The Swedish parliament, the Riksdag, has voted in favour of making it easier for Syrian migrants and refugees to bring family members to the country, with only two parties voting against the proposal.
All of the parties in the Riksdag voted for the measure except for the centre-right Moderates and the populist Sweden Democrats (SD).
The two parties also voted against the so-called “high school law” which has allowed thousands of Afghan migrants to remain in the country, Swedish broadcaster SVT reports.
Along with making “family reunifications” for Syrians easier, the Riksdag voted to extend a temporary residency permits order which was enacted during the height of the migrant crisis in 2015.
The Left party opposed the extension of the order — but only so it could argue that Sweden should return to an even more lax asylum policy, as was the case prior to the 2015 crisis.
Justice Minister Morgan Johannson commended the conservative Christian Democrats for supporting the family reunification motion in the Riksdag but was criticised by Moderates migration spokeswoman Maria Malmer Stenergard who said that Sweden had not yet recovered from the 2015 crisis.
“I’m even more worried after the debate, it’s clear that Morgan Johansson doesn’t see the problems,” Stenergard said.
The Swedish Migration Board predicts that the country will see around 8,000 new arrivals between 2019 and 2021 through chain migration under the family reunification programme.
A further 30,000 migrants living with a residence permit in Sweden that expires this year could also be eligible for family reunification, but must apply and be granted an extended temporary residency permit.
According to the Migration Board, 132,696 residency permits were given out last year with tens of thousands awarded to family reunifications.
As a result of mass migration, Sweden saw the second-largest population growth of any country in the European Union in 2016, and in 2018 it was revealed that migrants also have much higher birthrates than native Swedes who are choosing to have children later in life.