Forced Migration in the OIC Member Countries:
Policy Framework Adopted by Host Countries
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Beyond financial assistance, Swedish authorities provide asylum applicants and protection
beneficiaries with a broad range of other supports to assist them in finding housing and
employment and in access educational and health services. Actors at the national, regional,
and local levels hold responsibility for implementing social and economic inclusion policies for
forced migrants. Broadly, the Migration Agency has responsibility for most policy areas,
including housing and employment/labor market introduction, while asylum claims are
adjudicated. Education and health services are provided by regular municipal and county
authorities with financial support from the national government. Once protection
beneficiaries receive status and residence permits, the Employment Service, municipal, and
county governments become responsible for providing housing, social benefits, and labor
market and cultural introduction activities.
Municipal authorities play a key role as the social welfare provider of last resort, meaning they
are responsible for ensuring the well-being of all individuals resident in their territory
regardless of status, to the best of their ability. Should an asylum applicant or protection
beneficiary fall out of the other support systems for any reason, they have the right to turn to
municipal social service offices for assistance.
This section details forced migrants’—including both asylum seekers and beneficiaries of
protection—access to housing, education, health care, and employment in Sweden, the policy
frameworks designed to deliver these services, and barriers to accessing them in practice.
Access to most services has not been affected by the July 2016 temporary asylum law.
Housing
Obtaining secure housing in communities that offer economic opportunity and sufficient and
accessible social services is crucial to the welfare and integration of forced migrants in
Sweden. All asylum applicants and protection beneficiaries in Sweden are provided assistance
securing housing, if they choose. Applicants and protection beneficiaries are not required to
use the assisted housing system, and are free to live anywhere in Sweden, if they obtain their
own accommodation—a key difference with many asylum systems elsewhere in Europe as
well as globally. Those who choose take advantage of the assistance available are required to
accept any housing arrangement that authorities offer, regardless of location. In principle,
authorities make an effort to distribute assisted housing in communities throughout Sweden
to avoid concentrating protection beneficiaries in particular neighborhoods—another
divergence with settlement policies in many major host countries that instead often require or
encourage refugees to reside in camps or particular neighborhoods and districts.
In practice, however, a severe housing shortage in Sweden has meant that finding safe and
affordable housing has been one of the biggest challenges facing both asylum seekers and
protection beneficiaries, as well as the authorities who assist them. Because housing
shortages are more severe in large cities like Stockholm and Malmö, assisted housing offers
tend to be in less desirable towns and rural communities.
Types of housing assistance provided
The type of assistance available to forced migrants in Sweden depends on where an applicant
is in the asylum process as well as his or her age.
While an application is being processed, the Migration Agency has responsibility for providing
housing for adults and families who require assistance. As of May 2016, just over half of