Sweden has recorded the lowest number of asylum seekers applying to enter the country in almost three decades, with total immigration flows reducing so much that more people have left the country than entered this year.
“According to the Migration Agency’s forecast, Sweden looks set to receive the lowest number of asylum seekers since 1997, and for the first time in over 50 years, Sweden has net emigration,” the Swedish Ministry of Justice confirmed in a post to X.
From January to May this year, immigration figures in total fell by 15% year-on-year, while emigration shot up by 60%. “The Government’s efforts have produced results,” said Maria Malmer Stenergard, the Minister for Immigration. “This development towards sustainable immigration is necessary to strengthen integration and reduce social exclusion.”
The emigrants didn’t just include Swedish citizens leaving the country for other climes, but also people from other countries returning home. Those originally from Iraq, Somalia, and Syria especially, returned home in significant numbers, meaning that the total excess net emigration was 5,600 people.
The dramatic numbers are a result of the policies implemented by the ruling Moderate Party, who took power in October 2022, leading a three party centre-right minority coalition, backed up by the populist right and anti-immigration Sweden Democrats. “We were given a very clear mandate to get immigration organised and not least to fight crime,” Stenergard added. “And that’s what we work every day to deliver to voters as well.”
In September last year, the government announced they would tighten up how people would obtain citizenship, which included looking into requiring knowledge of Swedish culture, proof of self-sufficiency, advanced language skills, and a clean criminal record, along with doubling the length of residency time needed to apply.
Sweden has previously had trouble with migrant crime, with 58% of all those convicted for rape or attempted rape having a foreign background in 2018. The Publica reported last month that two young Afghan migrants were spared prison after they brutally raped a 13-year-old girl.
