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IMMIGRATION

Sweden’s new migration minister says country must be attractive to foreign talent

Sweden's new migration minister Johan Forssell said on Tuesday it was "essential" for Swedish companies and Swedish competitiveness that the country is "attractive to talent, researchers, investors and people working in key professions".

Published: 10 September 2024 17:23 CEST
Sweden's new migration minister says country must be attractive to foreign talent
Sweden's new migration minister, Johan Forssell. Photo: Jessica Gow/TT

Forssell, who until now had been the minister for foreign trade and international development, took over from Maria Malmer Stenergard as migration minister on Tuesday.

Malmer Stenergard has in turn taken over from foreign minister Tobias Billström, who announced his decision to step down earlier this week.

“After two years as foreign trade minister, I’m also bringing with me perspective when it comes to highly-qualified labour migration,” Forssell told a press conference after the announcement.

“We should be very proud of our world-leading Swedish companies, and it’s essential for both us and our country’s competitiveness that we are attractive to talent, researchers, investors and people working in professions experiencing a shortage of labour.”

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“That’s something I look forward to developing further,” Forssell added.

“[Migration] is a very important area, it’s important for Sweden and voters repeatedly rank it top of their political agenda,” Forssell said. “Our role is to make sure that the next generation in this country has a better life than the previous generation, and in order to do that we need to sort out migration and succeed with integration.”

“There are a lot of things that need to be done here. School policy, getting more people into work, and so on,” he added. “But one thing which cannot be avoided is that asylum-related immigration needs to be at a very low level, for a very long period into the future.”

READ MORE: Swedish work permits granted to top international talent drop 20 percent

“It’s important that we hold on to the changes that Maria, and others, have made in this area, and never again return to the previous migration policy.”

Forssell was chief of staff or stabschef for Sweden’s former PM Fredrik Reinfeldt between 2006 and 2010 and was seen as having a bright future in politics.

He was the Moderate’s justice spokesperson in the run-up to the 2022 election. So when he was appointed to the fairly junior role of minister for foreign trade and international development rather than, say, justice minister, when the new government was appointed in October that year, it was seen as a snub.

A promotion to migration minister in this government is definitely a step up.

“As everyone knows, this is one of this government’s most central areas of domestic policy,” Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said. “Johan has twelve years of experience in parliament, and has among other things been chair of the justice committee, which works with those exact issues.”

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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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