The governing parties and SD have previously announced that they will implement a paradigm shift in migration policy and significantly reduce asylum applications.
At the same time, the Swedish Migration Agency does not change its forecast for, among other things, how many asylum applications are estimated to come in during 2023.
In the previous forecast in February, expectations were lowered from 18,000 asylum seekers to 16,000. Since then, nothing has happened to cause the Swedish Migration Agency to change that assessment.
In the latest forecast published today, the number of new asylum applications, in addition to those from Ukraine, is estimated to remain at 16,000 in 2023.
“Only takes existing legislation into account”
Migration Minister Maria Malmer Stenegard (M) explains that the Migration Agency’s forecast only takes into account existing legislation and submitted proposals, but not other notified legislation.
– This government is proceeding with a series of different measures to greatly reduce immigration to Sweden – but also to increase return, she says.
SD: “Social democratic mismanagement”
SD’s migration policy spokesperson Ludvig Asplind has a similar explanation, he says that the forecast is based on what applied during the S government.
– After years of social democratic misrule, it takes time to reverse the trend. With the reform proposals in the Tidö Agreement, we expect a sharp reduction, says Asplind.
Ygeman (S): Labor immigration is increasing
Anders Ygeman (S) also draws attention to the report and says that the government’s policy has increased labor immigration to “non-serious industries” and to industries where there is no shortage of jobs with 15,000 people compared to how it had been with S’s policy.
– The big paradigm shift in migration policy is, ironically enough, that the unqualified workforce has been allowed to increase, Ygeman said at a press conference.
