Sweden pays foreign residents £27k to leave amid right-wing immigration crackdown

Sweden pays foreign residents £27k to leave amid right-wing immigration crackdown Sweden was once known for welcoming migrants – but attitudes have changed over the past decade - Bookmark Sweden was once known for welcoming migrants. But over the past decade, the country has not only shut its borders – its right-wing government is now paying some foreign-born residents huge sums to leave. In 2015, Sweden took in 163,000 asylum seekers. That was the second highest per capita in Europe. By 2025, that number had fallen by 96 per cent. And since the start of 2026, the coalition government – which ran on a pledge to cut both immigration and crime – has been offering those with non-EU residency permits up to 350,000 Swedish crowns (£27,100) to leave the country. The Sweden Democrats, a far-right party that is outside the government but backs it in parliament, has thrown its support behind the scheme. The party launched ads on buses in July promoting the scheme to Somali immigrants. “Do you miss Mogadishu?” the ad read, referring to the capital of Somalia. “The remigration grant will help you get home.” The government has also publicised the scheme, which has a budget of 1.3 billion Swedish crowns (£100 million), on its websites in multiple languages. “Improving re-migration is high on my government's agenda,” Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson has said. Germany’s AfD supports the scheme Anti-immigration rhetoric has surged across Europe since over a million people, mainly Syrian nationals fleeing war, arrived in 2015. Right-wing nationalist parties have seen a surge in support, and governments across the continent have adopted increasingly restrictive migration policies. Mary Khan-Hohloch, a European Parliament politician for Alternative for Germany (AfD), which won 44 per cent of the vote in state elections in Saxony-Anhalt on Sunday, welcomed the Swedish initiative. “Given the considerable financial and social burdens facing many European countries as a result of migration policies to date, interest in effective return and remigration programmes is likely to continue to grow,” she said. However, Bram Frouws, director of the Mixed Migration Centre, a research body, said that there was no evidence such schemes produce any significant increase in voluntary emigration. “This is one of those policy proposals where this doesn’t even matter, it’s mainly symbolic, it’s about signalling how tough they are on migration,” he said. Fewer than 200 migrants opt for the money So far this year, just 171 people have taken up the offer of cash to leave. The Sweden Democrats now want to extend the offer to immigrants with Swedish citizenship, if they agree to revoke it. “That's where you find the large numbers,” said Ludvig Aspling, the immigration spokesperson for the party, highlighting citizens who struggle to support themselves financially and speak little Swedish. The opposition and civil rights groups have accused Mr Kristersson of going too far and call the policy divisive. Latest opinion polls for the 13 September election show an almost equal split between the government on one side and the Social Democrats and centre-left on the other in the country of 10.6 million, where two million people are foreign-born. Immigrants want ‘freedom and a good life’ In the working-class Stockholm suburb of Satra, a dozen immigrants have gathered at a community centre to have coffee and practice Swedish. Among them are a Sudanese woman, two people from Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine, one person who fled the Taliban in Afghanistan, and a dissident from China. They have all heard about the government cash incentive to leave. None are interested. “I want freedom, to be able to work and live a good life,” said Elena Ibrahim, 42, from Sudan. She fled her ex-husband and religious oppression eight years ago. Now remarried, she works as an artist. “I will not go back,” she vowed. Mahmoud Khalfi, the imam at the Stockholm Mosque, Sweden's largest, said the scheme and anti-immigrant rhetoric were divisive and caused anxiety among Sweden's Muslim population. Those who would have opportunities if they left are the highly educated, such as doctors or professors, he said. “They can go to London or Dubai...but those with less education have no choice, they can't leave.” The policy, he said, “doesn't solve any problem. Even if a few thousand leave, it has made it worse for those who have to stay”. Sweden’s wider immigration crackdown Sweden has also started tightening other rules for immigrants. It no longer awards permanent residency permits and makes immigrants re-apply for them after three years. In August, the government launched the first-ever citizenship tests, mandatory for all who apply. At a Stockholm convention centre, 900 immigrants were tested on their knowledge of Sweden, including the line of succession for the monarchy and the midsummer holiday. “It wasn't that hard,” said Cornelius, 38, originally from Cameroon, who added that citizenship would bring peace of mind. “Sweden is a very good place. It's safe and there are jobs.” Migration Minister Johan Forssell said that the tests were important in underlining the value of citizenship and that it came with both rights and demands. “These are highly reasonable requirements,” he said. “What's unreasonable is that until now you have been able to become a citizen without knowing anything about Sweden and without speaking a single word of Swedish.”