By 2024, the number of people leaving Sweden will exceed the number of people entering, marking a watershed moment for a country that was once Europe’s most open to mass immigration and experienced the inevitable social unrest that accompanied it.
The Swedish government has welcomed new measures to combat mass immigration after migrants began leaving the country in large numbers, leading to the first increase in net immigration in more than 50 years. Following the latest figures, the government’s immigration minister, Maria Marmar Stenergård, announced that “Sweden is no longer a country of asylum seekers.”
This change is partly due to a much smaller number of asylum seekers coming to Sweden this year and an increase in migrants leaving Sweden. In a surprising development that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago, in 2023 there will be 1,000 more Iraqis leaving than arriving, over 1,000 more Somalis leaving than arriving, and 500 more Syrians leaving than arriving.
The number of people leaving Sweden increased by 60 percent.
50+ years ago, the network became more and more vulnerable, exposing it to highly hazardous conditions and potentially very dangerous situations. pic.twitter.com/8AA2vjYUUk
— Maria M. Stenergard (@MariaStenergard) August 8, 2024
According to the Ministry of Justice statement According to Migration Agency data, the number of asylum seekers Sweden will accept in 2024 will be the lowest since 1997. As an example of how far the numbers have fallen, from 85,000 asylum seekers in 2016 to just 5,600 so far in 2024, the number of new applicants this year is already 27 percent lower than the record low in 2023.
While these figures are relatively small and represent a small step towards the larger goal outlined by Minister Stenergård, net migration is minus That figure, expected to reach 5,700 by 2024 and driven mainly by the departure of former migrants, is a significant problem for a country of just 10 million people.
This change is not in keeping with a Europe-wide trend, which makes Sweden’s achievement all the more impressive: the government’s data pack makes clear that while asylum applications across the European Union remain very high, “in Sweden they have continued to decline further from already historically low levels,” demonstrating that Sweden has delivered on the new government’s mission to make the country less attractive for mass immigration.
Indeed, in 2015, Sweden accepted 13% of all asylum seekers in the EU; by 2024 it is projected to accept just 1%.
Sweden deploys army of bureaucrats to register immigrants for state welfare http://t.co/EXVbXQoN78 pic.twitter.com/LJ0LSKJFOY
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) September 15, 2015
Sweden has a new government in 2022. It is led by the Moderate Party (the UK’s equivalent of the liberal center-right globalist Conservative Party) in a coalition with the socially conservative Christian Democrats and the classically liberal Liberal Party. The coalition is backed by the right-wing populist Sweden Democrats, who were once the only voices on immigration restrictions during Sweden’s open borders era. Between their influence on the government and the significantly changed moderates, the Swedish state has taken a radically new approach on immigration.
The Swedish government says it will enforce “stricter asylum laws” by fighting the so-called “shadow society” – the black market that allows illegal immigration to thrive, increase returns and deportations, crack down on low-skilled migrants, revoke residence permits for people who abuse Swedish hospitality, make chain migration more difficult and require migrants to integrate.
Moderate Immigration Minister Maria Marmar Stenergård hailed these policies as effective when presenting the latest immigration figures this week, boasting that “the government’s efforts are paying off: asylum applications are heading towards historic lows, refugee-related residence permits continue to fall and for the first time in 50 years Sweden has achieved net immigration.”
“Sweden is no longer a host country for asylum seekers,” she reported.
Sweden: Immigrant-inundated municipalities face tax crisis as native Swedes flee https://t.co/It6p54Nxaf
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) September 1, 2019
Stenergaard said it was essential to reduce the number of immigrants because too many make it harder for newcomers to integrate into Swedish society, as they tend to form parallel communities. In other words, the Swedish government’s policy is to end multiculturalism and to require immigrants to become culturally Swedish.
Indeed, Sviergesradio Reports “If you want to stay in Sweden, you have to learn the language, become independent and respect Swedish values,” Stenergaard told migrants this week.
Swedish quality newspaper Dagens Samhalle state The minister avoided explicitly saying that refugee immigration was bad, but did say: “Unfortunately, we have seen a combination of high numbers of refugees and poor social integration leading to an increase in refugee immigration, and people, especially those who are foreign-born, suffer from a sense of exclusion. We have had to significantly reduce immigration for a long time.”
As an indication of the path that the moderates currently in power have taken, DS Next week 10th Anniversary Former moderate Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt infamously called on Swedes to “open their hearts” to asylum seekers around the world.
In Sweden, only 1 in 16 new immigrants works in a job that is not subsidized by taxpayers. https://t.co/FTEigeBTP7
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) February 4, 2020
These comments were made during the 2014 general election campaign, when Reinfeldt told Swedish people that if they voted for him, there would be no new programs for Swedish citizens because it would be too costly to take in so many refugees. “I can already tell you that it will cost a lot of money…The costs are huge, which will further limit the space available for public funds. Therefore, I will promise almost nothing in this election campaign. There is no space for it,” he said at the time.
Predictably, with such a bleak outlook for the country, Reinfeldt lost the election, but was replaced by Sweden’s left-wing Social Democrats, led by Stefan Löfven. Löfven did everything Reinfeldt said and more during the European migrant crisis of 2015-2016, causing a more rapid and pronounced demographic change than any other country in Europe.
Report: 2015 migrant crisis cost Sweden 583 billion kronor – 14 times its defence budget https://t.co/BVUjh84C1l pic.twitter.com/8nYIHOnHD6
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) February 19, 2016
