“We’re working very hard to get all of this ready, but then parliament needs to do its part,” he told SvD. “Our starting point is that everything we promised voters will be carried out now.”
The government has recently received criticism in Swedish media for a large number of deportation orders.
These include Sydsvenskan’s reports of a four-year-old with autism who has been issued a deportation order and told to return to Bosnia alone, Aftonbladet’s reports of a 21-year-old who spent their teenage years in Sweden who has been deported to Iran and the pair of healthcare workers under threat of deportation, despite their colleagues’ protests.
Despite this, Forssell told SvD that he believes migration policy “is working a lot better than it was previously”.
“We need to remember where we came from: broken migration policy which wasn’t working, with asylum immigration that was far too high in relation to what Sweden can handle when it comes to integration,” he said.
Only some of the high-profile deportation cases are a result of current government policy, he said, for example those caused by the abolition of ‘track changes’, which allowed rejected asylum seekers to switch to a work permit, in April last year.
Forssell told the newspaper that the track change law should “never have been introduced” in the first place, and that it caused “a real mess”.
When it comes to so-called ‘teen deportations’, when teenagers to parents with residence permits turn 18 and have to apply for a residence permit on their own merit, Forssell put the blame on the former Social Democrat-Green government.
“I understand that an individual case can cause a lot of emotions,” he told SvD. “That’s what makes migration policy difficult, it’s about a lot of individual cases and stories. But as migration minister I need to look at the full picture.”
One of the laws Forssell is planning on pushing through parliament before the next election in September is a proposal to make 'poor conduct' or bristande vandel a ground for denying a residence permit.
This means that anyone deemed to have a flawed way of life, such as an unwillingness to pay debts, misuse of the welfare system, non-compliance with rules or posing a threat to Swedish security through for example membership or contact with criminal networks would no longer be eligible for a residence permit.
He told SvD that he wants to make this law retroactive, despite the original inquiry not proposing this, meaning it would also apply to those who already hold residence permits. That means anyone deemed to have a flawed way of life could have their existing residence permit revoked.
“If we don’t do this then it would cover significantly fewer people. There are a lot of people here today who are not Swedish citizens, who live here and need to show that they want to be part of our Swedish community. It’s natural that we also apply these requirements to them.”
This would affect hundreds of thousands more people than the original proposal, according to SvD.
Forssell also rejected claims that the government’s plans to tighten up migration laws, including laws around citizenship rules, send a signal that immigrants are not welcome in the country.
“We don’t have an ethnic view of citizenship,” he told SvD. “Everyone who comes to Sweden can become Swedish and completely accepted for their contributions.”
“I often meet people who have moved to Sweden and say the same thing, that they came here, worked, learnt the language and made an effort to be part of society, and they are irritated by the fact that we spoil those who don’t.”
He said that many people he speaks to are “angry” about being lumped together with people who have committed crimes.
“I can understand that feeling. But it gives me an allergic reaction when single people speak out on behalf of a whole group. There are a lot of people who have moved to Sweden themselves who think what we’re doing is right and fair.”
“Sweden is a fantastic country where there are unbelievable possibilities for people who come here. But it is also what you make of it. It is not a society without demands.”
Below is the full list of migration reforms Forssell plans to pass this spring:
- Tightening up the rules to increase return migration, for example introducing a stipulation for various authorities to provide information to the government and more checks on foreigners in the country
- Tightening up the rules for Swedish citizenship, including a self-sufficiency requirement, longer residency requirement and civics and language tests
- An inquiry looking into the possibility of revoking Swedish citizenship, to be reported in March, after which the government will assess whether to go further
- Tightening up the rules for deportation due to criminal activity, which is expected to increase deportation of criminals sixfold
- Tightening up rules on deportation due to a ‘flawed way of life’
- Tightening up rules for moving to Sweden to join a family member, including a mandatory two-year waiting period and an increased self-sufficiency requirement
- Tighter rules for labour migration, including raising the work permit salary threshold to 90 percent of the median salary
- A new law around housing for refugees abolishing a rule allowing them to find their own housing while still receiving a daily allowance from the Migration Agency
- Simplifying migration rules for researchers and doctoral candidates
- Introducing new rules around deportations which have been unable to take place due to verkställighetshinder or an “obstacle to deportation”
- Tightening Sweden’s migration laws to the lowest level accepted under EU law, including abolishing permanent residency for future applicants. The second half of the same inquiry proposed revoking previously issued permanent residence permits.
- Incorporating the EU’s migration and asylum pact into Swedish law
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