A new report from Sweden says that just 494 refugees — or 0.3% — have found jobs, which is less than 1/3 of 1%!
While in many countries asylum seekers are banned from formally working while their application is being processed, in Sweden there are exceptions. The “at-und” is an exemption granted by Migrationsverket which allows asylums seekers access to the labour market.
In an effort to explain the incredibly low number of migrants working, Lisa Bergstrand of Migrationsverket told SVT: “There was an incredible number of people applying for asylum in Sweden and so that we should be able to register them, we had to de-prioritise certain tasks, and that was the matter of jobs.” Of the migrants who claimed asylum in 2015, approximately one third of the men and women aged 20-64 were given the exemption to allow them to work, which is around 53,790 migrants.
The figures of migrant unemployment follow a trend in Sweden of high unemployment for foreigners. The unemployment for those born in Sweden is at the lowest point since the 2008 financial crisis at around 4.8 per cent, while foreign born unemployment is at 14.9 per cent.
This means that there are fewer people in Sweden paying tax into the generous “Swedish model” welfare system. Some have said that the influx of foreigners who do not work will strain the welfare system to the point of collapse as foreigners are expected to make up 60 per cent of unemployed residents in Sweden by 2017.
Sweden is actually projected by the United Nations to become a third world country by 2030 because Islamic refugees are bringing down the nation.