In 2015, Sweden granted 163,000 migrants asylum which was the highest number per capita of any EU country that year amid the migrant crisis, the Daily Mail reports. In 2024, only 6,250 asylum-related residence permits were granted, excluding those granted to Ukrainian migrants, according to Migration Minister Johan Forssell citing data from the Migration Agency. Additionally, the number of migrants who applied for asylum was significantly low at 9,645. This was down by 42 percent since 2022 and the lowest level since 1996.
Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson's right-wing government, backed by the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats took action to curb immigration after the 2015 surge left migrants without integration and resources, with many forming gangs and resorting to violence. After the migration wave, Sweden's cases of gang-related gun violence and bombings skyrocketed, with it earning the EU's highest number of deadly shootings per capita in 2023.
These reform packages include granting temporary residence permits to migrants over permanent, stricter family reunification requirements, and higher income requirements for work visas for non-EU citizens. The government will also be offering immigrants $34,000 each to leave the country.
Forssell told reporters, "While the number of asylum seekers is historically low, the number being granted asylum is also low.
"Today, three out of four people seeking asylum in Sweden are not considered to have sufficient grounds to be granted residency. They are therefore not refugees, and they must return home," he said, adding that his goal is to keep these immigration numbers down.
Forssell previously told The Times: "We are implementing what we describe as a paradigm shift in Swedish migration policy, and we are doing this with a very outspoken agenda that we want to limit the number of people seeking asylum here in Sweden," adding, "What happened during the refugee crisis was that all these very nice words, all this open-heart policy, met a very tough reality."
