'Sweden's new migration policy will have huge impact on competitiveness'
With a sharp hike in the work permit salary threshold and tougher rhetoric and rules on migration, Sweden's new government risks depriving businesses of the foreign labour they need, argues Tove Hovemyr, public policy expert at Fores, Sweden's liberal think tank.
Hovemyr told The Local that it was wrong to see the far tougher migration policy contained in the 62-page Tidö Agreement solely through the prism of asylum rights, as the proposals would also have a ripple effect throughout the country's economy.
"I think it will have a huge impact on Sweden's competitiveness," she said. "This is ultimately a question about Sweden's growth, its businesses, and their ability to be competitive in a globalised world."
Labour migrants who come to Sweden, she said, work, pay taxes and contribute to the welfare state as much as any other citizen, so when they come to work, it is "a win-win", benefiting both the the country and migrants themselves.
As a result, she said, it was not surprising that Facebook groups such as The Local's own page, and those representing work migrants were full of distraught and angry comments following the announcement of the new government's programme.
"If you send the signal that you're not allowed to come here and work, I understand why they would be angry. I would be too if I came to a country and contributed, and was told that I should leave because migrants are unwanted."
READ ALSO: How does Sweden's new government want to change migration policy?
She said that the new government's plans to increase the minimum salary threshold for a work permit to the median salary (currently 33,000 kronor) would be felt most strongly in the hotel and restaurant industry, which she said "desperately suffers from a shortage of workers", but it would also affect industries such as tourism and car repair.
The health sector, which is heavily dependent on doctors, nurses and other personnel coming from abroad, would also struggle.
The new work permit policy goes against the economically liberal, pro-business approach on which the Liberal and Moderate Parties, and even the Christian Democrats, had long prided themselves, fitting better with a protectionist left-wing ideology.
"It's not a liberal or even right-wing party policy. This is a Social Democrat policy, and that is why this is so surprising," she said.
The argument that curtailing work permits for jobs paying less than 33,000 kronor would help reduce unemployment did not stack up, she added, as claims that it will force employers in to recruit at home in Sweden ignored the fact, that these jobs already have to be advertised in Sweden for at least ten days before anyone can be hired from overseas.
"If unemployed people, young people, and those who have recently come to Sweden through migration had been able to take these jobs, they already would have," she said.
"This is an argument based on a very socialist or social democratic view on the people in the workforce, which sees it as simply a workforce, instead of as individuals with individual competencies and abilities."
In her opinion, the real reason the government parties wanted to raise the work permit salary threshold was to appear tough on migration.
"This is just gesture politics to show that these parties are anti-migration, no matter what type of migration it is," she said. "You have to see that this is a part of the bigger trend of tougher migration policy, not necessarily of economic policy."
Fredrik Malm, the Liberal Party's vice chair, has argued that the salary threshold was necessary to prevent "slave labour" being imported to Sweden.
"For me that that statement is appalling," Hovemyr said. "Almost half of the Swedish population don't have a salary above 33,000 kronor. Are they working on slave wages?"
A far better way to protect foreign workers exploited by unscrupulous businesses would be to better police employers who abuse the system and suspend the work permits of those they employ.
"In the current regulation that we have, it already states that you have to have an income that is enough to support yourself, and your salary also has to be in line with the customary wages in the industry."
Some of the other policies in the agreement made more sense, she said, pointing in particular to the decision to abolish the spårbyte, or "track change" system, which allows people who arrive in Sweden as asylum seekers to then apply instead for a work permit once they have arrived.
"This is about removing incentives, it shouldn't be seen as a labour migration issue," she said. "This is an issue about asylum migration, and I'm not surprised by that because that has already been discussed in the committee that negotiated the latest migration policy regulation in parliament."
But even beyond the question of labour migration, she said that there were a lot of policies in the agreement that made her uncomfortable as a liberal.
"This is most repressive government we've seen for many years in Sweden, and it will hit people with foreign nationalities, or who have parents of foreign nationality, particularly hard," she said. "I think it's very illiberal in many areas, especially when you look at the policies on criminality and migration."
One of the most worrying proposals, she said, was the plan to change the Swedish constitution so that dual citizens who commit serious crimes could have their Swedish citizenship stripped away from them.
"It's a slippery slope that I think is very dangerous in many ways," she said. "And it's also a way to make this a more repressive state."
She was also critical of a proposal to allow anonymous witnesses to testify in court, which she said had already been considered in a government inquiry in Sweden and rejected.
"This would make it harder for someone under criminal charges to have a right to a fair trial," she said. "But it is also something that has already been been criticised by the person who was responsible for investigating the possibility of having anonymous witnesses, because they concluded it wasn't an effective measure to fight organised crime."
Finally, she said that she was concerned about the decision to reduce the number of UN quota refugees accepted by Sweden from 5,000 a year to around 900 a year.
"Those are 4,000 of the people who are in the most urgent need of resettlement and asylum that are no longer going to have that possibility here in Sweden. And we know that the UN and the UNHCR are already crying out for countries to take more responsibility on this issue, not less."
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Hovemyr told The Local that it was wrong to see the far tougher migration policy contained in the 62-page Tidö Agreement solely through the prism of asylum rights, as the proposals would also have a ripple effect throughout the country's economy.
"I think it will have a huge impact on Sweden's competitiveness," she said. "This is ultimately a question about Sweden's growth, its businesses, and their ability to be competitive in a globalised world."
Labour migrants who come to Sweden, she said, work, pay taxes and contribute to the welfare state as much as any other citizen, so when they come to work, it is "a win-win", benefiting both the the country and migrants themselves.
As a result, she said, it was not surprising that Facebook groups such as The Local's own page, and those representing work migrants were full of distraught and angry comments following the announcement of the new government's programme.
"If you send the signal that you're not allowed to come here and work, I understand why they would be angry. I would be too if I came to a country and contributed, and was told that I should leave because migrants are unwanted."
READ ALSO: How does Sweden's new government want to change migration policy?
She said that the new government's plans to increase the minimum salary threshold for a work permit to the median salary (currently 33,000 kronor) would be felt most strongly in the hotel and restaurant industry, which she said "desperately suffers from a shortage of workers", but it would also affect industries such as tourism and car repair.
The health sector, which is heavily dependent on doctors, nurses and other personnel coming from abroad, would also struggle.
The new work permit policy goes against the economically liberal, pro-business approach on which the Liberal and Moderate Parties, and even the Christian Democrats, had long prided themselves, fitting better with a protectionist left-wing ideology.
"It's not a liberal or even right-wing party policy. This is a Social Democrat policy, and that is why this is so surprising," she said.
The argument that curtailing work permits for jobs paying less than 33,000 kronor would help reduce unemployment did not stack up, she added, as claims that it will force employers in to recruit at home in Sweden ignored the fact, that these jobs already have to be advertised in Sweden for at least ten days before anyone can be hired from overseas.
"If unemployed people, young people, and those who have recently come to Sweden through migration had been able to take these jobs, they already would have," she said.
"This is an argument based on a very socialist or social democratic view on the people in the workforce, which sees it as simply a workforce, instead of as individuals with individual competencies and abilities."
In her opinion, the real reason the government parties wanted to raise the work permit salary threshold was to appear tough on migration.
"This is just gesture politics to show that these parties are anti-migration, no matter what type of migration it is," she said. "You have to see that this is a part of the bigger trend of tougher migration policy, not necessarily of economic policy."
Fredrik Malm, the Liberal Party's vice chair, has argued that the salary threshold was necessary to prevent "slave labour" being imported to Sweden.
"For me that that statement is appalling," Hovemyr said. "Almost half of the Swedish population don't have a salary above 33,000 kronor. Are they working on slave wages?"
A far better way to protect foreign workers exploited by unscrupulous businesses would be to better police employers who abuse the system and suspend the work permits of those they employ.
"In the current regulation that we have, it already states that you have to have an income that is enough to support yourself, and your salary also has to be in line with the customary wages in the industry."
Some of the other policies in the agreement made more sense, she said, pointing in particular to the decision to abolish the spårbyte, or "track change" system, which allows people who arrive in Sweden as asylum seekers to then apply instead for a work permit once they have arrived.
"This is about removing incentives, it shouldn't be seen as a labour migration issue," she said. "This is an issue about asylum migration, and I'm not surprised by that because that has already been discussed in the committee that negotiated the latest migration policy regulation in parliament."
But even beyond the question of labour migration, she said that there were a lot of policies in the agreement that made her uncomfortable as a liberal.
"This is most repressive government we've seen for many years in Sweden, and it will hit people with foreign nationalities, or who have parents of foreign nationality, particularly hard," she said. "I think it's very illiberal in many areas, especially when you look at the policies on criminality and migration."
One of the most worrying proposals, she said, was the plan to change the Swedish constitution so that dual citizens who commit serious crimes could have their Swedish citizenship stripped away from them.
"It's a slippery slope that I think is very dangerous in many ways," she said. "And it's also a way to make this a more repressive state."
She was also critical of a proposal to allow anonymous witnesses to testify in court, which she said had already been considered in a government inquiry in Sweden and rejected.
"This would make it harder for someone under criminal charges to have a right to a fair trial," she said. "But it is also something that has already been been criticised by the person who was responsible for investigating the possibility of having anonymous witnesses, because they concluded it wasn't an effective measure to fight organised crime."
Finally, she said that she was concerned about the decision to reduce the number of UN quota refugees accepted by Sweden from 5,000 a year to around 900 a year.
"Those are 4,000 of the people who are in the most urgent need of resettlement and asylum that are no longer going to have that possibility here in Sweden. And we know that the UN and the UNHCR are already crying out for countries to take more responsibility on this issue, not less."
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