Fact check: Which party is to blame for Sweden’s historic high migration?

In a surprise New Year’s attack, the opposition Social Democrats last week accused the ruling Moderates of bringing in the laws that led to unsustainably high levels of migration to Sweden, calling for Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson to apologise and be “self critical”. Do they have a point?

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At a fika coffee meeting with journalists on Thursday, Social Democrat party secretary Tobias Baudin said Kristersson had been a minister when the Moderate Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt pushed through some of the migration laws that contributed to the high levels of migration between 2014 and 2022.  
These included, he said, a radical liberalisation of work permit rules and an asylum deal with the Green Party which introduced the spårbyte, or “track change”, system that allowed rejected asylum seekers to apply for a work permit instead.
“Ulf Kristersson is evading his own responsibility and the responsibility of the Moderate Party for the migration policy of the past,” Baudin said. “Ulf Kristersson should apologise and be self-critical”. 

Social Democrat leader: Sweden’s stricter migration rules here to stay even if we win

Migration minister Maria Malmer Stenergard, also from the Moderate Party, then accused the Social Democrats of attempting a “falsification of history”, countering that the previous Social Democrat-led government had in 2020 further relaxed the rules on family reunification.  
Migration has arguably been beneficial to Sweden in many ways. But now Sweden’s two main parties are each accusing the other of letting too many people come to the country, which one is right?
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