Deporting teenagers is a catastrophe for Swedish talent recruiting

For most of my career I've been working in academia, with my own research, with higher education development and with supporting other researchers in the path towards innovation and utilisation. For academic institutions that aspire to be of high international class, recruiting talents from abroad is a must. This also applies for research based companies in competitive areas such as pharma, biotechnology or information technologies. We need international students but also career scientists and experts.

Compared to many other countries, Sweden has not had the highest salaries or the biggest compensation packages when recruiting experts or researchers from abroad. But we have had other benefits, like paid vacations, a public paid health care system and free schools and higher education. For many women who have moved to Sweden, a reasonable gender balance has also been a positive factor and for those who plan to start a family, paid maternity (and paternity) leave has also been a positive aspect of moving to Sweden.

As time goes by, children grow up and eventually become teenagers. Suddenly the new and strict anti-immigration laws that Sweden has passed in recent years will come into play. Despite their parents being permanent residents, a child turning 18 suddenly is viewed as an independent adult alien that has no right to reside in Sweden. We have during the last year seen multiple cases where children still in high school have been expelled and separated from their families.

 

For someone who has made moving to Sweden an important part of their career, the sudden expulsion of their child totally upends this choice. Why would a country where they have contributed to so much want to split the family or force them to leave? Of course it is not only children of experts and researchers that have been hurt by the new draconian laws. Many people doing important but not will paid work in healthcare and social services have been affected in the same way, with children or whole families being expelled despite being well integrated and contributing to our society. 

https://www.dn.se/debatt/lakare-flyr-sverige-nar-familjer-splittras/

The effect on the people that the government claims it wants to attract to Sweden can have far reaching consequences. Already researchers and physicians, people who have all the options where they want to live and work, are warning their colleagues not to move to Sweden. If the present right wing government supported by the "Sweden Democrats" (SD), a far right nationalist party will get re-elected, there will be an even harder attitude towards foreign national nationals. SD has since it's start advocated for getting rid of foreigners and sadly the parties in the government have followed that policy in order to keep the support they need in order to stay in power. Even the social democrats have aligned with this view, voting for the laws but suddenly seeming surprised that they have bad effects. 

Sweden is a small country. We are dependent on trade and exports but also on being an open and inviting society which can attract people who want to contribute to our country, for a shorter or longer time. We are not the only country in the world where it's okay to live. If we are seen as an ICE cold country in the way we treat people with a slightly different background or skin colour, we will loose. We will loose the people we want to come here and we will become a poorer and ignorant country.

I have since a few years engaged myself in politics by becoming an active member of the Green Environment Party (Mp). What made my become politically active was the climate crisis and the urgent need to transform to a sustainable future, not the least because climate change will affect our health. But we can not do that in isolation and we already know that migration due to climate displacement is a fact. There is no future in becoming a closed and isolated country. And we can never be a strong and resilient society in a turbulent world by mistreating people who already live here. I will do whatever I can to bring in both a new government and new politics, both for climate, health and migration. 

So sadly at the moment my advice to international experts and researchers that consider moving to Sweden will be: Wait until after the election until you decide and make sure the next government has a different policy in place.