Sweden is offering residents born abroad who have the right to live in the country $37,000 to return to their countries, as part of a crackdown on migration.<\/p>\n
The Scandinavian nation <\/a>was once seen as the most welcoming to asylum seekers and took in 163,000 refugees<\/a> in 2015, the second-highest per capita in Europe, but by last year that number had fallen by 96 per cent.<\/p>\n Migration is set to be a central issue in Sunday\u2019s general election, and Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson’s centre-right coalition is hoping its tough stance will see off a challenge from the centre-left opposition, headed by the Social Democrats.<\/p>\n \u201cImproving re-migration is high on my government’s agenda,\u201d said Mr Kristersson, the leader of the Moderate Party, whose government has given the scheme a budget of $135.6 million.<\/p>\n The return scheme is strongly supported by the Sweden Democrats<\/a>, a far-right party that is outside the government but backs it in parliament.<\/p>\n The party has been paying for adverts on buses that read: \u201cDo you miss Mogadishu? The remigration grant will help you get home.\u201d The government has also publicised the programme in multiple languages on its websites.<\/p>\n So far this year, 171 people have taken up the offer of cash to leave and the Sweden Democrats want to extend the offer to immigrants with Swedish citizenship, if they agree to renounce it.<\/p>\n The backlash against migration<\/a> has in part been fuelled by gang warfare<\/a> between criminals<\/a> from migrant families, in particular Kurds. This has taken Sweden from being one of Europe\u2019s safest countries to having one of its highest murder rates<\/a>.<\/p>\n Elena Ibrahim, 42, who fled her ex-husband and religious oppression eight years ago in Sudan, says she won\u2019t take up the offer.<\/p>\n \u201cI want freedom, \u200bto be able to work \u200cand live a good life,\u201d said Ms Ibrahim, who has remarried and works as an artist. \u201cI will not go back.\u201d<\/p>\n Mahmoud Khalfi, imam at the Stockholm Mosque, which is Sweden’s largest, said the scheme and anti-immigrant rhetoric were divisive and caused \u200banxiety among the country\u2019s Muslim<\/a> population.<\/p>\n Those who would have opportunities if they left \u2013 the highly educated, such as doctors or professors \u2013 can go to \u201cLondon \u200bor Dubai\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cBut those with less \u2060education have no choice, they can’t leave,\u201d he said. He added that the policy \u201cdoesn’t solve any problem\u201d, and that \u201ceven if a few thousand leave, it has made it worse for those who have to stay\u201d.<\/p>\n Sweden has also started tightening other rules for immigrants, including no longer awarding permanent residence permits and making immigrants reapply for them after three years. But the dramatic tightening of Sweden’s migration policy has sparked concern in a healthcare sector that is ever more dependent on immigrants.<\/p>\n Around a third of specialist doctors and 53 per cent of nursing assistants were born abroad, according to official statistics.<\/p>\n Davood Javid explained that three-quarters of the 20 doctors working at the cardiology unit of the NU Hospital Group in the southern city of Trollhattan, where he is a senior specialist, were born abroad.<\/p>\n