Sweden Continues Pioneering Repatriation—Are They Reading White Papers?

In August of 2024 one of my fellow writers at the institute covered a report published by the Swedish government about the possibility of radically increasing repatriation incentives to get foreign-born Swedish passport holders and residents to leave their country and return to their homelands. This original report suggested that $15,000 be offered to immigrants looking to return to their homelands. We then went on to make a series of suggestions about what the Swedish state about do in order to further incentivize repatriation.

We recommended that the Swedes offer much more than $15,000. That way the money they were paying repatriated immigrants would sustain them in their homelands and therefore be much more attractive a sum. We suggested the Swedish state begin an information campaign to inform migrants and foreign born residents about the possibilities of repatriation. And lastly, we suggested the Swedish state work with ethnic minority oriented organizations to inform these communities even more directly about a chance to return to their countries of origin.

I want to add on a personal note that this aforementioned piece is the first I read on White Papers, and I’m honored to be writing such a celebratory follow up!

Speaking of which, in a follow up to the August 2024 piece, published in September just two weeks later, White Papers covered that Sweden had indeed expanded upon the repatriation report with suggestions extremely similar to the ones the institute made. The Swedish government announced they were looking at providing $34,000 dollars per person looking to return to their ethnic homeland. This would be 22.5 years’ worth of income in Syria and nearly 12 years’ worth of income in Iraq.

Additionally the Swedish Democrats announced that they would be doing a media blitz to inform non-Swedes about their remigration opportunities.

It is now, in this third follow up, that I can say the Swedes are marching forward with a robust repatriation policy—the first of its kind in the modern West.

The proposals are now becoming law, with the 2025 Swedish budget containing the legal provisions that will expand and entrench repatriation assistance for “certain individuals who already legally reside in Sweden.” Crucially the repatriation payments, which will start in 2026, will not be available for anyone who comes to the country later. Repatriation assistance will expand to family members, accepted refugees, and people with resident permits as well as those who have become naturalized citizens in the country during this ridiculous age of mass immigration.

And before the inevitable protestations arise, Sweden will be radically reducing immigration according to government proposals so that as people leave, new waves will not be entering the country. In fact, immigration to Sweden has plateaued while emigration is the highest since 2005, and indeed more people are thought to have emigrated than immigrated to the country for the first time in nearly two decades. The Swedish government has also announced it is going to radically increase the number of residence permits it revokes for perceptions of abuse and failure to meet requirements. Furthermore, the Swedish government is looking to tighten immigration of low-skilled labor by introducing a series of wage requirements.

Additionally, the country will require failed applicants and failed asylum seekers to first leave Sweden before applying for another kind of permit for work or residency.

The law making it mandatory for any state employee to report an interaction with an illegal immigrant is still moving ahead as well. This is something every Western country should adopt.

The Swedish government will also be looking at restricting family reunification (chain migration) and reducing or eliminating certain exceptions for the relatives of ‘refugees’ so that they cannot chain-migrate to the country. Sweden will also be tightening its refugee laws to the strictest level possible under EU law.

The fact this wasn’t already policy is mind-boggling but not surprising. That aside, I could not be happier for the Swedes; and as a Briton, incredibly jealous that their government is taking some action to reverse the Great Replacement!

Still, the good news goes on! The Swedish government has indeed set forth a plan to begin information campaigns to inform non-Swedes about their ability to return to their home countries.

The Swedish government has also begun to tighten its citizenship laws. No longer will people who do not speak the language and have a criminal record have the chance to become Swedish citizens. New laws will severely restrict criminals and those who pose a security risk from becoming Swedish citizens. The government is going to increase residency time from 5 years to 8 years and will impose language requirements in the forthcoming legislative session.

Of course not everything is perfect, the Swedish government is still looking at loosening requirements for “highly skilled” immigrants, though it does not give a clear definition of what highly-skilled immigrants are beyond some salary thresholds that the state plans to lower rather than heighten.

Regardless, were Sweden to fully implement all of these measures and the measures be even partially successful the country could radically turn around its demographic composition.

There are roughly 380,000 to 400,000 non-EU immigrants in Sweden who have yet to acquire Swedish citizenship. They could be steadily repatriated to their homelands by simply refusing to renew their visas and catching them in fraud and scam investigations as the Swedish government plans to do. The country is also putting in place systems to catch, report, and deport the roughly 100,000 illegal immigrants who are thought to reside in the country.

And then we move onto the roughly 1.5 million non-Europeans who have made Sweden their “home” in the previous several decades. If just 25% of these individuals, or about 425,000 people left Sweden, combined with the figures above for non-EU non-citizens and illegals, the Swedish population of Sweden could be increased from roughly 72% today to about 81% while the European population of the country as a whole would increase close to 85/86%.

The more successful the repatriation program is, the more the Swedish and broader European shares of the population will go up. If Sweden can keep this program up for decades, and be so bold as to expand it to the children and grandchildren of immigrants, the country could certainly regain its demographic health in a matter of decades.