Swedish migration minister defends raising work permit salary threshold

The chief economist for the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise, in an interview with the DN daily, accused the government of not doing enough to attract international talent.

He also said that a proposal to raise the salary threshold for work permit applicants to Sweden’s median salary (currently 35,600 kronor a month) would make it much harder to find staff for low-paid labour, arguing that there’s no one in Sweden to fill those roles.

The government has argued that such jobs should primarily be given to unemployed people in Sweden.

“It’s completely the wrong idea of how jobs are created in a labour market. Those who are marginalised and unemployed today are often poorly educated and foreign-born. Employers feel that it’s too high-risk to employ them. Opting to then raise the salary threshold for labour migrants won’t make things better for this group,” the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise’s Sven-Olov Daunfeldt told DN.

But Migration Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard insisted that low-paying jobs should instead go to people in Sweden who are struggling to break into the labour market, rather than bringing in workers from abroad.

She said it was crucial to also revamp Sweden’s system of social benefits at the same time.

“We must not give up on marginalised people in Sweden. We have to give them the right skills,” she told DN. “It pays too much to be on benefits today compared to taking a job in a low-paid sector. That’s why it’s so important to increase those incentives too.”

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Malmer Stenergard also said that the government had instructed the Migration Agency to cut processing times for high-skilled workers and that it was planning on expanding Sweden’s so-called “expert tax” – a tax relief for certain foreign citizens in Sweden – to more foreigners.

The government in November last year raised the work permit salary threshold from 13,000 kronor a month to 80 percent of the median salary. If plans to raise it to 100 percent go through, the idea is that it would come into effect in June next year (although work permit holders renewing their permits would get a one-year grace period). 

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But the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise isn't the only organisation to criticise the proposal.

Almega, Sweden's leading employers' organisation in the service sector, writes in its comment on the government's proposal that "very little suggests that high unemployment is a result of work permit migrants squeezing out the unemployed".

Swedish battery maker Northvolt, a major employer in northern Sweden, argues that the salary threshold "jeopardises Northvolt's ability to recruit and retain the necessary workforce for the green transition".

And Visita, which represents Sweden's hospitality sector, writes that "introducing a salary requirement that exceeds the lowest wages in the majority of collective bargaining agreements is a serious intervention in the Swedish model" and will prevent the growth of the tourism industry.