Family ties boost Sweden immigration
Radio Sweden
October 1, 2007
The number of imigrants coming to Sweden to join family members who have already moved here has doubled after changes to asylum legislation.
According to Swedens Migration Board, during the first six months of 2007, twice as many people applied to come to Sweden as was the case in the same period the previous year.
Applicants from Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia accounted for the majority of the increase.
The Migration Board says the rise in applications is in large part due to a change in Swedens asylum laws which gave family members, many of whom were already in Sweden, a second hearing on their cases.
The change has now created a wave of appplicants seeking to join their families in Sweden.
Between January and August some 5,000 people applied to emigrate to Sweden to reunite with relations already living here a jump of 118 percent on the same period last year.
So-called love-emigration has also shown a marked increase with 14,000 people wanting to emigrate to Sweden to live with their partners so far this year an increase of some 4,000 during the same period in 2006.
