Under the rule of the Tidö parties in 2024, Sweden again looks set to exceed 100,000 residence permits granted, according to figures from the Swedish Migration Agency.
Up to the end of September, around 73,000 residence permits have been granted at a rate corresponding to just over 100,000 residence permits granted before the end of the year. Work, ties, studies and asylum were the four most common reasons for residence permits.
This is despite promises of a ‘paradigm shift’ in immigration policy from both the SD and the government in terms of reducing immigration to Sweden, something that does not seem to be reflected in real figures from the Swedish Migration Agency. Since 2010, Sweden has granted between 89,000 and just over 151,000 residence permits annually, with the ‘migrant crisis’ in 2015 and the Ukraine war leading to clear peaks in 2016 and 2022 respectively. 142,179 residence permits were granted in 2022, of which 47,566 were from Ukraine. 102,139 were granted in 2023, of which 11,000 were Ukrainians.
Under Ulf Kristersson’s government, about the same number of residence permits were granted as under Fredrik Reinfeldt (M) and Stefan Löfven (S), and have totalled around 100,000 annually. It should be added that similar patterns have been observed in several other European countries and that the difference between centre-right and socialist parties on migration policy is primarily rhetorical.
