Opinion: 'Why Swedish migration policy badly needs an overhaul'

As much as we cosmopolitan, travel-obsessed Swedes love the big, exotic world outside our Northern nook, we don't seem to know what to do with it once it comes knocking on our borders. The result is an immigration policy that even native Swedes struggle to understand.

Last month, cross-party talks on an overhaul of this policy – something all parties agree is needed – broke down. The ruling Social Democrats and the more hardline Moderate party are edging closer than ever to each others' respective positions, but they failed to reach an agreement on one crucial detail: a cap on the number of refugees allowed annually.

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Another reason behind the collapsed talks is purely strategic. The immigration-friendly Green Party threatened to bring down the Social Democratic government in the event they struck a deal with the conservative bloc on a stricter immigration policy. 

The upcoming mid-August deadline for a multi-party proposal is thus starting to look a bit too optimistic, but it's still possible that the Social Democrats and Green Party could bring forth a proposal together with the Centre Party and the Liberals, their partners in the so-called January agreement of last year. 

This official clash on immigration is only the public confirmation of the last couple of years' dramatic political shifts on the issue. Sweden has acquired a reputation for a naively liberal stance on immigration, but in reality, it's frustratingly bureaucratic at best, nationalist at worst.

Behind the latter tendency lie the formerly neo-Nazi Sweden Democrats. Obsessed with foreigners for all the wrong reasons, they've managed to turn immigration into a negatively charged term as well as push it to the top of the political agenda.

Voting slips at the 2018 election. Photo: Ulf Palm/TT

Unfortunately, most other major parties have acted erratically as the Sweden Democrats have breathed down their necks, growing from freaks on the political fringe to the third-largest, in some polls even second-largest party in the country. The consequences are all too clear.

The demand from right-of-centre parties that people wanting to set up a long-term home on our soil must learn Swedish is a case in point. The Sweden Democrats, Liberals, while the Moderates say even permanent residents should have to pass a language test.

In contrast with German, Arabic or French, our language is such an odd, tiny one that it's plain awkward trying to force it on strangers, like an overzealous salesman of pointless bric-à-brac.

Most importantly, the average Swede speaks and understands English on a pretty advanced level. Young people even relish practising it. So what's the point in forcing immigrants to learn Swedish -- at least those who move here already speaking English, as is the case for most who relocate for work?

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The popular political argument that fluency in Swedish is the premier key to integration rings false to many a native ear. Foreign movies aren't dubbed here; we're long-time suckers for English and American culture, and you'll certainly hear more English and anglicised words on our city streets than in, say, Rome or Barcelona.

But at least Swedish is a skill that can be tested. The political debate on the importance of "Swedish values" in new arrivals has been an embarrassment, with even nationalist politicians failing to come up with a definition that makes sense.

Then, there are the Kafkaesque rulings of the Swedish Migration Agency.

Not a month goes by without new cases being reported of stand-up citizens facing deportation over minor, often absurd technicalities (forgetting to take a vacation is a strong contender for the first prize), not seldom to unstable parts of the Middle East. These men and women have made their home here for years, even decades, starting families, purchasing property, climbing the career ladder. And then, out of the blue: A notice to get out, fast.

The phenomenon of deporting high-skilled labour is now so common that there's even an informal name for it: kompetensutvisningar, or the expulsion of competence.

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Given Sweden's long-standing global ambition to safeguard democracy and human rights, many Swedes are particularly appalled at the repeat incidents of children being deported or threatened with deportation. It's simply heartbreaking to watch 10-12-year-olds protesting their completely integrated classmates' deportations, calling out the adults on the Immigration Board for acting against the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Fresh cases brought to light only this summer involve a 10-year-old girl that could be expelled alone to Turkey, a recent 19-year-old graduate facing the same prospect but to the Ukraine, and an 11-year-old girl who risks ending up with the same family that abused her for years.

The ten-thousands strong Sweden-wide network "We can't stand it but we'll never stop fighting" pretty much sums it up (although they focus mainly on unaccompanied minors), and they have the support of prominent politicians such as Hans Blix and Jan Eliasson. Moulded by the more humanitarian society of former Prime Minister Olof Palme, they're an increasingly rare sight in the Swedish political landscape.

All parties are now gearing up for the 2022 general election. If the media doesn't succeed in holding our politicians accountable for recent failures, including in healthcare, the election is likely to be a race to the bottom of the always handy blame-the-immigrant game.

Lisa Bjurwald is a Swedish journalist and author covering current affairs, culture and politics since the mid-1990s. Her latest work BB-krisen, on the Swedish maternity care crisis, was dubbed Best reportage book of 2019 by Aftonbladet daily newspaper. She is also an external columnist for The Local – read her columns here. Do you agree or disagree? Share your thoughts in the comments below.