A change in trend for the first time in 50 years: the number of immigrants leaving Sweden exceeds the number arriving
The Swedish government, backed by the extreme right, predicts that the number of immigrants leaving Sweden will exceed the number entering in 2024, for the first time in more than 50 years.
Preliminary data from the National Institute of Statistics showed that the number of departures was greater than arrivals in the first five months of the year. Immigration Minister Maria Malmar Steinergaard expects this trend to continue, noting that asylum applications have fallen to their lowest level since 1997, according to Agence France-Presse.
Steinergaard also confirmed that the number of departures has increased among people born in Syria, Iraq and Somalia, and praised the government's efforts to promote integration and reduce exclusion.
It should be noted that since the 1990s, Sweden has received large amounts of immigrants and asylum seekers from conflict zones, including the former Yugoslavia, Syria, Afghanistan, Somalia, Iran and Iraq.
Conservative leader Olaf Kristerson, who took power in October 2022, has pledged to significantly reduce immigration with the support of the nationalist Sweden Democratic Party.