Ayla, 21, Jomana, 18, and Ilya, 19, came to Sweden as children, though at different ages and under different circumstances. Today they face the same reality: all have been ordered to leave the country alone while their families remain.
These cases stem from Sweden’s increasingly restrictive migration policy, under which young people who turn 18 before obtaining permanent residency are no longer considered part of their parents’ family unit. The Swedish Migration Agency states that residency based on parental ties is granted only in exceptional cases involving “special dependency.” A normal parent-child relationship is not sufficient.
On February 17, 2025, a multiparty proposal to stop these deportations did not gain a majority in the Parliamentary Committee on Social Insurance, despite cross-party recognition that the practice separates families.
i’m so sorry.
i used to be on sweddit a lot until about two election cycles ago. something changed when the so-called migrant crisis happened. at the start of 2018, a lot of the old guard started posting less and a new wave of users came in that shifted the entire community wildly right. now it just feels like another flashback, but filled with bots.
also (as you probably know, but just for the sake of everyone else) people outside the three big cities in sweden basically live in the woods and almost never meet non-“ethnic swedes” (as sd loves to call them) and just get fed fearmongering shit on social media. it’s a stark divide.