Rabat – The Swedish government has announced it will drastically increase grants for immigrants who choose to head back home by choice.
Starting in 2026, immigrants who choose to leave to Sweden of their free will are going to receive a financial package of up to $34,000, up from the current $1,000, said the right-wing government in a statement.
Under the current law, migrants returning home can get a maximum of $1,000 per adult, $500 per child, and a maximum of $4,000 per family, according to local broadcaster SVT Nyheter.
“We are in the midst of a paradigm shift in our migration policy,” Migration Minister, Johan Forssell, said at a press conference in Stockholm.
According to Ludvig Aspling, a member of the anti-immigrant, nationalist Sweden Democrats, the grant has been available since 1984 and “is relatively unknown, small, and used by a few people”.
He added during the press conference that the incentive would most likely appeal to the several hundred thousand migrants who are either long-term unemployed, jobless or whose incomes are so low they need state benefits to make ends meet. “That’s the group we think would be interested,” Aspling said.
Regarded by many as a “humanitarian superpower,” the Scandinavian country has long been a haven for the war-weary and persecuted. However, the government has struggled over the years to integrate many of its newcomers.
Its welcoming refugee policy since the 90s has accepted many migrants from war-torn countries such as the former Yugoslavia, Palestine, Syria, Afghanistan, Somalia, Iran and Iraq.
Read Also: Senegal’s President Dissolves Parliament, Calls Early Elections for November
