Sweden's new alcohol law: 'Freedom reform' or flop?
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This week we talk about a new alcohol law that came into force this month and what it means for consumers.
And why has a government inquiry proposed banning international adoptions and apologising to adoptees.
For Membership+ subscribers we discuss how Sweden's biggest political party, the Social Democrats, is gearing up for next year's general election.
Finally, with updates expected this month on new salary requirements for work permit holders, we look at how the current limit has already led to staffing shortages in Sweden's elderly care service as immigrant workers are forced to leave the country.
Host Paul O'Mahony is joined this week by regular panelists Becky Waterton and Richard Orange.
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Here are links to some of the topics discussed in the episode:
Alcohol
Family
Politics
Work permits
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Local Sweden
3 hours ago
- Local Sweden
'Sweden doesn't want me to stay here, but it doesn't want me to leave either'
Mahmut, originally from Turkey, came to Sweden as an asylum seeker back in 2017 due to political unrest in his home country. Now, he is in citizenship limbo and believes Swedish security police have branded him a security threat, without telling him why. Advertisement Mahmut* grew up in Turkey and completed his bachelor degree there before moving to the US for further study, eventually graduating with a PhD. "After two years I went back to Turkey to work," he tells The Local. "Then after another two years, in 2013, the political problems started." Mahmut was formerly a member of the Gülen movement, led by US-based Muslim preacher Fethullah Gülen. The Gülen movement was originally allied with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan prior to 2013. The alliance broke down after a prosecutor linked to the Gülen movement revealed serious governmental corruption. Erdogan responded by declaring it a terror movement, and blamed it for an attempted 2016 coup. Since then, many of the movement's members ‒ current and former ‒ have become refugees elsewhere. "I actually wasn't even living in Turkey at the time, but the coup and what happened in the aftermath really impacted all Turkish citizens globally," Mahmut explains. In 2016, his father was kidnapped by Turkish authorities while working outside Turkey. Mahmut realised quickly that Turkey had also issued an arrest warrant for him, and that he was no longer safe, even despite the fact he was living in a different country, so he decided to move to Sweden with his family. "We came to Sweden in 2017 and then I applied for asylum right away, because my passport was cancelled so I couldn't live in Sweden and apply for a work permit," he says. He found a job within a month of arrival. "I knew English and I had a PhD, so I've been working since then. I've been paying a lot of taxes," he says. He currently earns more than double Sweden's median salary in a tech role with a major Swedish company. Despite leaving the movement some years ago he cannot return to Turkey as there are still multiple ongoing investigations against him. Mahmut has had regular contact with the Migration Agency since arriving in Sweden in 2017. Photo: Susanne Lindholm/TT In Sweden, the first immigration hurdle the family encountered was a law change which tightened up the rules for permanent residency, meaning that families no longer qualified as a whole if one member of the family met the requirements. "I was working and my wife was learning Swedish, so because of that law we thought that 'OK, maybe I can continue working and my wife can learn Swedish first. And we decided to have a second child. But then the law changed and I got permanent residency but my wife couldn't get it because she wasn't working. So that was the first issue we had," he said. His wife decided to apply for a long-term residency permit under EU rules instead, a status known in Swedish as varaktigt bosatt. Shortly after he received permanent residency in 2021, he applied for citizenship along with his eldest daughter. "She was eight years old and got her Swedish citizenship after a month," he said. "But I didn't get my citizenship." READ ALSO: Swedish Migration Agency and government slammed over 'unreasonably' long citizenship queues Four years later, he's still waiting. "My second child was born in 2020 and she was given residency for three years, and then we applied to extend it in 2023. We have refugee status, and I can't really go to the Turkish embassy here, so my daughter was actually stateless. She didn't have Turkish citizenship, so had no ID at all because she didn't have a Turkish passport or identity card, and her refugee passport expired when her residency expired." Advertisement At the beginning of 2024, he started to become more suspicious about the fact that there was no movement in his case. "It had been almost two years since I applied for citizenship, almost two years since my wife applied for varaktig bosatt, and almost one year since my daughter applied for residence extension. I exchanged a lot of emails with the Migration Agency and they weren't really responding, just saying 'every case is unique'." In the meantime, a lot of Turkish citizens he knew in the same position – including his family members who had also sought asylum in Sweden – were having their applications approved. "My sister applied for citizenship around the same time, in 2021, but she got hers approved within seven months. My other sister and brother got theirs in eight or nine months, which was really weird – especially as I had been working for longer." Advertisement His family were effectively stranded in Sweden during this time, as his daughter did not have any ID or a valid residency permit. After speaking to a lawyer, he was told that he could order a dagboksblad, essentially a log of his family's case files from the Migration Agency. Once those were sent over, he discovered that not only was his application referred to Säpo, Sweden's security police, but so were both of his wife's applications. The head offices of Sweden's Security Police (Säpo) in Solna. Photo: Jessica Gow/TT In addition to that, there were multiple lines of redacted information from his daughter's application. She was four years old at the time. He asked his caseworker for more information on why his application had been sent to Säpo, and received a document saying that they had requested it because they thought he might be involved in terrorist activities or a threat to national security. "That was really shocking," he said. "It was really a nightmare. When I found out about this, I really went into a depression. From the beginning of 2024 until the end of that year I was speaking to two psychiatrists." Advertisement His situation has not only taken a mental toll, but also a physical one. "I've been dealing with lots of problems. I've been going to hospitals, had a colonoscopy, endoscopy, but they cannot diagnose what's wrong. But I have a lot of stomach pain. I can't leave home because when I get on a bus or in a car my blood pressure drops and I've passed out a couple of times. It caused serious hell because again, I don't think I deserve this." At the end of last year, his youngest daughter's residency application was finally approved, and then they applied for Swedish citizenship for her, which was also granted. His wife was also finally granted permanent residency. Mahmut is still waiting for his own citizenship application to go through, despite Säpo writing in a previous application that they had no comments, or in Swedish ej erinran, on his case. He has not been asked to show his passport or ID card, nor been sent a questionnaire of further questions to fill out. READ ALSO: The extra security questions Sweden's Migration Agency wants citizenship applicants to answer "When I spoke to my caseworker, they claimed that they are actually still waiting for approval from another government organisation. They already have approval from Säpo, so I asked them what kind of organisation they are waiting for approval from, and they said that they cannot name it." Advertisement Säpo press secretary Jonathan Svensson confirmed to The Local that Säpo is "one of the authorities which the Migration Agency consults". "Somewhat simplified, the Security Police have the possibility of leaving a comment, for example in cases where someone has applied for a residence permit or citizenship, if we think the person in question could be a security threat," he said. "The Security Police can also be consulted even if the person in question has previously been granted a residence permit." Svensson added that he was not able to give more specific information on how the two agencies collaborate. At this time, Mahmut was discussing his case with journalist Joakim Medin, from Dagens ETC – the same Medin who in 2025 was arrested and detained in Turkey for over a month after he had travelled to Istanbul to report on protests against the jailing of the city's mayor. Medin revealed in an article in July 2024 that the Migration Agency had sent residence permit and citizenship applications from Gülenists to the Foreign Ministry during Sweden's Nato accession process, citing the fact that approvals could affect Sweden's relations with Turkey. Advertisement Mahmut has many contacts with Gülenist refugees in Sweden who have fled Turkey. He has previously worked together with the Migration Agency to help refugees in his situation seek asylum in Sweden, meeting with Migration Agency leadership multiple times to tell them about the situation for members of the Gülen movement. His information has also provided the Migration Agency with background for legal positions made when handling cases involving current or former Gülenists. The Migration Agency confirmed to The Local that it does have to send some applications to the Foreign Ministry, but that it wasn't able to provide statistics on which nationalities or countries were affected. "The Migration Agency does, like other government agencies, have to inform the head of the Foreign Ministry when issues arise that could affect the relationship to another state or an international organisation," Rebecka Paulusson, a press communicator at the agency, told The Local. "The type of issue which could affect our relationship with another state can vary over time depending on external factors. The type of situation (or issue) in question can also vary. Typically, it concerns the decision we expect to make in a certain case, but it could also be another initiative or change in the management of the agency or its working methods." Paulusson added that in the first half of this year (including incomplete figures for June), the agency informed the Foreign Ministry about applications in 36 cases – 25 applications for residency permits and 11 for citizenship. Sweden's foreign ministry is located on Gustav Adolfs torg in Stockholm. Photo: Christine Olsson/TT The Local also contacted the Foreign Ministry for comment but had not received a response at the time of publication. Advertisement Mahmut believes, after all this, that his name is "on a list somewhere", as he was also flagged for a background check when changing career – unlike other non-EU colleagues. "During this extra security interview, after talking about why I was a refugee, the person asked me if anyone threatens me or my family to release secret information. I was really shocked. They asked me 'if someone offers you a lot of money, would you give out secret information', and I realised that she was questioning me and trying to understand if I was a spy." He passed the background check and was offered the job, but is concerned that the issue will follow him in the future. "I think I've been profiled by Säpo and I'm going to face this problem forever. There's no progress in my citizenship application because of this. I can't become a citizen." Mahmut is considering leaving Sweden but is effectively trapped in the country. "I don't have a Turkish passport because it's been cancelled by Turkey. I can't become a Swedish citizen. I have a refugee passport, so I can move to another country, but even if I do that I need to fill in some paperwork and in order to do that paperwork I need to have a valid passport. So Sweden doesn't want me to stay here, but it doesn't want me to leave either." "I feel like I'm trapped. And I'm really tired of this." *Note: Mahmut is not his real name.
Local Sweden
2 days ago
- Local Sweden
How Sweden and Denmark could actually make life easier for cross-border workers
As part of the 25th anniversary celebrations of the Öresund bridge connecting Copenhagen and Malmö, the prime ministers of both countries pledged to make it easier to live and work across the Swedish-Danish border. The Local Sweden's Deputy Editor, Becky Waterton, has a few ideas. Advertisement I'm a big fan of the Öresund bridge. I literally wrote an article about how much it means to me in The Local a few weeks ago. For those of us here in southern Sweden, it really has connected Sweden and Denmark. A trip to Copenhagen feels less like visiting a foreign country to me than a trip to Stockholm (maybe I've been living in Skåne for too long). Despite this, I am constantly frustrated by the barriers that are still associated with the bridge thanks to the Swedish and Danish governments, whether that's the high cost of crossing it or the border checks on the Swedish side. I'm glad to see the leaders of both countries pledging to do something about this – although the declaration they made seems vague and not legally binding, so I don't have high hopes. So, Ulf Kristersson and Mette Frederiksen, here are some concrete tips for what you could do to improve things for those of us who actually use the bridge. Advertisement Make it cheaper Swedish newspaper Sydsvenskan revealed last month that the Öresund bridge is the most expensive bridge crossing per kilometre in the world. The current price for a single crossing in a private car is 510 Danish kroner or 750 Swedish kronor, making it the most expensive bridge toll by some distance. Even train crossings are expensive, with a return ticket from Malmö to Copenhagen costing 300 Swedish kronor (200 Danish kroner) for an adult. A day trip from Malmö to Louisiana for a family with two adults and two children will set you back just shy of 1,000 Swedish kronor (670 Danish kroner), and that's just the cost of transport. The bridge isn't owned by some private company looking to make a quick buck, but it's co-owned by the Danish and Swedish governments who are ultimately responsible for setting the ticket prices. For the past 25 years the argument for the high prices is simple – the bridge was financed by a loan which needs to be paid off. The loan was due to be repaid in 2030, but the two countries have agreed to extend the repayment time to 2050, keep the price high and use the profit from the bridge to finance other infrastructure projects. Another argument for keeping the price high is legal constraints – when the bridge was built, the two sides agreed that they would keep prices competitive with the Helsingborg-Helsingør ferry connection so as not to undercut them. The ferry crossing costs under 100 Swedish kronor (66 kroner) each way for a pedestrian (off-peak prices are as low as 69 kronor/45 kroner) and under 500 kronor (340 kroner) for a car. Surely they could lower the bridge fee to match these, which would still be a significant discount? Create permits for cross-border workers Denmark is crying out for foreign labour, and Skåne has high unemployment – you don't need to be a genius to realise that there's an opportunity to be had by increasing the number of cross-border workers. EU and Nordic citizens can freely work on both sides of the border, living in one country and working in the other. But those of us who are not from the EU who want to work in Denmark and live in Sweden don't just need a residence permit for Sweden, but a work permit for Denmark, too. Even if you already have a work permit in one country you can't just move with it to the other one. Why is this? Cross-border workers are nothing but good news for the country they work in, where they pay tax and contribute to the economy without using any public services. Their kids go to school in their country of residence and they use healthcare there, unlike workers who live and work in the same country. Would it really be so hard to create some form of cross-border permit allowing people to work freely between the two countries on the same terms as EU citizens? Or in any case, better terms than they do currently? Advertisement Simplify bureaucracy between both countries Bureaucracy isn't just an issue for non-EU people looking to make the most of the proximity to another country. Nordic and EU workers travelling between Sweden and Denmark struggle with issues like accessing eID services in both countries, and until recently rules around both countries' instant payment services Mobilepay and Swish meant that these services were unavailable to cross-border workers. Working across a border means navigating two countries' rules when carrying out basic life admin, including issues like pensions, unions, unemployment insurance and parental leave. Especially on the Swedish side, it often feels like cross-border workers are an afterthought for Swedish politicians who don't understand just how much of a benefit the Öresund connection could be if they made the most of it. Get rid of border checks Do you know what else celebrates an anniversary this year? The border checks in Hyllie, the first stop in Sweden, which were introduced for six months back in 2015. Since then, the six month periods have been renewed by successive Swedish governments. These border checks – which nine times out of ten don't even take place – lengthen the travel time of anyone getting the train from Denmark to Sweden by around ten minutes as timetables are set to allow enough time for police to move through the train checking passports. This is a journey that usually takes less than an hour. How would Stockholmers react if the government set up an arbitrary border control stopping the train for ten minutes every time they pass Slussen* that does nothing but delay their commute each morning? Advertisement Develop even more infrastructure to connect the two countries The Öresund bridge is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, but the situation for commuters is still the same as it was back in 2000 (if anything, it's worse, as prices have risen even with inflation taken into account). There's clear local interest in Helsingør and Helsingborg for a tunnel connecting the two countries between those cities, and a potential metro line between Malmö and Copenhagen is also under discussion. However, political discussions over who is paying for what have stalled those projects for years. Another Öresund connection wouldn't just increase collaboration and integration across both sides of the Öresund, but it would also protect the connection between the two countries so that trains, cars and pedestrians would all still be able to cross over if the Öresund bridge was damaged or closed for whatever reason. If Kristersson and Frederiksen are so keen on increased integration between their two countries, that would be a good place to start.
Local Sweden
3 days ago
- Local Sweden
How many Swedish citizenship applicants have been called to in-person ID checks?
Just over 2,000 letters have so far been sent out to Swedish citizenship applicants, inviting them to book a mandatory in-person identity check at the Migration Agency. Advertisement The ID checks are part of Sweden's new security measures for citizenship applications, which were rolled out by the Migration Agency in April on the government's request. But because the routines for the appointments hadn't yet been set up by the time the new security checks came into effect, Sweden went almost two months without the agency being able to approve any citizenship through naturalisation cases at all. In late May they finally got under way, and so far just over 2,000 appointment letters have been sent out to applicants, a Migration Agency spokesperson told The Local. 'They are being sent out on a daily basis,' he said. The letters, seen by The Local, include information on how to book an appointment through the 'Min Sida' page on the Migration Agency's website, as well as details of which documents the applicant should bring to the appointment. TAKE A CLOSER LOOK: What's in the appointment letter for Swedish citizenship? Applicants have eight weeks from the date the letter is sent to book an appointment or contact the Migration Agency, otherwise they risk their application being denied. Advertisement The letter is sent out by post once an applicant reaches the final stages of their citizenship application. The booking page is currently open to everyone, but only those who have received the letter inviting them to book a time slot should do so. The extra security checks, which also include applicants being sent an 11-page questionnaire with additional security questions, is the result of an order from the government and its far-right Sweden Democrat allies in January for the Migration Agency to take "forceful measures" to "as far as possible" prevent people who pose a threat to security or use a fake identity from being granted citizenship. Experts had previously guessed that security checks would be tightened as a pretext of slowing down the awarding of new citizenships until stricter rules are in place in 2026 – a slowdown strongly hinted at by the government in an opinion piece in the DN newspaper in November. Sweden's Migration Minister, Johan Forssell, later denied that the underlying intention was to slow down citizenship applications, telling the TT news agency that the point was only "to prevent people who pose a threat to security from being granted Swedish citizenship". Advertisement However, the extra checks are still expected to cause delays. In October 2024, the agency predicted that it would conclude 87,000 applications each year in 2025 and 2026, thanks to increased staff at the agency – a first step towards reducing the heavily criticised long waiting times for Swedish citizenship. But the new security checks forced the agency in April to lower its previous estimate by more than a quarter: to 64,000 concluded citizenship cases in 2025 and 65,000 in 2026. According to the Migration Agency, 75 percent of recently concluded cases involving adults received a decision within 24 months.
