Swedish news, week 44 in 2025
Immigration news
Since the government is increasing the financial assistance for voluntary repatriation (press release in Swedish), Migrationsverket has published an article with the requirements one must satisfy to apply for this money, and also the statistics of the recent years:
- in 2022 they got 22 applications, out of which 2 were approved
- in 2023 they got 71 applications, 1 was approved
- in 2024 they got 68 applications, 4 were approved
- in 2025 they got 109 applications and so far 1 was approved.
Migrationsverket also reports that it managed to shorten the processing times for Swedes living abroad and their families (utlandssvenskar). The average processing times for the applications received in 2024 was 205 days, and so far in 2025 it was 84 days instead. They attribute this change primarily to the digital passport control in applications and new routines for decisions without visits to foreign missions when there are good reasons to assume that the application will be granted.
They're also looking into making case handling more efficient at the embassies with remote video interviews when an oral investigation is needed.
Sveriges Radio
Other news
You can now compare vårdcentraler directly on 1177.se. Go to Hitta vård, enter where you live in the first field and ‘vårdcentral’ in the second, then turn on the comparison mode by clicking “Jämför vårdcentraler med varandra”.
Then add all the search results you're interested in with the “Lägg till i jämför” button. When you're done selecting, click “Jämför vårdcentraler” in the top right. You'll see the opening times, phone times, which services are available digitally, the percentage of people who get a medical assessment by a licensed healthcare professional within three days, and the percentage of those who replied in a survey they'd recommend this vårdcentral to someone else.
If you order medicine (prescription or not) online, it won't be left at your door anymore. You have to sign for it or pick it up at a service point. Effective 1st of November.
Sveriges Radio
25 Swedish authorities have reported on their usage of AI (press release in Swedish). Some of them are in earlier stages of adoption and some are deeper into the process, but everyone's doing it, from Trafikverket (the Swedish Transport Administration) to Finansinspektionen (Financial Supervisory Authority).
Reports and data
SCB (Statistics Sweden, a government agency) reports about the mortgage rates. The fixed ones (that's when you bind it for say a year) are on the rise, while the floating one (that's the one which can change every three months) has on average decreased from 2.86% to 2.8%. There are some fun graphs with the data from 2007 till today in the article linked below if you're into this sort of thing :)
At the fika, you might hear about...
Jokkmokk, a tiny (in terms of population) and huge (in terms of territory as well as electricity production) municipality in the North of Sweden has started a viral trend by answering “thanks but no thanks” to the government's call to a meeting. The meeting is supposed to be about all the Swedish municipalities (of which there are 290) helping out the government to increase voluntary repatriation now that the government has raised the financial assistance for it to 350000 SEK. More than 100 municipalities has joined the trend and “did a Jokkmokk”, saying in different ways that they appreciate all of their residents and want them to stay. Some of those municipalities are big, and some are ruled by the same parties that are currently sitting in the government.
Sveriges Radio