Swedish government pressured to hike minimum salary for work permits
Sweden's Social Democrat opposition has criticised the government for failing to hike the minimum salary for a work permit a full five months after a new law gave them power to do so.
The party's migration spokesperson, Anders Ygeman, estimated at a press conference on Tuesday that Sweden would have received 15,000 fewer low-skilled labour migrants by this point if the Social Democrats had been in power and raised the salary threshold to 30,000 when the law came into force in November.
"Despite the government having five months to decide on a threshold, they haven't yet managed to do so," Ygeman said. "The 'paradigm shift' seems to mean allowing the number of low skilled labour migrants to increase."
Sweden's parliament at the end of November voted through a bill, originally drawn up by the Social Democrats, which empowered the government to increase the minimum salary for those coming to Sweden on a work permit "on the day the government decides”, to a level of the government's choosing.
But in an interview with The Local earlier this year, Sweden's Migration Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard said that the government did not intend to raise the minimum salary to the levels suggested in the election campaign last year.
Her spokesperson then told The Local that the minimum salary would be raised in two stages, with a smaller raise this year and then a more significant raise after an inquiry delivers its findings next year
At the press conference, Ygeman referred to the forecast from the Migration Agency that around 100,000 people would seek work permits in Sweden in 2023, with a similar number applying in 2024 and 2025.
"This is a level Sweden has never previously experienced. This is a historically high level," he said.
Maria Malmer Stenergard rejected the criticism.
"It's almost laughable that Ygeman is so impatient when he himself sat in a government that did not succeed in limiting labour migration in eight years," she said.
She said that the government would make a proposal to "significantly increase" the salary threshold "within the near future".
Ludvig Aspling, the migration spokesman for the Sweden Democrats, also blamed the Social Democrats for the high level of labour migration.
"Social Democrat policies are the cause of what we see now. It's their rules which are still in force," he said, adding that he was confident that the higher threshold would start to apply from this year.
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The party's migration spokesperson, Anders Ygeman, estimated at a press conference on Tuesday that Sweden would have received 15,000 fewer low-skilled labour migrants by this point if the Social Democrats had been in power and raised the salary threshold to 30,000 when the law came into force in November.
"Despite the government having five months to decide on a threshold, they haven't yet managed to do so," Ygeman said. "The 'paradigm shift' seems to mean allowing the number of low skilled labour migrants to increase."
Sweden's parliament at the end of November voted through a bill, originally drawn up by the Social Democrats, which empowered the government to increase the minimum salary for those coming to Sweden on a work permit "on the day the government decides”, to a level of the government's choosing.
But in an interview with The Local earlier this year, Sweden's Migration Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard said that the government did not intend to raise the minimum salary to the levels suggested in the election campaign last year.
Her spokesperson then told The Local that the minimum salary would be raised in two stages, with a smaller raise this year and then a more significant raise after an inquiry delivers its findings next year
At the press conference, Ygeman referred to the forecast from the Migration Agency that around 100,000 people would seek work permits in Sweden in 2023, with a similar number applying in 2024 and 2025.
"This is a level Sweden has never previously experienced. This is a historically high level," he said.
Maria Malmer Stenergard rejected the criticism.
"It's almost laughable that Ygeman is so impatient when he himself sat in a government that did not succeed in limiting labour migration in eight years," she said.
She said that the government would make a proposal to "significantly increase" the salary threshold "within the near future".
Ludvig Aspling, the migration spokesman for the Sweden Democrats, also blamed the Social Democrats for the high level of labour migration.
"Social Democrat policies are the cause of what we see now. It's their rules which are still in force," he said, adding that he was confident that the higher threshold would start to apply from this year.
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