How Sweden is waking up to the impact of migration law changes

Not before time, the Swedish media has woken up to the way migration reforms are upending the lives even of those foreigners who have done everything right: learning Swedish, getting a job and contributing to society. 

The impending deportation of Zahra Kazemipour and Afshad Joubeh, the Iranian couple who Becky interviewed before Christmas, has been covered by all the major newspapers and broadcasters, including the temporary reprieve they received on Friday. 

I analysed how opposition to the government’s migration reforms is building steam as ordinary Swedes witness their neighbours, children’s schoolmates, and local health workers being ordered to leave. 

We also interviewed Fereshteh Javani, an Iranian personal assistant who, like Kazemipour and Joubeh, is facing deportation as a result of the government’s decision to abolish the track change law with retroactive effect. 

Javani told me about the extraordinary effort she made to bring her salary above the new salary threshold that came into force at the end of 2023, only to be barred from renewing her work permit anyway. 

We also interviewed Niels Paarup-Petersen, the Centre Party’s newly appointed migration spokesperson, who predicted that new cases like those of Kazemipour, Joubeh and Javani would come up almost every week between now and the election. 

Paul O’Mahony managed to confront Johan Forssell, Sweden’s Migration Minister, and ask him how he planned to respond to the growing pushback. 

Rather than back down, Forssell defended the retroactive abolition of the track change law – which allowed people who’s asylum cases were rejected to apply for a work permit without leaving Sweden – claiming the law had led to fraudulent applications and claiming that those ordered to leave could apply for a work permit from outside Sweden. 

He also said that the government planned to submit a bill further raising the work permit salary threshold to 90 percent of the median wage, “in a couple of weeks”. 

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What else have we been writing about? 

We devoted a lot of time this week to keeping you updated to the disruptions to travel and the start of the school term due to the amount of snow that fell this week, which was unusual even for Sweden. Most of that is now out of date, but if you were one of those unfortunate to lose your power supply, we published a guide to the generous compensation you are entitled to and how to get it. 

We’ve already listed most of the new migration rules coming into force in 2026, but when the government published the complete list of all legislation coming into force in the New Year, we decided to translate it in full for the completists among you. 

Another year, another spy scandal. We summarised what we know about the arrest of a former employee of the Swedish Armed Forces on espionage charges. 

It’s not just economically and socially that immigrants are contributing to Sweden. They are also more willing to risk their lives to defend Sweden in a war, according to a new survey carried out by Indikator for the research wing of annual political festival Järvaveckan.

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A government inquiry proposed banning free school leaders who have mismanaged their schools from opening or buying new ones. The opposition Social Democrats said the proposals stopped short of what was needed to stop tax money being siphoned off as profits. 

We asked readers to submit their best pictures of the winter snowscapes. You can find the best ones here. 

The US battery firm Lyten was supposed to complete its acquisition of the bankrupt battery company Northvolt in the final three months of 2025, but it didn’t happen. Mandy Pipher, who is based in Skellefteå where Northvolt’s main factory is situated, explained what’s going on. 

Our reader survey this week dug into the reasons why some people decide to leave Sweden. There’s still time to tell us about your own situation in the survey attached to this article, even if you think you’ll be here for good.