The populist Sweden Democrats (SD) have called for the repatriation of Syrians, Afghans, and Somalis, noting their rate of unemployment and high numbers who have not integrated.
Party leader Jimmie Åkesson and migration policy spokesman Ludvig Aspling have said the Swedish government needs to do more to return migrants to their homelands if they rely on state benefits and do not integrate.
“Since 2010, Sweden has granted over 1.2 million residence permits, equivalent to more than a brand new Stockholm. Unemployment is almost five times higher among foreign-born compared to native-born,” the pair wrote in a debate article for the newspaper Aftonbladet.
The pair add that among Syrians, Afghans, and Somalis, half of the adults earn incomes less than 100,000 Swedish kronor (£8,189/$10,235) per year, and that among foreign-born residents in general some 600,000 are not self-sufficient.
“Remigration is not a miracle solution, but the failures of recent decades show that it must be an option – a solution for all those who live in long-term exclusion,” they said, noting that while Sweden does have a subsidy for those wishing to return to their home countries it is seldom used.
“Incentive structures and the welfare system must be reformed, so that people in exclusion cannot get caught up in welfare dependency, but are either forced into society or encouraged to remigrate,” they wrote.
Åkesson and Aspling also cited the Danish approach to repatriating migrants, quoting Danish government minister Mattias Tesfaye, who has previously stated his goal is that Denmark would receive zero asylum seekers.
The concept of remigration was also used by former French presidential candidate Eric Zemmour during his campaign earlier this year. The populist said that he wished to create a new government ministry specifically to deal with the issue.
Zemmour proposed to send at least a million migrants back to their countries over a period of five years. A poll released in late March revealed that around two-thirds of French people supported a mass remigration of illegals, foreigners on terrorist watchlists, and foreign criminals.