The current rules for labour immigration were adopted in 2008 after an agreement between the centre-right government and the Greens. But since then there have a occurred a number of cases where labour immigrants have been exploited by employers. See for example an article in Stockholm News from November last year: "Tighter control on labour migration" and in December "Illegal trade with immigrant work permits".
Therefore, the Greens are now proposing what they call changes to improve the rules without making it more difficult for people to move to Sweden to find work. The proposal is presented in an article today in SVD.se written by the party spokesperson Åsa Romson and the party's spokesperson in migration issues Maria Ferm.
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Maria Ferm, photo:
Fredrik Hjerling |
In the article, Romson and Ferm begin with referring to an OECD report from November 2011 on the labour immigration in Sweden.
They conclude that the OECD sees the Swedish labour immigration system as a international role model since it "does not treat people as products" and has limited the immigration according to certain quotas.
But they also admit that the OECD criticism of too little control and exploitation by Swedish employers is very serious and propose some changes. Here is a short summary of their proposal:
- Tighter controls: they propose that employers in Sweden who want to employ non-EU migrants should be controlled by the Migration Board both before and after the employment period.
- Sanctions against employers: today the employee is most severly damaged if violations of the rules are detected. This has according to the authors created a situation where the migrant worker does not want to report the employer.
- Change of tracks: they propose that asylum seekers who have gotten their application turned down should have the possibility to apply for a work permissin in Sweden without leaving the country.
- Students and PhD students: lastly the Greens propose that the residence permit for non-EU students should be granted for longer periods. This would make it possible for them to stay and work after the studies or, stay and continue with PhD studies.