Announces new measures to make border policy strictest in Europe.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson has acknowledged that “massive immigration just doesn’t work” as he announced changes to the country’s border control policy that would make it the strictest in the European Union.
Kristersson made the comments to mark the National Day of Sweden as he insisted that it was too easy for migrants who can’t even speak Swedish to obtain citizenship.
“Let me be clear: Massive immigration and poor integration just doesn’t work,” wrote Kristersson. “That is why we are now changing Sweden’s migration policy and making it the strictest in the EU.”
The leader of the center-right Moderate Party said new measures would be introduced to ensure migrants had not committed crimes in their home countries and also tests to ensure they respect Swedish culture and heritage.
“A ‘no’ to asylum means ‘no’ and you have to leave the country. That should be obvious, but it’s not,” said the PM. “Equally important, a ‘yes’ should mean that you really get involved in Swedish society.”
Kristersson said citizenship was not just about obtaining a passport and should be a “social contract and that social contract contains both rights and obligations.” He added that up until now “there has been absolutely no expectation that anyone who comes to Sweden will really learn our language,” which is the “glue that binds us together.”.
The measures are being introduced thanks to political lobbying from the right-wing Sweden Democrats party, which is now the second-largest party in the Riksdag and is keeping Kristersson in power via a confidence and supply agreement. Following ethnic riots that left over 100 police officers injured, Andersson warned that, “Segregation has gone so far that we have parallel societies in Sweden. We live in the same country, but different realities.”
Having been one of the safest countries in Europe 20 years ago before mass uncontrolled immigration, Sweden is now the continent’s second most dangerous in terms of gun crime behind only Croatia.
In 2021, Germany’s Bild newspaper ran the headline: ‘Sweden is the most dangerous country in Europe', whilst Last year, Ukrainian refugees expressed the desire to avoid being sent to Sweden, feeling that it was too unsafe.
However, sceptics have said that tightening of the borders now is too little too late, pointing to Poland as the preferred national model the Sweden should have followed.