Ribbenvik, who will be replaced at the end of May, said that he had specifically asked Sweden’s new government to task him with developing a new system for work permits which would differentiate between work permits for highly skilled foreign hires and those for low-skilled workers.
“I said to the government, ‘if this is what you want, be clear and task us with promoting that [highly skilled] segment’, and they did, and I’m very happy about that,” Ribbenvik said. “So we’ve been working with that in the spring, and I think we will announce the new system in the coming weeks.”
Sweden’s three-party coalition on Thursday announced plans to raise the minimum salary threshold for a work permit to 80 percent of the median salary in Sweden, with the new salary level applying from October 1st.
But as well as seeking to restrict low-skilled immigration to Sweden, Migration Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard has also instructed the Migration Agency to speed up processing times for work permits for software developers, battery engineers and other foreign workers which Swedish companies need to compete internationally.
Ribbenvik said it was too early to give details about the reforms he was planning. But he told The Local that the system of “certified operators”, which allows respectable companies who import a lot of foreign workers to become “certified”, with their cases enjoying faster processing, would be abolished.
The system had become open to too many companies, he said, with even companies who aren’t certified able to access the fast track using agents such as the accounting firm EY.
“The certification process is failing,” he said. “Originally the idea was [developed] for huge companies who had a repeated need for third country labour, like Volvo and all these, who had hundreds per year. They had massive HR departments and their applications were always impeccable. So that’s how it started.”
Today, he explained, there were 640 certified companies, plus the agents, each of whom had at least 20 clients.
“So this is a failed system and we need to change this. We will continue with the certification until we have the other [system] in place. But after that, it’s gone, because it’s not used in the way it was meant to be at the start. So
everyone will be dealt with by the same unit and they’ll be in the same queue.”
While the exact date for when the new system will be announced has yet to be set, Ribbenvik said it would happen before he steps down at the end of May.
“For sure, because that’s one of the things I wanted to do. It’s my baby, so no, nobody else will get credit for that one.”
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