Immigration to Sweden
Immigration to Sweden refers to the movement of people into Sweden with the intention of residing in the country.
While many immigrants eventually acquire Swedish citizenship, not all do. The economic, social, and political effects of immigration in Sweden have been widely studied and debated, particularly regarding labor market integration, access to social services, educational outcomes, settlement patterns, crime, and political participation. As of 2024, approximately 64.6% of the Swedish population are ethnic Swedes, while the remaining 35.4% are of non-ethnic Swedish origin, the overwhelming majority being immigrants and their descendants from Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia.
Sweden had very few immigrants in 1900 when the nationwide population totaled 5,100,814 inhabitants, of whom 35,627 individuals were foreign-born. 21,496 of those foreign-born residents were from other Nordic countries, 8,531 people were from other European countries, 5,254 from North America, 90 from South America, 87 from Asia, 79 from Africa, and 59 from Oceania.
, 1.33 million people or 14.3 percent of the inhabitants of Sweden were foreign-born. Of these individuals, 859,000 were born outside the European Union and 477,000 were born in another EU member state., Eurostat, Katya VASILEVA, 34/2011. Sweden has evolved from a nation of net emigration ending after World War I to a nation of net immigration from World War II onward. In 2013, immigration reached its highest level since records began, with 115,845 people migrating to Sweden while the total population grew by 88,971. It continued to rise steadily the following years, followed by a clear peak in 2015, with just over 163,000 persons immigrating in total that year. 2017 saw a decrease, with nearly 144,500 individuals immigrating., the percentage of inhabitants with a foreign background in Sweden had risen to 25.9 percent. In 2020, population growth in Sweden was primarily driven by people with a foreign background, 98.8 percent and persons with a Swedish background accounted for 1.2 percent of the population increase. The official definition of foreign background comprises individuals either born abroad or having both parents born abroad. In 2017, majorities in three municipalities had foreign backgrounds: Botkyrka Södertälje and Haparanda. Malmö, the third largest city of Sweden and the province of Scania as a whole have taken in highest numbers of refugees who reached Sweden, in particular during the Yugoslav Wars in the 1990s and the Syrian civil war in the 2010s.
In 2014, 81,300 individuals applied for asylum in Sweden, which was an increase of 50 percent compared to 2013 and the most since 1992. Of these, 47 percent came from Syria, followed by 21 percent from the Horn of Africa, mostly Somalia. Overall, 77 percent of requests were approved, with approval rates differing greatly between different applicant groups. In early October 2015, less than two weeks into the month, a record figure of 86,223 asylum applications was reached, and in the remaining weeks of the year that figure rose to 162,877. In 2016, 28,939 people applied for asylum, after temporary border ID controls had been initiated and been in effect during 2016., according to Statistics Sweden, there were around 17,000 total asylum immigrants from Syria, 10,000 from Iraq, 4,500 from Eritrea, 1,900 from Afghanistan, and 1,100 from Somalia. In the year 2017, most asylum seekers come from Syria, Eritrea, Iraq, and Georgia.
According to an official report by the governmental Swedish Pensions Agency, total immigration to Sweden for 2017 was expected to be roughly 180,000 individuals, and thereafter to number 110,000 persons every year.
Public demand for investigations into whether immigration applications are misused to seek social welfare benefits in the country has grown. There have been calls to tackle a perceived abuse of welfare in Sweden, Folkhemmet, the Swedish Migration Agency, de facto social segregation, the rise of right-wing Swedish politics, and imported Danish-Swedish nationalism.
The Swedish Migration Agency investigated in 2020 "whether and to what extent students" with permits that grant residency for study, instead use them to work in the country. The agency concluded in their 2022 report entitled, "Misuse of residence permits for studies", that there was widespread misuse of the student residence permits. The report was based on a country-specific group of 360 students granted permits, who were admitted to two-year masters' programmes: Slightly over one-third of this cohort applied for an extension to their residence permit for the second year of study, while just under thirty percent applied for work permits instead.
Immigrants in Sweden are mostly concentrated in the urban areas of Svealand and Götaland. Between 2010 and 2020, the ten [|net largest foreign-born populations immigrating into Sweden] came from Syria, Afghanistan, Somalia, Eritrea, Iraq, Poland, India, Iran, Thailand, China.
History
Before the second world war, Sweden was a linguistically and culturally homogeneous country compared with other European countries with the exception of the Sami, Tornedalian and Romani minorities. During the High Middle Ages, German immigrants arrived as foreign experts in trade and mining and are estimated to have constituted 10-20% of the city populations. However, since only 5% of the population lived in cities during this time their total share of the populated was only 1 to 1.5% of the population. Small, but influential, numbers of Walloon immigrants started arriving in the 17th century and again in the 19th century. Most of them returned to Belgium after a few years and the estimates for how many that stayed range from 900 to 2000 compared with the contemporary population of Sweden being 900 000.The 1920s and 30s saw Sweden changing from being an emigrant country into becoming an immigrant country.
World War II
From 1871 and onwards Statistics Sweden reports the number of immigrants each year. From 1871 to 1940 the average number of immigrants were 6000 per year.Immigration increased markedly with World War II. Historically, the most numerous of foreign born nationalities were ethnic Germans from Germany and other Scandinavians from Denmark and Norway, as well as people from Baltic countries. In short order, 70,000 war children were evacuated from Finland, of which 15,000 remained in Sweden. Also, many of Denmark's nearly 7,000 Jews who were evacuated to Sweden during the Nazi occupation of Denmark, and remained there until the end of the war.
A sizable community from the Baltic States arrived during the Second World War.
1945 to 1967
As of 1945, the immigrants share of the population was below two percent. During the 1950s and 1960s, the recruitment of migrant workers was an important factor of immigration. The Nordic countries signed a trade agreement in 1952, establishing a common labour market and free movement across borders. This migration within the Nordic countries, especially from Finland to Scandinavia, was essential to create the tax-base required for the expansion of the strong public sector now characteristic of Scandinavia. Facing pressure from unions, work force immigration from outside of the Nordic countries was limited by new laws in 1967.On a smaller scale, Sweden took in political refugees from Hungary and the former Czechoslovakia after their countries were invaded by the Soviet Union in 1956 and 1968 respectively. Some tens of thousands of American draft dodgers from the Vietnam War in the 1960s and 1970s also found refuge in Sweden.
1968–1991
In the latter half of the 1960s, the ideology of multiculturalism entered the political mainstream in Sweden, the first country in Europe. On 14 May 1975, a unanimous Swedish parliament led by the Social Democrat government of Olof Palme voted in favour on a new immigrant and minority policy which explicitly rejected the previous policy of assimilation and ethno-cultural homogeneity in favour of state-sponsored multiculturalism. The main driver of spreading Islam in Sweden is immigration since the late 1960s. As of 1970, the immigrants share of the population was below 7%. The demand for labor within the production industry declined and many Finns that had moved to Sweden in the late 1960s started to return to Finland. The period between 1970 and 1985 can be seen as a transition period from an immigration based on labor to an immigration based on refugees. Especially from former Yugoslavia but also from countries in the Middle East and Latin America. After seeing a number of refugees in the first half of 1989, Carlsson I Cabinet decided to limit refugee immigration to only include refugees by the definition of United Nations.Contemporary immigration
Beginning in 2008, there was a long-term shift in the countries of origin, with a larger share of migrants with low education from non-European countries.In 2009, immigration reached its highest level since records began with 102,280 people migrating to Sweden while the total population grew by 84,335 – in 2012 a new highest level was reached, again in 2013, and by a large margin again in 2016. At the same time, in 2016 the number of asylum applicants fell from the 2015 record of over 162,800, to 28,939, and 25,666 in 2017.
In 2010, 32,000 people applied for asylum to Sweden, a 25% increase from 2009, one of the highest numbers in Sweden since 1992 and the Balkan wars. The number of people that were granted asylum stayed the same as previous years. In 2009, Sweden had the fourth-largest number of asylum applications in the EU and the largest number per capita after Cyprus and Malta.
During 2010 the most common reason for immigrating to Sweden was:
- Labour migrants
- Family reunification
- Immigrating under the EU/EEA rules of free movement
- Students
- Refugees
File:Eurostat Third Country Nationals illegally present in Sweden 2009-2019.png|thumb|Eurostat Third Country Nationals illegally present in Sweden 2009–2014|300x300px
The number of asylum seekers coming to Sweden increased beginning in 2014. 81,300 applied for asylum in 2014, which was an increase of 50% compared to 2013. It was the most since 1992, when 84,018 persons applied for asylum during the war in Yugoslavia. 77% requests were approved but it differed greatly between different groups, such as Syrians and Eritreans where nearly everyone gets their application approved. In February 2015, it was expected that 90,000 apply for asylum in 2015 and 80,000 in 2016. The Swedish Migration Agency currently has shortage of 15,000 accommodations so they have to rent from private actors. At the end of April 2015, the figure for the year 2015 was revised down to 68,000–88,000 with 80,000 as the main scenario. Long processing times, and the situation in Iraq not developing in the way the Swedish Migration Agency had feared were the reasons for the revised figures. Nearly two weeks into October 2015, 86,223 had applied for asylum so far during the year. That was a record, surpassing the 1992 figure of 84,018 during the war in Yugoslavia. Emergency accommodation such as drill halls or offices were needed. All in all, 162,877 applied for asylum that year, many of which were processed after 2015, due to handling times., according to Statistics Sweden, there were around 17,000 total asylum immigrants from Syria, 10,000 from Iraq, 4,500 from Eritrea, 1,900 from Afghanistan, and 1,100 from Somalia. In the year 2017, most asylum seekers came from Syria, Eritrea, Iraq, and Georgia.
A series of violent riots starting with the 2008 Malmö mosque riots and including the 2009 Malmö anti-Israel riots, 2010 Rinkeby riots, and 2013 Stockholm riots, during which groups made up mostly of young immigrants torched cars and buildings and threw rocks at police, led many Swedes to question Sweden's ability to integrate migrants.
During the refugee crisis of 2015, 29 percent of Swedes polled in September thought that Sweden was taking too many refugees – in November 2015, that figure had risen to 41 percent.
Among people receiving residence permits in Sweden during 2009–2017, 55.2 percent were men or boys, and 44.8 percent women or girls.
The four largest and most well-known Swedish newspapers reported more negative than positive news about immigration in the years 2010–2015. The reporting in other Swedish media outlets may not have offered a less negative picture of immigration to Sweden.
In March 2016, the production crew of the Australian TV program 60 Minutes were assaulted in Rinkeby when they were reporting the effect of European refugee crisis. The same month, Norway's minister of migration Sylvi Listhaug said to Norwegian media that Norway must avoid becoming like Sweden, in terms of immigration.
In April 2016, Reuters reported that at least 70 married girls under 18 were living in asylum centres in Stockholm and Malmö. Reuters added: "In Sweden, the lowest age for sex is 15 and marriage 18."
In June 2017, the Supreme Administrative Court of Sweden ruled that illegal immigrants, such as those who stay in hiding after their asylum applications had been rejected in order to evade deportation, had no right to welfare benefits. A woman who was denied welfare benefits by the council of Vännäs had taken the council to court. The first instance ruled in the woman's favour, but the council took the case to the highest court, HFD, which ruled in favour of the council.
According to a 2017 Swedish Police Authority report on organised crime in Sweden, in autumn 2015, the number of asylum applicants to Sweden had markedly risen. The police authorities indicate that most of these asylum seekers had arrived via people smugglers, with compatriots smuggling compatriots being the most common scenario. Police authorities estimated that the smugglers charged several hundred thousand SEK. Many of the smuggled asylum seekers owed substantial debts to the traffickers, which left them vulnerable to exploitation by organised crime.
Data indicates that the smuggling networks would capitalize on the right of asylum seekers to establish their own housing instead of accommodation organized by the Swedish Migration Agency. The smuggling networks would thereby organize accommodation for the smuggled in especially vulnerable areas, where the traffickers already had contacts in place. The traffickers thus exploit asylum seekers by using them as cheap or free labor, coercing them into under-the-table work, and siphoning off their welfare benefits.
According to a 2022 survey 79% of those who came to Sweden as refugees have visited their home country on vacation.
In September 2024, the Swedish government announced that it would raise the existing benefit paid to migrants who voluntarily repatriate and leave Sweden from about $978 per adult to more than $34,000. The increase will take effect in 2026, and goes against the advice of a government-appointed inquiry that recommended against encouraging repatriation. According to Swedish MP Ludvig Aspling, the smaller grant had rarely been utilized, as only about 70 people applied for it in 2023 and just 1 person received it, out of 16,000 migrants who left Sweden in 2023.