Swedish news, week 41 in 2025
Immigration news
Another raise in the minimum salary to qualify for a work visa and more strict rules for family reunification (press release in Swedish). The minimum salary to apply for a new or extended work visa is now pegged to 90% of the median across Sweden. In 2024, the median was 37100 SEK (source: SCB — Statistics Sweden, a government agency). Addendum for the fellow nerds: it's 35700 SEK for women and 38600 SEK for men, but this is not relevant for immigration. So, 90% of the median is 33390 SEK this year, and likely to increase every year thereafter.
The government will be able to exclude certain professions from this requirement, and also exclude certain other professions from being a possible basis for a work permit at all. They haven't shared those exceptions yet.
Previous level of the minimum salary required was 80% of the median (29680:- currently), but that's a very recent change as well, and before that it was set at ~13k SEK/month, staying the same for years.
As for the family reunification, the government will implement a couple of things from SOU 2025:95 as soon as possible, e.g. introduction of a 2-year-long waiting period before someone living in Sweden on a temporary permit can “sponsor” a relative's visa, and limiting anhörigkresten (who counts as a family member in the context of family reunification visas). The government also wants to go even further than the inquiry proposed when it comes to the maintenance requirement (finances and housing of the “sponsor”). There's a summary of the proposals in English starting on page 21. They've also brought up limiting the possibility for the international students in particular to bring their family to Sweden.
More news will come, since Johan Forsell mentioned 12 more proposals about immigration to be presented until the summer (01:40 in the press release video). One of them will be about qualifying for welfare through work.
Sveriges Radio
Sveriges Radio
Reports and data
The yearly Maktbarometern (“power barometer”) is here. It's a report about social media reach of various people and organizations in Sweden. Here's a change in different categories of top-100 accounts on Twitter/X:
Top-10 over all the social media analyzed (X, Facebook, Youtube, Instagram, TikTok) and the change in the position compared to 2024:
1. Sverigedemokraterna, ±0 (a right-wing political party)
2. The Lundell family, +3 (influencers)
3. SVT, ±0 (part of public service)
4. JLC, -2 (a humor group)
5. TV4, +26 (biggest ad-sponsored TV channel, owned by Schibsted)
6. Aftonbladet, -2 (social-democratic tabloid, owned mostly by Schibsted)
7. Sveriges Radio, +25 (part of public service)
8. Polisen, +13 (the police)
9. Expressen, +1 (liberal tabloid, owned by Bonnier)
10. Mauri Hermundsson, +20 (an influencer)
The yearly survey of the Swedish youth (15–29-year-olds) was also published this week. The report brings up changes in the youth's most important questions, like the environment going from top-5 to place #13 and healthcare, education, and crime-safety raising to top-3. Top-5 dream jobs for the girls are: self-employment, police, doctor, animal keeper, and nurse; top-5 for the guys are: self-employment, police, IT-specialist, football player, and manager.
The proposal for the national plan for the transport infrastructure covering 2026–2037 was presented this week. The plan is expected to be finalized in spring 2026, but has already generated some debate. One point that's being brought up is that the plan only addresses 15% of the current maintenance debt for the railways.
Trafikverket
Peter Johnsson
Eurostat has published the data about the house prices in the second quarter of 2025. Sweden's price increase of 1.9% is mild in comparison with EU in general (5.4%) and in particular Portugal (17.2%), Bulgaria (15.5%), and Hungary (15.1%).
Eurostat
At the fika, you might hear about...
The Nobel prize winners were announced this week. The joke I've heard at least three times was about not being able to pronounce the last name of László Krasznahorkai who got the prize in literature.
