Max Hjelm: The re-emigration grant illustrates Tidö's four years in power

Sweden's four years under the Tidö parties have been marked by a struggle to implement their agenda, with the controversial "re-emigration grant" serving as a prime example. Initially a demand from the Sweden Democrats (SD), the reform was accepted by other parties, a pattern that repeated throughout their term.

The selection of researcher Joakim Ruist to investigate the grant initially pleased right-wing circles, who expected him to support their views due to his previous research on immigration costs. However, Ruist concluded that a higher re-emigration grant could be expensive, ineffective, and detrimental to integration, surprising those who believed he was driven by anti-immigration sentiments.

Despite Ruist's findings, SD pushed for the grant, offering 350,000 kronor for immigrants to leave the country. The government planned to allocate billions to this initiative, but faced significant problems, including widespread municipal protests and difficulties for recipients in accessing the funds. The reform was criticized, implemented, failed, and then escalated, with SD now proposing that even Swedish citizens should be eligible for the grant.

This cycle of criticism, implementation, failure, and escalation mirrors the approach taken by the Tidö parties in other policy areas, such as migration, crime, and climate. Expert opinions are often dismissed, and investigations seem to be viewed as obstacles, with culture war rhetoric and nationalism taking precedence. Ruist suspects that the underlying motivation for the re-emigration push may simply be a dislike of immigrants, while the center-right parties (M, L, KD) may be trying to normalize SD and justify their cooperation and the policies they are forced to enact. For SD, however, the goal of increasing the proportion of ethnic Swedes is openly stated.