Swedish politicians reached the red line

Swedish news media have reported on well-established teenagers who alone must leave Sweden, because of a change in law. 

Questions have now been raised about how strict the integration policy should be. 

A couple of years ago the Swedish government passed a law that removed the possibility to extend your residence permit based on “exceptionally distressing circumstances”.

Since then, multiple Swedish news media organisations have reported on teenagers who must leave the country when they turn 18.

Simultaneously, a political discussion about integration has been raised. Jonas Hinnfors, professor in political science at Gothenburg University, says many parties might have realized that they have gone too far when it comes to migration and integration policy.

“For a long time, the political debate and the decisions made have become stricter. But now it seems like politicians have reached a red line,” he says.

The left and liberal opposition want to pause the teenage deportations until some kind of change in law is made. The Government has dismissed their demand but investigates the possibility for a “valve” that could stop some of the discussed deportations. Their supporting party, the Swedish Democrats, has previously been against introducing a “valve” but is now open for some kind of change.

Jonas Hinnfors says the debate can symbolize an ideological difference between the Swedish Democrats and the other parties.

“The Swedish Democrat’s underlying project is to keep the country ethnically clean. They might want to go further or shorter in that, but they find ‘traditional Sweden’ important.”

The Swedish Democrats is sister party to the Danish Dansk Folkeparti. It was for a long time considered racist but during the past few years Swedish politicians have started to accept the party and adapting their policies.

Since 2022, the Swedish Democrats are part of the government, an accomplishment after being politically isolated for many years. Not only is reducing the asylum-seeking population mainstream politics now - the debate about teenage deportations isn’t just about decreasing migration.

“But also about reducing the number of immigrants in Sweden, they want people to leave,” Jonas Hinnfors says.

He says that it might be easier for parties to embrace a stricter policy when it comes to the number of people coming here. That you can do for many ideological reasons, including economical.

“But the teenage deportation debate, that is about remigration, is connected to other ideological stands,” Jonas Hinnfors says.

He thinks it’s less possible that the parties fully adapt to the Swedish Democrats in cases like this. Still, nothing is impossible he says.

“The Swedish prime minister said over my dead body that we will collaborate with the Swedish Democrats, but then they did," Jonas Hinnfors says.