For decades, Sweden was known as one of Europe’s most welcoming countries for refugees. It took pride in pursuing one of Europe’s most generous asylum policies, and often presented itself as a humanitarian role model.
But today it has one of the continent’s most restrictive migration policies. That transformation has taken little more than a decade.
The turning point came during the 2015 refugee crisis. Sweden received more than 160,000 asylum applications, more than 12% of all applications in the European Union. Around 35,000 were unaccompanied minors, more than one third of the EU total that year. The scale of the inflow exposed strains on the country’s system and fundamentally changed the political debate around migration.
The immediate response was a broad cross-party agreement introducing stricter asylum and family migration rules. This was followed by temporary border controls, and the replacement of permanent residence permits with temporary ones for most refugees.
These measures, introduced by a leftwing Social Democratic government, were more than a response to an exceptional situation. They signalled the emergence of a new political consensus: that Sweden should pursue a substantially more restrictive migration policy.
The next decisive step came after the 2022 election. A centre-right coalition led by Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson took office, with parliamentary support from the anti-immigration party...
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