"I am proud to say that we are working very intensively on attracting many more high-skilled tech people to Sweden," he told The Local, saying it was one of his department's priorities.
He conceded, however, that in his meetings with high-skilled foreign workers and their employers, issues around citizenship did come up, but in his view it was one of a long list of obstacles.
"I'm spending a lot of time meeting with the high-skilled segment of people. Some of them are addressing these issues, but I think the environment is more complex than that: it's also about the tax system, it's about the housing situation, finding schools, etc. So we will address this."
He said that statistics showed that the proportion of work permits which were given to high-skilled workers had increased between 2023 and 2024.
"I'm pleased to see that the rate of high-skilled work permits last year compared to the low-skilled ones has increased. So there are obviously still some challenges ahead of us, but I think we're on the right path."
According to the Migration Agency's statistics for 2023 and 2024, the number of work permits issued for jobs requiring a university-level or advanced university level education fell from 14,081 in 2023 to 11,278 in 2024, meaning close to 3,000 fewer high-skilled workers came to Sweden.
As a proportion of total work permits awarded, however, the share high-skilled workers took of the total permits awarded rose from 68 percent to 84 percent.
Forssell also hit back when The Local reported complaints from foreigners in Sweden that the stricter citizenship rules set to be voted on by parliament later this year would apply retroactively, because applications which have already been submitted will be judged on the new rules and not on the ones in place when the application was made.
"We're not making any retroactive changes. That has never been the case," he said, arguing that the absence of transitional rules was "not the same thing as retroactive".
The Local has contacted an expert in administrative law to receive a second opinion on how to define retroactive in this context and will update this article when they respond to us.
Forssell defended the stricter citizenship rules by citing the similarly tough, or tougher rules, currently in place in other countries.
"We want Swedish citizenship to mean something and it's a fact that if you compare the Swedish legislation with the legislation in other Nordic countries, or elsewhere in Europe, we are clearly lagging behind," he said. "In order to be very clear about that, if you are doing the wrong things, if you're committing crimes, for example, then you should not be in Sweden."
Interview by Paul O'Mahony, text by Richard Orange.
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