🇸🇪 Sweden to Offer Up to $34,000 for Immigrants to Voluntarily Leave 💰

Sweden’s right-wing government has announced plans to significantly increase payments to immigrants who voluntarily return to their countries of origin. Starting in 2026, individuals who choose to leave the nation, which has historically been a haven for those fleeing war and persecution, could receive up to 350,000 Swedish kronor (approximately $34,000).  

Johan Forssell, the Minister for Foreign Trade and International Development Cooperation, stated that this move is part of a “paradigm shift” in their migration policy. The government, supported by the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats, aims to curb migration with this latest measure.

Currently, immigrants can receive up to 10,000 kronor per adult and 5,000 kronor per child, with a family cap of 40,000 kronor. Ludvig Aspling of the Sweden Democrats explained that this grant has existed since 1984 but is relatively unknown and underutilized. He noted that only one person accepted the offer last year. Aspling believes that increased awareness and a higher grant amount would likely encourage more people to take the money and leave. He suggested that this incentive would be most appealing to the several hundred thousand migrants who are long-term unemployed, jobless, or have incomes so low that they rely on state benefits.

A government-appointed inquiry last month advised against significantly increasing the grant, arguing that the expected effectiveness did not justify the potential costs. Joakim Ruist, the head of the inquiry, warned that a substantial financial increase could signal that migrants are undesirable, further hindering integration efforts.

Other European countries also offer grants for migrants to return home. Denmark pays over $15,000 per person, compared to around $1,400 in Norway, $2,800 in France, and $2,000 in Germany.

Sweden, which has provided generous foreign development aid since the 1970s and has taken in large numbers of migrants since the 1990s, particularly from conflict-ridden countries like the former Yugoslavia, Syria, Afghanistan, Somalia, Iran, and Iraq. In 2015 alone, at the peak of the European migration crisis, Sweden received the highest number of asylum seekers per capita in the EU (160,000). Higher unemployment rates among those born abroad have widened wealth inequalities and strained Sweden’s comprehensive welfare system.

Conservative Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson came to power in 2022 with a minority coalition government supported by the Sweden Democrats, vowing to take a tougher stance on immigration and crime.

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