The teenage deportations, which have been the subject of debate in recent weeks, are also upsetting the business community. Business owners have testified that their employees are forced to leave Sweden when their children are deported.
"If the government does not stop the teenage expulsions now, there is a risk of a 'brain drain'," write the Swedish Engineering Companies and Swedish Engineers in a debate article.
Almega's business policy expert Jonas Jegers agrees.
Here we get signals that talents would not have chosen Sweden under these rules, he says.
So it's clear that coming here with your family and then having your child, who is in high school, expelled doesn't exactly send a great signal.
“Voice trembling”
Jegers is also critical of the government's wage floor for immigrant workers, which makes it more difficult to recruit foreign personnel.
Per Norlander, vice chairman of the Swedish Engineers Association, is calling for an urgent solution to these expulsions.
It's almost as if your voice trembles when you hear about normal families, highly educated, with good jobs, but when the child turns 18, they have to leave. That can't possibly have been the intention from the beginning.
Those who are affected are in very sensitive situations, and it is also spreading to those who have not yet arrived here, Norlander continues.
Take it in stride.
Finance Minister Elisabeth Svantesson (M) takes the criticism in stride. She states that teenage expulsions are not primarily a problem for Sweden's skills supply.
"For many of us, it's probably about whether it's reasonable to be deported when you're 18 and your family is still there," she says.
When asked whether teenage expulsions harm Swedish prosperity, she answers:
I think it is important to see that there are conflicts of goals in migration policy. We need strict migration rules, but we also need, of course, expertise from other countries.
The risk remains
One solution to the teenage deportations that has been put forward in the debate is to raise the age from 18 to 21 before young people risk leaving the country even though their parents are allowed to stay. But that would not be enough, according to the Swedish Engineering Companies and the Swedish Engineering Union:
"Then the risk remains that highly qualified people will leave Sweden to avoid splitting up the family," they write.
Since 2021, the number of highly qualified labor immigrants coming to Sweden has decreased by over 2,500 people, according to statistics from the Swedish Migration Board. At that time, almost 8,500 work permits were granted for professions requiring university qualifications, compared to just over 6,000 last year.
