OK. Post #47 referred to their "ultra-liberal immigration policy". Are you referring to a long standing policy, then?
Here's an excerpt from Wikipedia covering 2009 to the most recent figures. By any account Sweden's immigration policies have been liberal for a long time:
In 2009, immigration reached its highest level since records began with 102,280 people migrating to Sweden while the total population grew by 84,335.
[7] In 2010, 32,000 people applied for asylum to Sweden, a 25% increase from 2009, one of the highest numbers in Sweden since 1992 and the Balkan wars.
[8] However the number of people that were granted asylum stayed the same as previous years. In 2009, Sweden had the fourth-largest number of asylum applications in the
EU and the largest number per capita after
Cyprus and
Malta.
[9]
During 2010 the most common reason for immigrating to Sweden was:
- Labour migrants (21%)
- Family reunification (20%)
- Immigrating under the EU/EES rules of free movement (18%)
- Students (14%)
- Refugees (12%)[10]
In 2010, 32,000 people applied for asylum to Sweden, a 25% increase from 2009; however, the number of people who received asylum did not increase because the large increase was much due to the allowing of Serbian nationals to travel without a visa to Sweden.
[8] Sweden has the highest asylum immigration per million inhabitants in Europe.
Eurostat Third Country Nationals illegally present in Sweden 2009-2014
The number of asylum seekers coming to Sweden increased beginning in 2014. 81,300 applied for asylum in 2014, which was an increase of 50% compared to 2013. It was the most since 1992, when 84,018 persons applied for asylum during the
war in Yugoslavia. 47% of the asylum seekers today come from Syria as a result of the
civil war there, 21% from the horn of Africa (mostly Eritrea and Somalia), 7% from Balkan and 4% from Afghanistan and Pakistan. 77% (63,000) requests were approved but it differs greatly between different groups, such as Syrians and Eritreans where nearly everyone gets their application approved.
[11] In February 2015, it was expected that 90,000 apply for asylum in 2015 and 80,000 in 2016. The Swedish Migration Board currently has shortage of 15,000 accommodations so they have to rent from private actors.
[12] At the end of April 2015, the figure for the year 2015 was revised down to 68,000–88,000 with 80,000 as the main scenario. Long processing times and that the situation in Iraq has not developed in the way the Swedish Migration Board feared are the reason for the revised figures.
[13] Nearly two weeks into October 2015, 86,223 had applied for asylum so far during the year. That was a record, surpassing the 1992 figure of 84,018 during the war in Yugoslavia. Emergency accommodation such as drill halls or offices is needed.
[14][15]
A series of violent riots starting with the
2008 Malmö mosque riots and including the
2009 Malmö anti-Israel riots,
2010 Rinkeby riots,
2013 Stockholm riots,
2016 Sweden riots and
2017 Rinkeby riots, during which immigrant youth torched cars and buildings and threw rocks at police, led many Swedes to question Sweden's ability to integrate migrants.
[16]
By November 2015, Swedish willingness to accept large numbers of migrants "was petering out"