New law makes it worse for the Ukrainians – not better

#law #worse #Ukrainians
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full screenMany Ukrainian refugees in Sweden have been forced to turn to aid organizations and churches to get food for the day, because the state’s compensation system was not enough. Photo: Lotte Fernvall

A new law will make life easier for Ukrainians, the government claimed the other day.

In fact, they get worse.

Ukrainians who have been in Sweden for at least a year will receive significantly higher compensation! A completely different access to care! Bank ID!

Migrationsmigrationsminister Maria Malmer Stenergard beamed when in February she faced cameras and microphones with her bill on population registration for this category of refugees after a year’s stay in Sweden.

Finally, the government would avoid the equally legitimate and loud criticism of the low daily allowance, 71 kroner a day, the lowest in the Nordic countries, an amount that has not been increased since 1994.

But then a referral response comes from Sweden’s municipalities and regions and dampens the good mood.

“For SKR, it appears that the proposals in the memorandum overall lead to a deterioration of the living conditions for foreigners with temporary protection compared to if they are not implemented”.

Excuse? Is it a political fraud we are witnessing?

Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem any better. But to be able to review the migration minister’s claims, a visit to tricky legal terrain is required.

In March 2022, as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukrainewas activated EU‘s mass flight directive for the first time since it was adopted 21 years earlier.

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full screen Migration Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard (M). Photo: Anna Tärnhuvud

Ukrainian refugees received immediate protection and temporary residence permits in Sweden.

These people were not allowed to register here and were therefore not entitled to the so-called residence-based social insurance benefits, such as child allowance, housing allowance and maintenance allowance.

This is because those who are granted temporary protection and who “can be assumed” to stay in the country for less than three years according to current law do not have the right to register here.

But Putin shows no signs of withdrawing his troops and the EU is very likely to extend the mass migration directive when it expires in March 2025.

Yes but then so! Then these refugees have been here for three years! Shouldn’t they from then on be covered by the social insurance system?

Nix. For in the bill for the new law they are exempted from the benefits. Forget child support, housing benefit or LSS contributions to the disabled.

SKR sighs in its consultation response that without this help, the Ukrainians will become more dependent on welfare support.

An establishment allowance of SEK 308 per day is in itself promised, but “hardly any family constellation with children in accommodation with normal rent will manage with only” that money.

It is also pointed out that it will be difficult to become self-sufficient.

For a single woman with a child with normal rent in Stockholm, even a net income of SEK 20,000 a month is not enough to get by without support.

According to SKR’s calculations, the law leads to “significantly increasing costs for financial assistance”.

Why the government wants make the lives of these refugees more miserable, one can only speculate, but it is close at hand to believe that it does not want them to stay here even a day unnecessarily.

Such are our times: anything that can be suspected of benefiting an immigrant can make an average politician wake up in a cold sweat from his nightmares.

Incidentally, the previous government was not a bit better.

In the spring of 2022, the then migration minister Anders Ygeman opened every press conference by assuring that “Sweden will not return to the refugee harvest of 2015” and that people from Ukraine could only count on temporary protection.

The idea is that the new law should be in place before the turn of the year. It is established without appearing to be preceded by debate.

But newspapers, radio and television no longer care very much about Ukraine. Other, Gaza, gang murders, Biden vs Trump, have taken over.

As far as I have been able to see, only Alex Voronov, a writer at Liberala Nyhetsbyrån, has looked the scam.

The politicians speak solemnly about Ukraine’s cause being ours and about the importance of support efforts.

A solidarity that also should include those fleeing the war.