The Deputy party leader of the far-right Sweden Democrats party participated in a press conference on resident permits with the migration minister on Thursday even though his party is not formally part of the Swedish government.
On Thursday, Deputy Party Leader of the Sweden Democrats (SD) Henrik Vinge attended a press conference together with Migration Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard from the centre-right Moderate party. It is the first time such a presentation is made, as the Sweden Democrats are not part of the Swedish government.
After the September elections, the centre-right Moderates, Christian Democrats and Liberals formed a three-party coalition. The far-right Sweden Democrats that took 20% of the votes in September’s general elections were left out of the government. In exchange, they got large parts of their hard-line migration policy through, as specified in the coalition agreement.
Thursday’s press conference was the first illustration of SD’s new prerogatives and Vinke announced, together with Migration Minister Stenegard that the Migration Agency will take measures to strengthen the work of revoking residence and work permits.
“The purpose of this is to enable the Migration Agency to identify cases more quickly where there are indications that the permit should be revoked and to make the processing time more efficient,” Vinge said, according to broadcaster SVT Nyheter.
“The system of regulated immigration must not be abused. Therefore, we assign the Migration Agency a mission to strengthen the revocation work,” echoed Stenergard according to Aftonbladet.
The Swedish government, together with SD, have namely decided that the Migration Agency will analyse “new automated systems” and “new methods for regular monitoring of granted residence permits.”
At the press conference, Henrik Vinge referred to a report from the Swedish Migration Agency showing that there are “strong indications” of “extensive abuse” of residence permits for higher education studies.
The report shows that many students who come to Sweden to study instead use the permit to work in the country. The report focused on students from Pakistan but the conclusion is believed to apply to students from other countries as well, TT news agency reported.
According to the report, one-third of all Pakistani Master’s students abandoned their studies for full-time work immediately after completing 30 credits, while another third withdrew from their studies for unknown reasons.
Unlike many other Schengen countries, Swedish legislation does not set an upper limit on how much international students can work alongside their studies. It is therefore possible for international students to work full-time or more while studying. Sweden also offers the possibility to apply for a work permit in the country after 30 credits have been obtained, i.e. one semester of studies.
(Charles Szumski | EURACTIV.com)
Source: euractiv.com
