Immigration to Sweden

Source: Statistics Sweden 2018[1]

Immigration to Sweden is the process by which people migrate to Sweden to reside in the country.[2] Many, but not all, become Swedish citizens. The economic, social, and political aspects of immigration have caused some controversy regarding ethnicity, economic benefits, jobs for non-immigrants, settlement patterns, impact on upward social mobility, violence, and voting behaviour.[3]

Sweden had very few immigrants in 1900 when the nationwide population totaled 5,100,814 inhabitants, of whom 35,627 individuals were foreign-born (0.7%). 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.[4]

As of 2010, 1.33 million people or 14.3 percent of the inhabitants of Sweden were foreign-born. Of these individuals, 859,000 (64.6%) were born outside the European Union and 477,000 (35.4%) were born in another EU member state.[5] 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.[6][7] 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.[7] As of 2020, 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 (51,073 people) and persons with a Swedish background accounted for 1.2 percent (633 persons) of the population increase.[8] The official definition of foreign background (sv:utländsk bakgrund) comprises individuals either born abroad or having both parents born abroad.[9] In 2017, majorities in three municipalities had foreign backgrounds: Botkyrka (58.6%) Södertälje (53.0%) and Haparanda (51.7%).[9] Malmö, the third largest city of Sweden and Skåne county as a whole have taken in record numbers of immigrants fleeing conflict.[10]

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 (63,000) 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,[11] after temporary border ID controls had been initiated and been in effect during 2016.[12] As of 2014, 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.[13] In the year 2017, most asylum seekers come from Syria (267), Eritrea (263), Iraq (117), and Georgia (106).[14]

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.[15][16][17]

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 Middle Way"), the Swedish Migration Agency, de facto social segregation, the rise of right-wing Swedish politics, and imported Danish-Swedish extremism.[18][19]

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.[20]

Immigrants in Sweden are mostly concentrated in the urban areas of Svealand and Götaland. The largest foreign-born populations residing in Sweden come from Finland, Iraq, formerly Yugoslavian countries, Poland, Iran, and Syria.

  1. ^ "Sveriges befolkning från 1749 och fram till idag". Sverige i siffror (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 15 February 2020. Retrieved 15 February 2020.
  2. ^ SCB, Enheten för statistik om befolkning och ekonomisk välfärd (October 2017). "Sveriges befolkning från 1749 och fram till idag". Sverige i siffror (in Swedish)". SCB arkiv (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 15 February 2020.
  3. ^ Nishu Sohanaparvin (September 2021). Isak R. Shaikh (ed.). "Dr. Isak R. Shaikh – En Visionär i Vardande" [Dr. Isak R. Shaikh - A Visionary in the Making]. Academia (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 26 October 2022. Retrieved 27 October 2022.
  4. ^ "Tabeller över Sveriges befolkning 2009" [Tables on the population in Sweden 2009] (PDF). Tabeller Över Sveriges Befolkning (in Swedish). Örebro: Statistiska centralbyrån: 20–27. June 2010. ISSN 1654-4358. Archived (PDF) from the original on 30 September 2018. Retrieved 31 July 2012.
  5. ^ 6.5 percent of the EU population are foreigners and 9.4 percent are born abroad Archived 27 August 2017 at the Wayback Machine, Eurostat, Katya VASILEVA, 34/2011.
  6. ^ "Preliminary Population Statistics, by month, 2014". SCB.se. 6 March 2014. Archived from the original on 14 November 2016. Retrieved 25 March 2014.
  7. ^ a b Befolkningsstatistik i sammandrag 1960–2017 Archived 25 July 2018 at the Wayback Machine, February 2018 (note that this source says 14.7 percent instead of 14.3 percent for 2010)
  8. ^ "Allt fler beviljade medborgarskap". Statistiska Centralbyrån (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 18 March 2021. Retrieved 24 April 2020.
  9. ^ a b "Nya svenska medborgare från drygt 160 länder". Statistiska Centralbyrån (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 10 May 2019. Retrieved 24 March 2018.
  10. ^ BBC News (March 2017). "All Eyes Are On Malmö, But Not Because Of Trump". BBC. Archived from the original on 31 October 2022. Retrieved 31 October 2022.
  11. ^ Applications for asylum received, 2016 Archived 14 January 2022 at the Wayback Machine (available via Översikter och statistik från tidigare år Archived 23 February 2018 at the Wayback Machine)
  12. ^ Gränskontroll och id-kontroll – vad är vad? Archived 7 September 2018 at the Wayback Machine
  13. ^ Cite error: The named reference Tfp was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  14. ^ "Statistik – Migrationsverket". MigrationsVerket.se. Archived from the original on 13 May 2019. Retrieved 15 June 2017.
  15. ^ "Migrationen kan fördubbla statens kostnader för pensionärer". 17 October 2017. Archived from the original on 17 November 2017. Retrieved 11 November 2017.
  16. ^ "Pensionsmyndigheten svarar på regeringsuppdrag om migration". 13 October 2017. Archived from the original on 12 June 2018. Retrieved 11 November 2017.
  17. ^ Savage, Maddy (8 March 2017). "All eyes on Malmo, but not because of Trump". BBC News Expat Guides: WORKLIFE. Archived from the original on 31 October 2022. Retrieved 31 October 2022. Scandinavia's most diverse city has taken in record numbers of immigrants fleeing conflict, but its startup culture, lifestyle and food scene also makes it magnet for expats.
  18. ^ Stefan Persson. "Paludan anmäld av polisen – för hets mot folkgrupp". Archived from the original on 31 October 2022. Retrieved 31 October 2022.
  19. ^ Tomson, Danielle Lee (25 March 2020), "The rise of Sweden democrats: Islam, populism and the end of Swedish Exceptionalism", Brookings Institution, Series: The One Percent Problem: Muslims in the West and the Rise of the New Populists, archived from the original on 27 March 2020
  20. ^ Migrationsverket. "Slutsats: uppehållstillstånd för studier miss-brukas" [Conclusion: Residence permits for studies are abused] (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 1 November 2022. Retrieved 1 November 2022.