Migrants who voluntarily leave Sweden can receive several hundred euros for doing so. This is now set to increase significantly. Experts are skeptical that this will change anything.
The Swedish government wants to significantly increase the premium for the voluntary return of migrants to their homeland. From 2026, payments of up to 350,000 kronor (around 30,700 euros) are planned, the government announced on Thursday. “We are in the midst of a paradigm shift in our migration policy,” said Migration Minister Johan Forssell. Currently, immigrants can receive the equivalent of just under 880 euros per adult and 440 euros per child in the event of a voluntary departure, with the amount capped at just over 3,500 euros per family.
The payments have been in place since 1984, but they are relatively unknown and “only used by relatively few people,” said MP Ludvig Aspling of the ultra-right Sweden Democrats. The increase should change this.
The planned increase was decided despite a government-commissioned study last month advising against a significant increase because the expected effectiveness did not justify the potential costs.
Sweden’s conservative Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson ran in 2022 on the promise of reducing immigration and fighting crime in his country. His minority government is supported by the Sweden Democrats, which became the second largest force in the parliamentary election with 20.5 percent.
Sweden has taken in a large number of migrants since the 1990s, mainly from war-torn and crisis-ridden countries such as the former Yugoslavia, Syria, Afghanistan, Somalia, Iran and Iraq.
