Migration Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard for a sit-down interview in Malmö. She said she could not give us an exact date, but that the coalition parties were in the process of working on the final piece of legislation.

“We are really working this through thoroughly in order to have a well functioning system and we will also give organisations and other authorities the possibility to have their say before it goes into legislation,” said Malmer Stenergard.

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Swedish media report that the sticking point at the moment is that the government parties (Moderates, Christian Democrats and Liberals) and the Sweden Democrats can’t agree on whether or not to make exceptions for certain work permit applicants.

Critics of the salary threshold have argued that 33,000 kronor would effectively keep out a lot of highly qualified workers whose skills Sweden needs.

Liberal leader Johan Pehrson told Swedish news agency TT that he had been speaking with business and public sector leaders who were worried that the salary threshold would lead to a skills shortage, for example a shortage of assistant nurses.

“To manage the green transition in northern Sweden, we don’t just need people who make batteries, work in the mines or in the forest,” said Pehrson.

He did not want to say exactly what the exceptions should look like, but said they could potentially apply to “protected professional titles or niche sectors”.

But the Sweden Democrats are understood to be against exceptions.

“SD wants to throttle immigration at any cost,” an unnamed source told business site Dagens Industri, adding that the ongoing negotiations are “very tough”.

The Local’s interview with Maria Malmer Stenergard, discussing topics including salary threshold for work permits, waiting times at the Migration Agency, and exit visas for those waiting for a permit renewal will feature in the next episode of The Local’s podcast, Sweden in Focus, out this Saturday.

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IMMIGRATION

More than 20 British citizens ‘absconded’ after orders to leave Sweden

More than 20 British citizens are feared to be living underground in Sweden, after failing to secure their residency following the UK leaving the European Union, Swedish border police have told The Local.

More than 20 British citizens 'absconded' after orders to leave Sweden

According to Swedish police statistics, there are currently 38 cases open regarding UK citizens with an expulsion order, of which 24 are cases that have been passed to the police by the Migration Agency after the person’s applications for residency received their final rejection. 

“Twenty two persons from this category have absconded, meaning they are avoiding the authorities,” Irene Sokolow, a police press spokesperson, told The Local, adding that in the other two cases, the police know for certain that the person remains in the country.

Almost 4,000 British nationals have been issued orders to leave by EU and Schengen area countries since Brexit, with Sweden responsible for about 1,185 of that number. 

Brits nonetheless represent less than a tenth of the 36,000 people given expulsion orders in Sweden from the start of 2021 until the end of 2023, according to Eurostat numbers collated by the Europaportalen website, of whom about 24,000 are known to have left the country. 

Currently, an expulsion order from Sweden expires after four years, something Sweden’s Migration Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard said last month should be changed as it creates an incentive for those ordered to leave to go into hiding and then reapply for residency after four years. 

“This of course contributes to the fact that many individuals go underground, which as a result makes return efforts more difficult and less efficient,” she said after receiving the recommentations of a government inquiry

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