**Stockholm tightens expulsions, residency, and access to citizenship**
**Sweden proves immigration can be stemmed: asylum applications fall to four-decade lows**
Sweden, which for years was one of Europe’s greatest symbols of open-door policies, has managed to reduce asylum applications to levels that seemed unthinkable after the 2015 migration crisis. The latest forecasts from the Swedish Migration Agency point to around 4,200 people applying for asylum in the country during 2026, a figure that would place arrivals at lows not seen in over four decades.
The contrast with the recent past is stark. In 2015, at the height of the European migration crisis, around 160,000 people sought protection in Sweden. A decade later, Stockholm has taken a radical turn by restricting asylum, increasing pressure on deportations, tightening conditions to obtain residency and citizenship, and offering financial aid to those who decide to return voluntarily to their countries.
The Swedish Government itself openly acknowledges that it is abandoning the model that turned the country into one of the preferred destinations for asylum seekers. Its official strategy now focuses on reducing that type of immigration and prioritizing the arrival of skilled workers, researchers, and professionals who can contribute to the national economy.
**From an open-door benchmark to historic lows**
The shift was already clearly visible before the start of 2026. During 2025, asylum applications fell by 30%, reaching their lowest level since 1985, according to government data reported by Reuters.
The composition of immigration has also changed. Asylum seekers and their families represented only 6% of registered immigration in Sweden during 2025, compared to 31% in 2018. Migration Minister Johan Forssell has presented this evolution as the result of a deliberate policy change.
For years, Sweden went from championing one of the most permissive migration laws in Europe to holding the view that mass immigration had contributed to integration problems, social exclusion, and gang-related crime.
The Government's official website now acknowledges that the high immigration of recent decades has caused "great strain" and that integration issues affect numerous areas of Swedish society.
**The Government: anyone with an expulsion order must leave**
One of the pillars of the new model is the effective execution of deportations. The Executive's doctrine is explicit: anyone who receives an expulsion order must leave Sweden, either voluntarily or through forced return.
During 2025, the number of people returning voluntarily to other countries or being expelled by the authorities had already increased. The Government has also reinforced controls aimed at locating foreign nationals staying illegally in the territory and has established dedicated centers for individuals awaiting return.
Forssell intends to continue tightening the system this year with new rules designed to increase the number of returns. The strategy stems from a principle radically different from the one that dominated much of Europe for years: an expulsion order must effectively end with the foreign national leaving the country.
**Asylum seekers will have to live in controlled centers**
Sweden is also restricting the freedom of applicants to choose where to reside while their cases are processed. The Government has promoted a model in which they will have to stay in reception centers managed by the Migration Agency, with stricter controls over their movements.
Those who fail to comply with the conditions could lose their benefits and even risk having their applications withdrawn.
Authorities believe the previous model, which allowed applicants to arrange their own accommodation, contributed to overcrowding, the formation of pockets of exclusion, and the illegal stay of individuals whose petitions had been rejected.
Immigrants with expulsion orders will also have to report their whereabouts periodically to make it harder for them to disappear from the system before being deported.
**Harder path to citizenship and expulsions for criminals**
The transformation also extends to access to nationality. The Government wants to end what it describes as an era of overly lenient requirements, maintaining that Swedish citizenship must be "earned," not handed out automatically.
Proposed reforms include longer residency periods, economic self-sufficiency requirements, proficiency in the language and knowledge of Swedish society, as well as stricter checks on the applicant's conduct.
Stockholm is even considering allowing the revocation of citizenship for certain dual nationals if obtained fraudulently or if they have committed serious crimes against national security. Official policy goes even further regarding foreign offenders.
"If you commit a crime, you lose the right to live in Sweden," the Government summarizes in its own immigration and integration strategy. Authorities intend to expand the legal mechanisms available to expel foreign nationals who commit crimes or pose a threat to society.
**More money for voluntary returnees**
Sweden has also opted for financial incentives to encourage return. Since January 2026, the Executive has substantially increased financial aid for immigrants who decide to voluntarily return to their countries of origin, accompanied by controls to prevent fraud.
The objective is to reduce both future immigration and the foreign population that has failed to integrate and prefers to leave the country.
It is a policy that would have been politically almost unimaginable during the years when Sweden was presented internationally as one of the prime examples of European multiculturalism.
La GAceta