Concerns about an overstretched welfare system and a high-profile attack by a young asylum seeker earlier this year has contributed to therising unease over immigration.
Sweden’s deputy prime minister, Åsa Romson, was reduced to tears last year when announcing stricter rules designed to deter refugees from coming to Sweden. “It pains me that Sweden is no longer capable of receiving asylum seekers at the high level we do today,” Sweden’s prime minister, Stefan Löfven, said at another press conference last year. “We simply cannot do any more.”
Last year, a group of asylum seekers was left to sleep outside in the cold as the Swedish Migration Agency struggled to find them suitable accommodation, unusual for a country with such a long history of hosting refugees. Refugees in Sweden now only receive temporary residence permits, while the right to family reunification is restricted. The country also stepped up border controls, doubling the number of officers patrolling the southern coast, where most refugees arrive.
This article originally appeared on Quartz.