Sweden Offers Foreign-Born Residents $37,000 to Leave Amid Major Migration Crackdown

Sweden is offering residents born abroad who have the right to live in the country $37,000 to return to their countries of origin, as part of a significant crackdown on migration. Once viewed as one of Europe's most welcoming nations for asylum seekers—taking in 163,000 refugees in 2015—the Scandinavian country saw that number fall by 96 per cent last year. Migration remains a central issue in the general election, with Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson's centre-right coalition hoping its tough stance will counter a challenge from the centre-left opposition led by the Social Democrats.

“Improving re-migration is high on my government's agenda,” stated Mr Kristersson, leader of the Moderate Party, whose administration allocated a $135.6 million budget for the scheme. The return policy receives strong backing from the Sweden Democrats, a far-right party supporting the government in parliament. The party has funded bus advertisements featuring the slogan, “Do you miss Mogadishu? The remigration grant will help you get home.” The government has also promoted the program across its websites in multiple languages.

Thus far, 171 people have accepted the financial offer to leave this year, and the Sweden Democrats aim to extend the initiative to immigrants holding Swedish citizenship, provided they renounce it. The backlash against immigration has been fueled partly by gang warfare involving criminals from migrant families, particularly Kurds, which has shifted Sweden's status from one of Europe’s safest nations to one with a high murder rate.

Elena Ibrahim, a 42-year-old artist who fled Sudan eight years ago to escape an ex-husband and religious oppression, stated she will not accept the offer. “I want freedom, ​to be able to work ‌and live a good life,” she said. “I will not go back.” Meanwhile, Mahmoud Khalfi, imam at the Stockholm Mosque, Sweden's largest, argued that the scheme and anti-immigrant rhetoric are divisive and generate anxiety among the country's Muslim population. He noted that while highly educated individuals like doctors or professors might find opportunities in “London ​or Dubai”, those with less education have no alternatives. He added that the policy fails to solve any problems and worsens conditions for those who remain.

Sweden has also introduced stricter rules for immigrants, including abolishing permanent residence permits and requiring individuals to reapply after three years. However, this dramatic shift in policy has sparked concern within the healthcare sector, which increasingly relies on foreign-born workers. Official statistics indicate that around a third of specialist doctors and 53 per cent of nursing assistants were born abroad.

Davood Javid, a senior specialist at the cardiology unit of the NU Hospital Group in Trollhattan originally from Iran, noted that three-quarters of the unit's 20 doctors were born abroad, and all have felt the changing atmosphere. “The tone has hardened in Sweden, and the debate has become highly polarised,” he said. Dr Javid began speaking out publicly after his nephew's daughters, aged 21 and 24, faced deportation despite living in Sweden for eight years while studying to become nurses. The incident brought national attention to “teenage deportations,” where individuals who arrived as minors are deported upon reaching adulthood because they fail to meet income requirements.

Sweden Democrats leader Jimmie Akesson defended the tough migration stance by pointing to pressures on the welfare system. “What people often forget in that discussion is that those who immigrate to Sweden also have needs when it comes to welfare, health care and social care,” he said. “Statistically, they often have greater needs than those born in the country.”