Tidö Agreement to commission cost of immigration study
In the updated Tidö agreement, four Swedish political parties have agreed to have the Norwegian Economic Institute tasked with calculating the costs of immigration, both historically and in the future. The assignment also includes making future forecasts, where the cost must be reported by country of origin.
According to SD’s party secretary Mattias Bäckström Johansson, the study is something they have been pursuing ever since they entered the Riksdag, in their first budget and out in municipalities, particularly focusing on multicultural accounts.
Olof Åslund, a professor at Uppsala University, believes that there is already some research that touches on the question of the costs of immigration. He notes that in the short term, immigration costs society, but in the long term, it is a positive economic factor with labor immigration being a net contribution to the economy or public sector, and refugee immigration involving a cost over time.
However, the Green Party has questioned the motive behind such a mapping. MP Annika Hirvonen stated, “Asylum law has never been about us making money from vulnerable people. It has been about human dignity being defended regardless of whether the individual in question is a financially contributing person or not.”
Center leader Muharrem Demirok has called the investigation a commissioned job from the Sweden Democrats and expressed concern about assessing people’s need for protection based on their financial profitability.
The Tidö agreement is an agreement between the government parties and the cooperation party SD, and the updated version of the agreement with a number of changes will be presented shortly.
The study has sparked debates over the importance of assessing costs based on the country of origin, the need for such a study, and the potential implications for Sweden’s refugee and asylum policy. It has also raised questions about whether the aim is to target resources correctly for improved integration and whether the information can be used effectively to achieve that goal.