Faced with increasing crime and economic pressures from its migrant crisis, Sweden plans to significantly increase financial incentives for migrants to leave the country. Beginning in 2026, Migration Minister Johan Forssell says Sweden will offer $34,000 to migrants willing to return to their nation of origin.
Presently, the Swedish government’s program offers $976 per adult and $488 per child, with a cap of $3,903 per family. This program saw minimal uptake in 2023, with just one participant. The proposed increase aims to make the offer more attractive, especially for the several hundred thousand migrants in Sweden who are unemployed or reliant on state benefits, according to Sweden Democrats (SD) spokesman Ludvig Aspling.
Over the past two years, the Swedish government has tightened its asylum and immigration policies. The Swedish government acknowledges a “paradigm shift” in migration policy and the need to address labor immigration fraud and the challenges of the “shadow society.”
The National Pulse reported in August that data released by the Swedish government suggests the country—with a population of 10.6 million—has recently achieved historically low levels of new asylum claims. Despite this, the Nordic nation has still received over 250,000 asylum seekers since mid-2023.
Recent migrants primarily originate from Syria, Afghanistan, Somalia, Iran, and Iraq. Many of these migrants are young men of military age and have played a large part in the country’s increasing rate of sexual assaults, robberies, and fraud.
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