Return Migration Infrastructures in Sweden – WP3 Country Dossier

This Country Dossier on Sweden presents an overview of the assisted and forced return migration infrastructures (RMIs) in Sweden, focusing on detention infrastructures as a case study. It examines how return migration governance is put into practice through the theoretical lenses of RMIs, which refers to the actions (doings) and interactions (relations) of actors, and the formal and informal methods, strategies, materialities—such as places, geography, and objects—as well as technologies that they deploy in the implementation of these policies.

Sweden’s migration policy has undergone a significant shift since the 2015 refugee emergencies, moving from a historically generous asylum system to a restrictive approach prioritizing returns. This shift is further reinforced by the 2022 election of a centre-right coalition government with strong support from the Sweden Democrats, a right-wing populist party. The Tidö Agreement among the coalition partners has driven this hardening stance, prioritizing expanded detention, accelerated returns, and deterrence measures. Yet beneath this political rhetoric lies a complex and often inefficient governance system, where formal objectives clash with on-the-ground realities, creating ambiguities, overlaps, and implementation gaps.

A key finding is the fluid boundary between "voluntary" and forced returns. The SMA employs motivational interviews and return counselling to pressure rejected asylum seekers into "cooperating" - framing compliance as the only alternative to harsher enforcement. This performative voluntariness obscures the reality that many "assisted" returns occur under structural duress. Meanwhile, Sweden’s prison-like detention centres, rebranded as “return centres”, rely on a dynamic security approach (staff presence over physical restraints) yet remain sites of migration control, where migrants undergo systematic preparation for removal – either enforced voluntary return or deportation.