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INSIDE SWEDEN

Inside Sweden: What are the Swedish reactions to the new work permit threshold?

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

Inside Sweden: What are the Swedish reactions to the new work permit threshold?
The cleaning industry will be hit hard by Sweden's new work permit threshold. Photo: Jonas Ekströmer/TT

Hej,

Sweden’s new salary threshold for work permits came into force this week, and as you know it’s a topic we’ve covered extensively on The Local, both in the run-up to the change and afterwards.

We’re keen to keep covering the stories of how the new policy affects foreign residents in Sweden.

Now that the change has come into effect, we might soon start seeing its impact, as many work permit holders will get told they can no longer remain in the country when they apply for their next extension.

If your work permit application gets rejected due to the new salary threshold we’d be interested in hearing from you – or if you get a positive decision on your permit application despite the change.

Thanks to having a close relationship with our readers, we at The Local are in a better position – and, let’s be honest, perhaps sometimes more willing – to tell these stories than Swedish newspapers, but Swedish newspapers have also been writing about the new policy.

Even people not directly affected are reacting strongly to the higher threshold.

In Umeå, the trade union Kommunal is arguing that all its members – regardless of nationality – should have their minimum salaries raised to the new work permit threshold, which now stands at 27,360 kronor. This is because of the government’s argument that the threshold needed to be raised in order to make sure that work permit holders can support themselves and aren’t exploited.

Fair enough, Kommunal thought. If 27,360 kronor is what counts as a decent salary, then everyone should get a decent salary. The government has set the standard, it argued, and we’re just following their move. 

Trade union organisations TCO and Saco have also criticised the new policy, but the complaints aren’t just coming from the trade union side of Swedish politics – even high-profile business organisations have raised concerns about it, including the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise.

Its deputy CEO, Karin Johansson, wrote in an opinion piece for Dagens Nyheter that it’s a high-risk experiment that will affect companies’ ability to recruit. She dismissed the government’s argument that jobs should go to unemployed people in Sweden, arguing instead that companies would hardly go through the complicated work permit process if they could easily recruit from within Sweden.

“It’s hard to shake the suspicion that the salary floor stems from a political strategy – a PR plan – rather than a programme for jobs and growth,” Johansson wrote in the opinion piece.

ISS, a facility management company which employs around 1,500 people in Stockholm, raised concern that four percent of their staff will be affected and may have to leave Sweden. The municipality of Skellefteå, one of Sweden’s up-and-coming tech boom cities, worries it may lose more than 200 of its council employees when their work permits run out.

But not everyone is against the new threshold.

The Swedish Trade Union Confederation LO, which is the umbrella organisation for many blue collar unions, says that if given the choice it would prefer a system where work permits are regulated based on the needs of the labour market (known as labour market testing, where unions and employers identify sectors where there’s a labour shortage) – but it still believes that the new policy is better than nothing.

“Unregulated labour migration is completely devastating for workers and low earners in Sweden. It opens the gates of hell,” LO’s Torbjörn Johansson told the Arbetet magazine. “We can’t pay tax and unemployment insurance to people who are then outcompeted by people from other countries.”

Is there any chance that the policy will be revoked? It’s unlikely. The only parties that voted against it when it went through parliament were the Centre Party and the Left Party – hardly a majority.

Next year, a government inquiry is expected to suggest ways to increase the salary threshold even further – to Sweden’s median salary (currently 34,200 kronor). It’s possible that there will be exceptions for certain professions this time around, but it’s not yet clear how these will work.

We’ll keep writing about the news that we hear about any developments, and hope to hear from readers about the real-life impact these changes are having on work permit holders in Sweden.

In other news

Sweden’s seasonal flu vaccination campaign gets under way next week, with risk groups first in line to be offered the jab. Here’s what you need to know about getting the flu vaccine for free.

While we’re on the topic of vaccines, Covid is again on the increase in Sweden, so I’ll leave this guide to Covid vaccinations here if you’re thinking about getting a booster but haven’t yet.

I love Sweden but November is not our finest month. The main thing getting me through these ever-darker days right now is the thought of all the Christmas markets that are just around the corner.

Today, Sweden marks All Saints’ Day, a quiet holiday rather than a day of celebration, as it’s about remembering the dead. You can mark the day at one of these locations in the three biggest cities.

Sweden’s gaming industry is crying out for top international talent, but the skills shortage also creates opportunities for professionals in other fields to switch to a career in gaming. The Local’s contributor Gemma Casey-Swift asked senior experts to share their best tips.

Sweden is hosting the Eurovision Song Contest next year, and I’m trying to stay journalistically neutral but I’m also extremely excited. I was a guest on The Euro Trip podcast this week to talk about how Malmö is preparing for the event.

Thanks for reading and best wishes,

Emma Löfgren

Editor, The Local Sweden

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

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For members

INSIDE SWEDEN

Inside Sweden: What does Sweden Democrats’ election flop mean for foreigners?

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

Inside Sweden: What does Sweden Democrats' election flop mean for foreigners?

Hej,

The far-right Sweden Democrats have had a week of reckoning after they lost votes in the EU election – the first time in the party’s history that it’s performed worse in a national or EU election than previous elections. Thus far it had always been on an upward trajectory, a trend that is now broken.

In some districts it saw voters’ support reduced by up to a third, and in Sölvesborg (the popular party leader Jimmie Åkesson’s home town) where support also fell, there was talk of organising crisis meetings.

Let’s not exaggerate what this means. The Sweden Democrats get to keep their three seats in the European Parliament, and voting patterns for the EU election are usually different from the national elections (the Greens performed almost three times better than in the last national election less than two years ago).

A major poll this week suggested that the Sweden Democrats would win 19.5 percent of the vote if an election were held today – one percentage point lower than its 2022 election result, but better than its 13 percent in the EU election.

It is still a member of Sweden’s ruling Tidö coalition and it’s hardly the only party in favour of stricter migration: the right-wing Moderates and Christian Democrats, and the centre-left Social Democrats have all had a hand in the tightening of rules that have impacted foreigners in Sweden in recent years.

But its poor performance does tell us something, which may have at least a small chance at influencing the Swedish political debate in the years ahead.

It suggests that the Sweden Democrats are less able than many thought at mobilising its potential voters. Its voters are generally sceptical of the EU and less keen to vote in the EU election, not even for the Sweden Democrats.

It suggests that Åkesson overplayed his hand when he wrote an opinion piece in the run-up to the election seeking to legitimise the concept of folkutbyte, a clear reference to the Great Replacement Theory that underpinned the deadly terror attack mounted by the Norwegian extremist Anders Breivik.

It suggests that the party played it wrong when it launched a verbal attack on TV4, refusing to apologise after the broadcaster revealed that the party operated a so-called troll factory. Perhaps the public thought showing just a little bit of contrition would have been a more appropriate reaction.

It suggests that peace, democracy, the climate and European cohesion – none of which are Sweden Democrat core issues – are important to voters.

And it rocks the boat for a party that perhaps for the first time failed at what it claims to do better than anyone else: gauging the mood of the nation.

What topics would you like The Local to cover?

It’s a challenging time for the media industry with volatile tech algorithms and advertising markets hitting even the biggest of newsrooms. That’s why I wrote a couple of weeks ago that it’s such a relief that our focus and number one resource here at The Local isn’t the tech giants, but our readers.

I’d like to take a moment to ensure that we’re continuing to meet your needs. Please fill out this survey to suggest stories we should cover in the year ahead.

In other news

The number of Swedish work permits rejected because the applicant’s salary is too low has increased by almost 2,000 percent since the country tightened the rules last year, according to new figures supplied to The Local.

There are plenty of things Sweden could do to help foreigners integrate, said The Local’s readers when we asked for their suggestions as to how the country could become more inclusive.

Saudi Arabia, the UAE and India are the top investment destinations for Swedish companies, meaning that businesses are planning on increasing their investments in these markets over the next 12 months.

English speakers who don’t speak Swedish can currently only donate blood in Stockholm, but The Local has been told of plans to roll out the service to Gothenburg and Uppsala in the year ahead.

The year-on-year inflation rate fell to 3.7 percent in May, according to new figures from Statistics Sweden. This was less than expected.

Hundreds of British citizens are still battling rejected applications to stay in Sweden, nearly two and a half years after the deadline to apply for post-Brexit residency status. The Local spoke to four of them.

Sweden’s Migration Agency has sent an analysis to the EU Commission, in which it concludes that its near blanket refusal of late applications for post-Brexit residency has been ‘at the right level’ and is of ‘a high legal quality’.

The number of beaches in Sweden which are checked and graded is growing every year, making it easy to make sure that where you are swimming is clean and safe. These are the cleanest beaches in Sweden this summer.

From TV schedules to bars and cafes, here are your options for watching all matches of the Euro 2024 football tournament in Sweden.

Thanks for reading and have a good weekend!

Best wishes,

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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