Swedish Minister of Migration Morgan Johansson has argued that a new surge in family reunifications, also known as chain migration, will aid in the integration of migrants already in Sweden.
Johansson, who also serves as justice minister, welcomed the new Swedish government policy that will see an increase in the number of family reunifications, saying that the move was “humanitarian” in nature, broadcaster SVT reports.
“I think it is a very good humanitarian measure, it is about 90 percent women and children who have long lived in refugee camps who can now be reunited with their father or husband in Sweden,” Johansson said.
Despite his party, the Social Democrats, running their campaign on tightening Sweden’s migration policy, the party was forced to open up the doors to more family reunifications as part of the new government deal with the Greens, Liberals, and Centre Party.
Johansson defended the new migration policy arguing that “family association is a measure that helps to increase integration.”
The right to claim asylum is also likely to be broadened in exceptional cases according to Johansson who said, “For very distressing cases there should be an opportunity to increase residence permits. It may be cases where people are very sick, fragile or very vulnerable, for example. It is a very small group and a very small part of the total asylum policy.”
Last week, it was revealed that Johansson had not been entirely upfront about the costs of the increase in asylum seekers as an unpublished Migration Board document showed that the true cost to Swedish taxpayers could be millions more than previously estimated.
Last year Sweden handed out 132,000 residency permits with family reunification and fresh asylum claims being the two largest groups of individuals receiving residency.
While the number of asylum seekers has greatly declined since the height of the migrant crisis in 2015, Sweden is still dealing with the effects of the influx including some arguing that the strain on social services will force municipalities to raise taxes.