Sweden will pay immigrants up to $34,000 to return to their home countries, Migration Minister Johan Forssell told reporters on Thursday. Forssell’s announcement comes amid a broader reversal of the Nordic nation’s once-liberal migration policy. Under a system of grants set up in the mid-1980s, Sweden currently offers migrants up to 10,000 kronor ($970) per adult and 5,000 kronor ($485) per child to leave. However, Forssell said that only one person took the deal last year. Ludvig Aspling of the right-wing Sweden Democrats, whose party props up the country’s centrist government, said that if the grant were increased and more people became aware of it, they would be more likely to take the deal. Aspling predicted that the unemployed or those in low-wage jobs relying on government handouts“would be interested”in such an offer.
