Swedish news, week 47 in 2025
Immigration news
Migrationsverket has denied an application from a doctor who had previously worked in Sweden for 19 months. The agency says it was illegal; the doctor has actually had work permit extension application in progress with them (yep, for 19 months) but since his previous one was granted for 4 months and not 6, it turned out he wasn't supposed to be working while waiting for his decision. His job was at Karolinska. In the rejection letter, Migrationsverket called him “a threat to public order”.
Sveriges Radio
Speaking of threats, the police has recommended Migrationsverket to investigate whether a scientist and climate activist David Alcer should be deported. David is a German citizen who works as a research engineer at Lund Nano Lab and did some civil disobedience in the name of the environment (you might've seen him interrupting Melodifestivalen back in 2023 with a banner “återställ våtmarker”, restore wetlands). The police wrote to Migrationsverket that he's “engaging in criminal acts to bring about a change that can only occur through political decisions and is therefore considered a threat to the democratic order”.
karin-holmberg
Bli meddelad när något nytt publiceras av
Healthcare news
The government has announced a ten-year strategy to fight the resistance to antibiotics. The report doesn't look like there's going to be some drastic change to the day-to-day life, but we can expect continued promotion of hygiene and vaccinations as well as responsible antibiotic prescriptions.
Sveriges Radio
Reports and data
Riksrevisionen, the Swedish National Audit Office, has published a report about the deficiencies in how Migrationsverket and the police handle detention operations, including stuff like unclear priorities for who gets detained, absence of follow-ups, insufficient collaboration, and inefficiencies in ensuring legal, cost-effective practices. The title of the report is “Detention in the migration process — a costly tool without clear governance”. Catchy. Migrationsverket welcomed the audit report and wrote that improvements are in progress.
SCB (Statistics Sweden, a government agency) reports that emigration from Sweden has increased since year 2000 and it's mostly explained by the increased proportion of foreign-born population.
SCB has also published some fresh stats on the proportion of the income people in Sweden spend on their housing. Those who rent spend 27% of their income on that on average; those who live in their own apartment spend 21%, and those in their own house — 18%; this is not because owning a house is that cheap, but rather because house owners have higher incomes. On the graph you can also see the difference it makes to live as a couple/together vs living alone.
In an unsurprising turn of events, young adults in Sweden aren't going to the dentist as much as they used to back when the dental care was free for them; this is specifically for 20–23 year olds, who also happen to be overrepresented in the unemployment stats. Their visits went down by 60% according to the statistics gathered from 19 out of 21 Swedish regions by public service.
Sveriges Radio