Swedish Migration Minister: 'No formal decision' made on new work permit salary threshold
In an interview with The Local, Swedish Migration Minister Johan Forssell indicates that the government has not yet decided whether it will go ahead with plans to raise the work permit salary threshold.
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In November 2023, Sweden more than doubled its work permit salary threshold from 13,000 kronor to 80 percent of the median salary, with the government also proposing plans to raise it even further, to 100 percent of the median, or 35,600 kronor at the time of writing.
But over a year after the inquiry into the plans presented its report, there's been little news, and Forssell indicated that the government has in fact not yet made a final decision on exactly how high the new threshold should be set – or which professions should be exempt.
"The former threshold was only 13,000 kronor, and we've seen some tremendous problems with that – people being abused, frankly speaking. So there is now a discussion over where this new threshold should be, and we have not decided where it will be yet," he told The Local in an exclusive interview.
He spoke during a visit to Skåne to discuss how Sweden can make it easier for foreign healthcare workers to receive a medical licence. The healthcare sector is one of the sectors that have complained that the raised salary threshold is making it harder for them to hire key staff.
"We've also said that for some sectors, there must be exceptions," said Forssell. "But no formal decision has yet been made."
The government in February asked the Migration Agency to present a list of which professions should be exempt from the salary threshold by August 1st, suggesting that the original plan to roll out the new threshold on June 1st will be postponed until at least the autumn.
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This isn't the first time that we've seen an indication that the government hasn't fully committed to raising the threshold to 100 percent of the median salary. In January, Employment Minister Mats Persson said that his party, the Liberals, would even be willing to lower the threshold.
The bid to block non-EU foreigners from receiving a work permit unless they earn at least on par with the threshold has been heavily criticised. Groups such as the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise, often closely aligned with a right-wing government, argue that it would make it near impossible to fill crucial positions in a wide range of industries, from healthcare to forestry and Sweden's tech sector.
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Forssell said that the government has taken their concerns on board.
'Of course, we are listening to them, and to a lot of other organisations,' he said. 'What we are trying to accomplish here is to put more focus on the highly skilled segment.'
He added that he believes many Swedes find it 'a bit weird' that there is labour migration to sectors like 'household cleaning or working for Foodora', when there are over 400,000 people in Sweden who are unemployed who he believes could take on such roles.
'We want to strike a balance here, and we've been discussing this. If you are going to get a work permit in Sweden, it's important to us that we're looking at real jobs, where you'll actually have the kind of salary that you've signed up for, you will get it, you'll have all the insurances. So there needs to be a threshold somewhere.'
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