Sweden’s government said Thursday, September 12, that it would drastically increase grants for immigrants who choose to leave the country and return home, to encourage more migrants to do so.
Immigrants who voluntarily return to their
home countries would be eligible to receive up to 350,000 Swedish kronor ($34,000),
the right-wing government, which is propped up by the anti-immigration Sweden
Democrats, told a press conference.
“We are in the midst of a paradigm shift in
our migration policy,” Migration Minister Johan Forssell told reporters.
Currently, immigrants can
receive up to 10,000 kronor per adult and 5,000 kronor per child, with a cap of
40,000 kronor per family.
“The grant has been around since 1984, but it
is relatively unknown, it is small and relatively few people use it,” Ludvig
Aspling of the Sweden Democrats told reporters.
Aspling added that if more people were aware
of the grant and its size was increased, more would likely accept the offer.
The announcement came despite a
government-appointed probe last month advising against a significant increase
in the amount of the grant, saying the expected effectiveness did not justify
the potential costs.
Conservative Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson
promised to counter immigration and crime after he came to power in 2022 with a
minority coalition government propped up by the Sweden Democrats – which
emerged as Sweden’s second-largest party with 20.5 per cent in the general
election.
Sweden has taken in a large number of migrants
since the 1990s, mostly from conflict-ridden countries such as the former
Yugoslavia, Syria, Afghanistan, Somalia, Iran and Iraq.
However, the Nordic country has struggled for
years to integrate immigrants.
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