The policies of Sweden’s national-conservative-supported coalition—which has held the reins of power for a little over a year now—appear to be bearing fruit, resulting in far fewer migrants filing asylum claims in the country.
In an op-ed penned by the leaders of the center-right government—Ulf Kristersson (M), Jimmie Åkesson (SD), Ebba Busch (KD), and Johan Pehrson—for Dagens Nyheter, the group writes that, under their leadership, Sweden witnessed 26% fewer asylum applications in 2023 than had been filed the previous year under the left-liberal government.
The center-right leaders also underscored that the significant reduction of asylum claims seen this past year in Sweden has taken place as the asylum applications across the European continent rose by 30%
In October, leaked numbers from the European Union’s Asylum Agency (EUAA) indicated that more than 800,000 asylum applications had already been filed across the bloc’s 27 member states plus Switzerland and Norway. At the time, that number was anticipated to surpass the one million mark by the year’s end, which would be the highest value recorded since Europe’s migrant crisis in 2016 when 1.23 million applications were filed.
Since assuming office, Sweden’s center-right government’s main task has been to reverse, or at the very least decelerate, the long-term and progressively worsening societal damage exacted by mass migration, which the left-liberal Swedish Social Democratic Party encouraged and promoted during its lengthy rule.
The lax, head-in-the-clouds policies implemented and administered by the social democrats over multiple decades have left Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson’s government to deal with a crime rate that’s the highest in Northern Europe and a situation where gang violence, drug, and arms trafficking, and fraud threaten to overwhelm the state.
Kristersson, who for years had refused to acknowledge the link between mass migration and the decay of Swedish society at all levels, is now—perhaps reluctantly and largely due to pressure from Sweden Democrats—implementing policies that actively seek to discourage unnecessary migration.
One of these policies, which is set to be introduced by Kristersson’s SD-supported government, hopes to curb migration by making it more difficult for non-EU migrants to access Sweden’s generous social welfare system. Returning illegal migrants and criminal asylum seekers to their home countries has also been made a priority. In the summer, the government announced that it would be commissioning the construction of detention centers, “return centers,” to facilitate the repatriation of unwelcome third-country nationals.
In November, strides toward the same end were made when Sweden, along with its Nordic neighbors Denmark, Finland, and Norway, committed to cooperating in the repatriation of illegal immigrants. The four countries will coordinate efforts, with the help of the EU border agency Frontex, to transport individuals with deportation orders on shared flights back to their home countries.
