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Explained: What does the breakdown in Sweden’s migration policy talks mean?

Cross-party talks on how to reform Swedish migration policy broke down on Tuesday, so we take a look at what this means for the Swedish political landscape – and for migration law.

Published: 6 July 2020 16:08 CEST
Updated: 7 July 2020 07:33 CEST
Explained: What does the breakdown in Sweden's migration policy talks mean?
Prime Minister Stefan Löfven, who said he "regretted" the collapse in talks. File photo: Jessica Gow / TT

What's at stake?

The one thing all parties in parliament seem to agree on here is that Swedish migration law needs a complete overhaul.

Currently, a temporary law is in place, which was introduced back in 2016 after Sweden received record numbers of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers during the crisis of the autumn before. 

One change was that asylum seekers received temporary residence permits by default, whereas previously permanent residence permits were the norm. 

And people (not just those who arrived as asylum seekers, but also Swedish citizens and residents) bringing their partners or other family members to live in Sweden had to meet certain requirements around income levels and household size. 

So this is an important piece of legislation which will affect many people who want or need to move to Sweden in future, as well as people currently resident.

What's happening now?

Sweden set up a Migration Committee in late 2019, which was given the task of coming up with a new migration policy. This was agreed in the so-called January Agreement, a cross-bloc collaboration between the Social Democrat-Green coalition government and two of Sweden's opposition parties – the Liberals and the Centre Party. 

Over the past two weeks, talks have been going on between five parties, the ruling centre-left Social Democrats and four opposition parties (the Moderate, Christian Democrat, Centre and Liberal parties, all right-of-centre). Notably the Social Democrats' junior coalition partner, the Green Party, has not been involved.

On Monday, the parties reported that these talks had collapsed.

Why did the talks break down?

The sticking point was discussion of a volymmål (volume goal), a proposed cap on the number of asylum seekers who can enter Sweden each year.

The Green Party, excluded from the negotiations, last week said it could not stand behind a policy with this kind of limit.

Now the five-party talks have collapsed, with the Moderate Party blaming the Social Democrats for siding with the Greens. “It's abundantly clear that the Social Democrats chose the Green Party over a sustainable, realistic migration policy,” the Moderates' migration policy spokesperson Maria Malmer Stenergard told the TT newswire.

Christian Democrat leader Ebba Busch (L) and Moderate leader Ulf Kristersson. Photo: Jessica Gow / TT

Social Democrat leader and Prime Minister Stefan Löfven said in a statement: “We regret that it's not possible to reach a broad agreement […] We Social Democrats have been prepared to take responsibility and compromise. The Liberal and Centre parties have also contributed constructively and tried to find solutions. The Moderates have, the entire time, raised further questions, set more conditions and not wanted to compromise.”

The Centre Party's acting leader also said it was the Moderates who refused to budge, while the Christian Democrat's leader said the Social Democrats said no to proposed compromises. 

What is the next step?

The Migration Committee is due to meet on Tuesday, July 7th, and Löfven said that negotiations would continue within the framework of the committee rather than between individual parties.

The committee, made up of representatives from all eight parliamentary parties as well as experts and secretaries, is supposed to deliver its full report by August 15th. The idea behind it is that any proposals they come up with should have broad support in parliament and therefore would be passed. 

What does it mean for Swedish politics?

It's yet another example of how the political landscape has changed since the last election. The Centre and Liberal parties appear to be siding more with their January deal partners, the Social Democrat and Green parties, than with their fellow opposition parties. 

The Centre, Liberal, Moderate and Christian Democrat parties were formerly part of a centre-right opposition bloc called 'Alliansen' (The Alliance), but the close result in the 2018 election and ensuing months of intense party talks redrew the landscape.

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MONEY

How will Sweden’s new budget affect foreign residents?

The Swedish government will present its autumn budget on September 19th, but how will the proposals we know about so far, like measures to attract foreign talent and money for Swedish classes, affect foreigners?

Published: 17 September 2024 13:31 CEST
How will Sweden's new budget affect foreign residents?

Measures to attract foreign talent

The budget will include a range of reforms with the aim of improving the Swedish economy and Swedish competitiveness, with special emphasis on attracting talent and promoting investment in the country.

This, among other things, includes 5 million kronor to Visit Sweden in order to promote Swedish tourism, 8 million kronor on attracting foreign talent in 2025, and 16 million kronor to Business Sweden in order to identify and contribute to solving obstacles to investment for Swedish companies and foreign companies in Sweden, as well as attracting strategic investment.

The government will also set aside 10 million kronor in 2025 for an international investment conference, in order to position Sweden as an attractive destination for foreign investment.

Money towards integration and Swedish classes

The government also plans to spend 196 million kronor on increased integration efforts, including three-year intensive courses for children who do not speak any Swedish at home and extra money for after-school fritids clubs to provide Swedish classes for children with foreign backgrounds.

Around 31 million kronor would go towards assisting integration for foreigners who are stay-at-home parents, especially women, in order to assist them in finding work. This would include language lessons, as well as study and career advice for refugees in particular, as well as other women born abroad.

Another 4 million kronor of the 196 million kronor total would go towards mapping foreigners’ Swedish skills – reading, writing and listening – in order to understand which integration measures would be useful.

Finally, 40 million kronor would go towards language courses for certain key workers, like staff in elderly care homes and preschools, a policy which was originally introduced by the former government in 2021. This would last until 2026.

Tax-free investment savings accounts

ISKs (Investment Savings Accounts) were introduced in 2012 as a way for people in Sweden to easily invest in shares and funds. An estimated 3.5 million people in Sweden have an ISK, with 75 percent of these accounts having a balance of 300,000 kronor or less.

Currently, they’re not subject to capital gains tax, but they are instead taxed at a fixed rate – known as schablonsskatt – an annual rate paid on the entire value of the sum held.

Under the new proposal, tax on ISKs, as well as KFs, another type of investment savings account taxed in the same way, would be scrapped for any accounts with a balance of less than 150,000 kronor from next year, rising to 300,000 in 2026. 

For foreigners living and working in Sweden, this will make saving in equities, bonds, and funds while resident in Sweden significantly more attractive.

As the new Pan-European Personal Pension Product (PEPP) is also included, anyone living in Sweden can even keep their tax-free savings accounts when moving to another EU country – even if they’re not an EU citizen.

Tax cuts

Sweden’s government has announced plans to increase jobbskatteavdraget or employment tax credit, a rebate given to everyone who has a job.

If you have a job in Sweden and do not depend on benefits for your income, you qualify for the tax credit, which was brought in in 2007 to ensure that people would always be better off in work than on benefits.

As a percentage of income, those on the lowest salaries get the biggest tax reduction, with the maximum tax reduction next year set at 10,633 kronor. 

You can see a breakdown of how people in different income brackets will be affected by the increase in this article.

People on the median salary of 462,000 kronor per year (38,500 kronor a month) will see their tax bill shrink by 3,671 kronor.

The reduction will be applied automatically and is available to everyone who works and does not receive benefits, whether you’re a Swedish citizen or not.

Pensioners won’t be left out either – they’ll see tax cuts equivalent to the employment tax credit, to ensure they’re not worse off than people in work.

Plans to curb migration

The government has also announced plans to allocate over 4.4 billion kronor to restricting migration over the next three years: 513 million in 2025, rising to 2.5 billion in 2026 and 1.35 billion in 2027.

A large share of this – 1.4 billion in 2026 – will go towards encouraging migrants to return home voluntarily, a scheme which is only available to refugees, quota refugees, people in need of subsidiary protection on the grounds of exceptionally distressing circumstances, or family of these groups.

The rest of the funds will go towards reducing fraud and misuse of the system and an increase in checks on foreigners in the country, the government has said.

Funds to combat unemployment

Sweden’s unemployment rate is currently at its highest level in ten years, not counting the pandemic. The government is therefore planning a package of budget measures to try and combat this, including 900 million kronor to regional vocational training for adults – around 11,000 more study places. 

The measures also include raising the grant for supervisors offering apprenticeship training, as well as 79 million kronor for the Public Employment Agency to support people who have been out of work for a long time.

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