Response to interpellation 2025/26:421 on the government's integration policy
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
The debate concerns the government's integration policy. L argues that the integration problems are significant and that the government is changing direction by setting clearer requirements for self-sufficiency, language skills, and norms 1. L advocates for a benefit reform with benefit ceilings and activity requirements 1, and also argues that the government strengthens integration by breaking unemployment 2 and reducing structural unemployment via the akasse reform 2. L also emphasizes initiatives to make it cheaper to employ young people 3. S argues that the government lacks effective solutions and that the fiscal policy has fallen short in growth policy 4 5. S argues that the government has caused increased unemployment and advocates for training for shortage occupations 4 6 5. S also wants an inquiry into language requirements in welfare, to remove profit-taking in SFI, and to hire more qualified teachers 5.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Arbetsmarknadsminister och vikarierande klimat- och miljöministern Johan Britz (L)
Mr. Speaker! Lawen Redar has asked how the Minister for Finance assesses how the government's integration policy affects Sweden's public finances, growth, and long-term sustainability, and whether the Minister for Finance intends to take any measures based on his assessment. The interpellation has been handed over to me, and I would like to start by thanking very much for the interpellation.
The integration problems in Sweden remain significant. The unemployment rate among foreign-born individuals is almost three times as high as among those born in Sweden, and the education level and language skills of these individuals are lower. This has created extensive exclusion that the government is working to break.
The Government is therefore reorienting the direction of the integration policy. The Government assesses that greater clarity is required from the public regarding the requirements placed on the individual concerning self-sufficiency, learning the Swedish language, acquiring knowledge of basic laws and rules, and adhering to the norms and values that exist in Swedish society. The starting point is that every person who comes to Sweden is personally responsible for becoming a part of Swedish society through their own effort. In exchange, the society shall also offer opportunities to integrate.
Everyone who can should be available for the labor market and strive to become self-sufficient. As part of this, it needs to become more profitable to move from benefits to work and self-sufficiency. To build a Sweden that holds together, those who risk a long-term dependence on benefits and a life of exclusion must be met with society's support but also with clear requirements to do what is necessary to enter work and become a part of the community.
An important part of the government's work in this area is a multi-part subsidy reform. It concerns a subsidy ceiling for recipients of social assistance, an activity requirement for social assistance recipients, and a qualification for welfare. The government is also reforming the compensation for participants in the establishment program. This is assessed to strengthen the incentives, not least for women who have children, to participate in establishment measures and start working.
The government presented an expansive budget in the autumn with investments of 80 billion kronor, in addition to new defense expenditures and support for Ukraine, which shall make it more profitable to work, educate oneself, and start and run businesses. The recovery in the Swedish economy continues.
Lawen Redar (S)
Mr. Speaker! I want to begin by thanking the Minister for Employment for the answer. However, this is an interpellation directed to Finance Minister Elisabeth Svantesson. The interpellation debate is requested because I want to debate the government's economic priorities, as there is a lack of effective solutions to strengthen integration.
The government's prioritized measures over the past four years have been lowered taxes for high-income earners, increased return migration grants and reporting laws, a public employment service that, despite historically high unemployment, sends back 3.6 billion kronor to the treasury, a reduced allowance from 80 percent to 70 percent after only 100 days of unemployment, and significant cuts in labor market policy to afford the tax cuts.
Today, the Tidö parties also presented their – hopefully final – budget, and what was included in it to strengthen integration? There was nothing. It is as if our country had not had historically high levels of unemployment. When unemployment decreases in the rest of Europe, it increases in Sweden. Had we had the same development as the eurozone, we would have had 100,000 more in jobs, but after four years with this government, the result is that 100,000 more have ended up in unemployment.
After four years, one must ask what the direction of the fiscal policy actually means. What is it intended to solve? When I, in my role as a Member of Parliament, speak with business leaders and representatives of the business community, I am struck by how little it is about just cuts in labor market policy and proposals that polarize. Among business leaders and in Swedish business, there is a demand for a clear policy to strengthen individuals' skills and increase the unemployed's knowledge.
At the same time as the government, I believe, sits on its hands, the welfare sector has enormous recruitment needs. According to Sveriges Kommuner och Regioner, due to our country's demographic development and pension retirements, 410,000 people need to be hired by 2031. This is therefore only to maintain current levels, not to strengthen quality in the form of more staff, which would allow one to reduce the difficult situation with precision staffing that prevails in many places and which makes recovery impossible for welfare staff.
The Minister for Employment also knows that foreign-born Swedes already today constitute a central part of the welfare state's workforce. Nearly 300,000 employees in the country's municipalities and regions are born in other countries, and much suggests that the increase in employment during the coming decade will largely consist of just foreign-born individuals. It is simply a matter of stating that the welfare state in its current state would not manage its mission without foreign-born Swedes.
Despite retirements, however, no new recruitments are planned in the welfare sector. Here, there has been a failure in long-term planning regarding ensuring the welfare sector's mandate, but there has also been a failure regarding ensuring that the part of our population that is unemployed is given a chance to enter the workforce.
I believe we talk far too little about the fact that the current fiscal and labor market policy is ideological – that right-wing parties want unemployment. It is the most strategic way to pressure wages and conditions. Without effective labor market policy measures such as education for shortage occupations, language training, and transition so that the workforce can enter new jobs, jobs instead grow in the low-productivity sector. It impoverishes individuals and, in the long run, our entire society.
I want to once again pose that question to the Minister for Employment which was actually directed at our Minister for Finance: How does the government's lack of integration policy affect Sweden's public finances, growth, and long-term sustainability?
Arbetsmarknadsminister och vikarierande klimat- och miljöministern Johan Britz (L)
Mr. Speaker! Unemployment, exclusion, and long-term passivity are life-threatening. To claim that any party in this Riksdag wants a high unemployment rate is, I would say, bordering on going too far.
Unemployment, exclusion, and long-term passivity lead to physical illness. The risk of cardiovascular diseases increases. The risk of mental ill-health increases. The risk of suicide increases. The risk of starting risky alcohol use increases. Do not come and claim that I or this government take the social consequences of unemployment lightly!
Furthermore, we have a situation in Sweden where we are about to see that exclusion, long-term unemployment, and passivity are being passed down from one generation to the next. It is our task to break this. If we do not, even more people will be affected by the social consequences that unemployment entails.
The government has a plan to address this. It consists of three points.
The first is education that leads to jobs. I believe there is a fairly broad consensus between me and the interpellor regarding roughly which direction we are talking about. We are talking about language training and vocational training. We are talking about equipping people so that they can take the jobs that exist and contribute both to the country and to themselves, their own well-being, their family and their children.
The second point is that we make it more profitable to work. It should always pay more to go to a job than to stay at home. Here, the member and I are much less in agreement. This government stands for a work line, while the interpellator and her party – as I perceive it – stand for more of a benefit line.
The third point is about ensuring that Sweden continues to have a strict asylum migration for the foreseeable future in order to have resources to help those who are here. The debt that we carry, and which my generation's politicians now need to handle, will not be free to address, but it must be done.
Lawen Redar (S)
Mr. Speaker! If the Minister for Employment had not taken unemployment lightly, the result after four years in power would not have been that 100,000 more people are unemployed.
Unemployment is not only about groups that are far from the labor market due to a lack of language skills or a lack of knowledge relevant to the Swedish labor market. Now, other groups have also entered unemployment instead of having jobs. It is about academics. It is about young people. It is about domestic-born individuals who have gone through Swedish education all the way to academic levels. Why do these people end up in unemployment? Sweden has had 100,000 more unemployed since the Tidö parties took over government power.
They say that they stand for a work line. Why then have 33,000 more people in our country ended up in social insurance? I mean that it is not a work line. It is rather an unemployment line.
I know that one of the major issues that the Minister for Employment is currently driving is that the so-called mammoth project to introduce benefit ceilings, activity requirements in the social assistance, and qualification for welfare shall be the answer to Swedish unemployment.
There is a question where we share the same opinion on which solution must be implemented. People who have received social assistance for a long time but who have the capacity to work must enter activities that increase human capital. They must, therefore, be given relevant activities that enable them to enter the labor market. What the Andersson government did regarding the language and activity obligation is good policy, and I am glad that this government is moving forward with it. In June, it will also become a reality.
Regarding benefit ceilings and qualification for welfare, the government's own promise has been that this must not lead to increased child poverty. I believe it is important to see that the major Swedish challenge does not primarily concern the drivers to work.
I have, perhaps in contrast to the Minister for Employment, dedicated at least the last two years to visiting Sweden's vulnerable areas on a large scale. I have held open town hall meetings and conversations with welfare workers and authorities present on site. I have spoken with all possible different actors present in these areas. The open town hall meetings are the most interesting. Very many people come. They want to talk about how Sweden is as a country, how they experience their own lives, and how tough it is for children to grow up in child poverty. They make demands and have high expectations for our preschools, primary schools, and upper secondary schools, which is a good thing. Many also express that they would like to have Swedish-speaking staff on site in the vulnerable areas.
There are, therefore, a number of tasks for a government that actually takes an interest in integration policy, and in order for one to be able to conduct a much clearer and even better integration policy.
Drivers are not the main issue. It is about the government conducting an active labor market policy that ensures more people get into work. I have never witnessed a scenario similar to what I experience at the open town hall meetings. People are truly demanding jobs.
One must come to the conclusion that the labor market policy and what this debate is about, namely the fiscal policy, has fallen short in terms of growth policy and the engines that get job creation started in our country. The other part is about combating unemployment, which has increased radically during these four years.
Arbetsmarknadsminister och vikarierande klimat- och miljöministern Johan Britz (L)
Mr. Speaker! There is no single measure that solves the enormous challenge we face. Half of those who are unemployed in our country are foreign-born. Many of them have deficient language skills and are in total lack of the type of qualifications – vocational skills or otherwise – that are in demand on the Swedish labor market.
We also live in an uncertain world. A year and a half ago, we saw that things were brightening on the horizon. Then Donald Trump took office in the White House and proposed that we should place tariffs on a lot of trade, which created great uncertainty for both companies and consumers.
That is why we are investing in breaking the recession. That is why we are investing in ensuring that people get more money in their wallets. That is why we are investing in making it cheaper to employ young people. That is why we are investing in making it cheaper to buy food. That is why we ensure that fuel prices are reasonable. That is why we make all these efforts.
I note that Lawen Redar does not agree with everything. I also note that the Social Democrats say no to some of the proposals that this government is putting forward. I would like to hear Lawen Redar and the Social Democrats tell us about some proposal they have that this government has not put forward and which would have a good effect on integration in our country.
Lawen Redar (S)
Mr. Speaker! It is regrettable that the interpellation debate could not be held with the one responsible for the nation's revenues and expenditures. Omitted measures make Sweden a less competitive country. Fewer people's potential is being utilized.
I feel the Minister for Employment's desperation with sorrow when he requests Social Democratic proposals. If one would very much like to take part of them, a number of proposals have actually been submitted.
Arbetsförmedlingen sent back 3.6 billion because measures that unemployed people would need were omitted. With a stop on repayment to the treasury, these funds could have generated 3,200 educations for people so that they could enter existing jobs.
We have also presented a number of proposals to get started with the recruitments that must be made in the welfare sector to compensate for the extensive pension retirements that will occur after 2031. According to Sveriges Kommuner och Regioner, this concerns 410,000 recruitments that must be made in municipalities and regions.
Last week, I presented the proposal that Sweden needs an investigation into language requirements across the entire welfare sector. It will not be enough with elderly care and childcare; a number of welfare professions must be added. The language must be analyzed to promote language-developing measures during working hours so that the quality of the welfare sector is raised.
We have also moved forward with a number of proposals regarding SFI: remove the profit-taking, secure the quality of municipal adult education regarding SFI, hire more qualified teachers, create initiatives so that one can study SFI when one is, for example, on parental leave, and give the municipalities an outreach responsibility to meet those students who leave the education too early.
I conclude the debate with a thank you but note that I have unfortunately received an insufficient answer to my main question regarding what is needed to strengthen Swedish integration.
Arbetsmarknadsminister och vikarierande klimat- och miljöministern Johan Britz (L)
Mr. Speaker! We strengthen Swedish integration by breaking unemployment and exclusion and ensuring that this is not passed down as an inheritance. Here, the government has a policy that is firm. We are doing more than any opposition party has proposed so far. It is easy to say no to some of the measures we are implementing, but one probably cannot complain about the government's pace of reform and intentions.
When I request measures from Lawen Redar, a proposal for a language study is presented. We are, after all, on our way to introducing language requirements for citizenship, language requirements in elderly care, and so on. We have also restructured SFI.
Speaking of the economy and public finances, new data came out last week showing that the cash register reform the government implemented, which the Social Democrats also said no to, means that structural unemployment will decrease by 0.4 percentage points. That is not bad. It concerns the unemployment that is the most difficult to reach and which risks putting people into long-term passivity.
I appreciate the debate, because this is an incredibly important issue. The integration of the people we have received in our country must accelerate so that we can break the exclusion and passivity so that this does not become a continued very large social problem.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.