Sweden: Issuance of residence permits fell by almost 30% in November
Fewer residence permits were granted by the Swedish authorities in November – a total of 6,294, compared to the previous month when 8,940 permits were granted, which corresponds to a decrease of 29.5 percent.
According to the Swedish Migration Agency, the most residence permits granted for asylum purposes, including applicants under the Temporary Protection Directive, amounted to a total of 2,071 and corresponded to a total of 32.9 percent of the total permits granted in NovemberSchengenVisaInfo.com reports.
The number of residence permits for family purposes fell by 5.4 percent in November, with 1,914 issued from 2,025 the previous month. However, the decrease in residence permits issued for work purposes was most noticeable, as it fell from 3,141 to 1,136, which was a decrease of 63.8 percent.
The number of residence permits issued for studies increased in November as it rose from a total of 450 residence permits to 626 – a 39 percent difference recorded in just one month.
In addition, EU/EEA residence permits reached 626 in November, slightly less than the previous month when 690 were issued. Impediments to enforcement also fell from 90 to 53 in November.
Information from the authority also shows that the total number of residence permits issued so far this year is below the 2020 issuance rate. More precisely, 6,294 residence permits have been issued this year, while the figures for 2020 were 88,817 – 1,137 per cent more than in 2022.
The highest number of residence permits issued in 2020 were issued for work purposes – a total of 32,382, followed by family reunification (29,480), studies (10,869) and asylum seekers (10,279).
“Sweden has experienced a positive migration flow in the last 10 years. Many individuals migrate to Sweden each year and fewer individuals emigrate. In 2021, almost twice as many people immigrated to Sweden than people emigrated from it. This has been a strong contributing factor to Sweden’s population growth, despite a declining fertility rate. Statistisa explains.
Data from the same shows that immigration in Sweden reached 90,631 in 2021, an increase of 9.8 percent compared to 82,518 registered the previous year. On the other hand, emigration figures were unchanged – 48,937 in 2020 and 48,284 in 2021, which corresponds to a slight decrease of 1.3 percent.
The journals also show that the immigration rate in Sweden is the highest in 2016, which is related to the so-called migration crisis that affected all of Europe that year. 163,005 immigrants were in Sweden during that time, about 60,000 more than the total average of new arrivals registered between 2011 and 2021.