From
‘open hearts’ to closed borders: behind Sweden’s negative net immigration
figures
Record low
asylum applications ‘surprising’ when global displacement is at all-time high,
with aid agencies blaming fear and far-right rhetoric
Miranda
Bryant
Miranda
Bryant Nordic correspondent
Mon 19 Aug
2024 17.27 CEST
Ten years
ago the then prime minister Fredrik Reinfeldt asked Swedes to “open your
hearts” to refugees. Now the country’s migration minister is celebrating the
fact Sweden has “negative net immigration”, with more people thought to be
leaving the country than entering for the first time in more than half a
century.
“The number
of asylum applications is heading towards a historically low level,
asylum-related residence permits continue to decrease and for the first time in
50 years Sweden has net emigration,” Maria Malmer Stenergard announced earlier
this month.
Sweden’s
Moderate-led government, which is supported by the far-right Sweden Democrats,
has pursued increasingly restrictive asylum policies, including plans for a
“snitch law” that would legally require public sector workers to report
undocumented people.
While the
workings behind the government’s conclusion have attracted speculation –
including from the government agency whose figures Stenergard’s statement was
based on – the UN high commissioner for refugees confirmed the trend. It was
surprising, the UNHCR said, that while global displacement was at an all-time
high, the number of people seeking asylum in Sweden was at an all-time low.
“The
statistics show Sweden having a net outflow of immigrants for the first time in
decades,” Annika Sandlund, the UNHCR representative to the Nordic and Baltic
countries, told the Guardian.
Stenegard
claimed net emigration was evidence that “the government’s work yields results”
and that the approach was “necessary for us to be able to strengthen
integration and reduce exclusion”.
However,
Sandlund warned: “It might not be such a good thing for Sweden as a country.”
As well as playing a vital part in the workforce given Sweden’s ageing
population, making immigrants feel welcome was crucial to integration, she
said. “What we do know is that successful integration, which this government
wants to see, depends on people feeling welcome.”
The national
statistics agency, SCB, said its findings supported the government’s claim that
there was negative net immigration between January and May, but that the number
of emigrants during these months was in reality probably much lower, due to a
recent project seeking to remove people from the population register who had
already left the country. Earlier this year, the agency announced that
immigration between January and March was at its lowest quarterly level since
2005.
Johannes
Cleris, an SCB spokesperson, said: “As for the claim that [there are] more
emigrants than immigrants for the first time in 50 years, that would be true in
terms of the statistics for the whole year.” But he added: “We cannot see in
our statistics whether the claim is true or not for the period January to May.”
Asylum
seeker aid organisations and members of immigrant communities told the Guardian
that fear over the government’s anti-immigration policies and rhetoric was to
blame, actively encouraging people to leave the country or to seek asylum
elsewhere.
“We are
contacted by people who are very worried about the restrictive regime and
thinking about leaving,” said one organisation.
Tobias
Hübinette, a senior lecturer in intercultural studies at Karlstad University,
said a reverse from net immigration to net emigration would be “totemic” and
showed the influence of the Sweden Democrats on the governing coalition since
its election in 2022.
“If it is
true, its absolutely historic because Sweden has been an immigration country
for such a long time – basically 100 years,” he said.
The prospect
of tightening restrictions – including on visas, citizenship and bringing
relatives to the country – made Sweden unappealing, he said, particularly among
highly educated people from countries including Somalia, Iraq and Syria.
Opposition
voices – including in parliament – had also quietened, he said, because there
was a level of acceptance. “If this had happened five years ago, it would have
been uproar. Because of the two years we have seen … you just give up and
accept things.”
He added
that, for Swedish society, “it’s a pure catastrophe”.
The asylum
seeker aid organisation Farr said it was seeing increasing concern about
immigration restrictions among its member groups and the difficulty of
successfully gaining asylum was creating worry.
“If you
compare with 10 years ago, it has become much more accepted to be openly
hostile to asylum seekers,” said Terje Holmgren, Farr’s president. “But also,
more broadly, it’s commonly accepted that it’s good to be very restrictive and
minimise asylum seeker applications in Sweden. All the major political parties
have said that for almost 10 years.”
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário