The Swedish government announced yesterday (Thursday) that it will increase grants for migrants who choose to voluntarily return to their countries. Starting in 2026, migrants who choose to leave Sweden will be eligible for financial assistance of up to 350,000 Swedish kronor (about $34,000), compared to 10,000 Swedish kronor (less than $1,000) currently offered.
Under the current law, migrants who choose to return home can receive 10,000 Swedish kronor for an adult and 5,000 Swedish kronor for a child. Each family can receive a maximum of 40,000 Swedish kronor. "We are in the midst of a paradigm shift in our immigration policy," said the new Immigration Minister, Johan Forssell, at a press conference in Stockholm.
Sweden has been known for its policy of accepting refugees since the 1990s. It has received many migrants from countries with wars such as former Yugoslavia, Syria, Afghanistan, Somalia, Iran, and Iraq. Besides providing a much-needed workforce for a country with an average birth rate of 1.67 children per family, immigration has also brought challenges such as cultural gaps between migrants and Swedes and an increase in crime rates.
During his election campaign, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, who came to power in 2022 with a right-wing minority coalition supported by the populist Sweden Democrats, promised to address immigration and crime.
According to Ludwig Asplund of the right-wing, anti-immigration Sweden Democrats party, the grant given so far has been available since 1984 and is "relatively unknown, small, and has convinced only a handful of people to leave." Asplund believes that a significantly increased grant will encourage more people to accept the offer to leave the Scandinavian country.
Johan Forssell, the new Immigration Minister appointed this week and belonging to Kristersson's party, said that reducing the number of asylum seekers to a minimum will be a long-term priority. Forssell told the newspaper Aftonbladet mid-week: "The important thing now is that we don't return to the previous policy, which put Sweden in a very difficult situation. Immigration has not been a focus of government policy so far, but that is changing," Forssell said.
It appears that the model for the Swedish policy change comes from Denmark, which pays migrants to return to their countries of origin. Economist Joachim Ruist has previously argued that the cost to the state for a migrant per year is about 74,000 Swedish kronor, so according to the new grant program, Sweden would benefit from the return of each migrant and asylum seeker to their country from the fifth year onwards.
Opposition parties from the left in Sweden have criticized the idea of paying migrants to return to their countries of origin, saying it goes against the idea of integration and will make them feel unwelcome.
* Kann News contributed to this article.