Carl Bildt: Sweden should help migrants who wish to leave after integration failures

Europe has not integrated its recent immigrant population well enough, former Swedish prime minister Carl Bildt told The National.

In an interview on Tuesday, which took place on the sidelines of the Raisina Middle East forum in Abu Dhabi, Mr Bildt also shared his views on the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, the growing importance of artificial intelligence in public policymaking and the role of social media in the western political discourse.

In Sweden, where the government in September announced it plans to offer more than $34,000 to migrants who want to return to their countries of origin, Mr Bildt says there is a growing “recognition that [immigration] went somewhat too fast”.

“Integration takes time, and we didn’t give it the attention that we should have.”

Mr Bildt also attributed a rise in criminality and gangs in Sweden to these policy failures. “And that has led to a political reaction…You see it in all European countries.”

On Sweden’s financial offer to incentivise migrants to return, Mr Bildt says “there are quite a number of people who want to go back” – particularly Syrians, many of whom he says want to return even in spite of Sweden’s foreign ministry advising against travel to Syria.

"I think it is fair enough that we give them some help," he said.

Critics of the plan say it could hinder efforts to encourage integration among immigrants further by sending a message across society that non-native Swedes do not belong.

“The key thing,” Mr Bildt says, is that “this is a voluntary arrangement”.

“If they don’t want [to leave]…then integration is the name of the game.”

Throughout Europe, some far-right politicians have mooted “remigration”, in which governments ought to try to repatriate immigrants to their country of origin, in some cases even after they have acquired European citizenship. The idea has picked up steam in populist circles, including within Germany’s right-wing party Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD).

While Mr Bildt acknowledged far-right “tendencies” in Europe, he said he was more worried about trends in American society.

“If you look at opinion polls in the US, you have roughly 70 per cent of people who have been saying consistently for years that the country is moving in the wrong direction,” he said. “If you put the same question to people in Europe, those figures are much lower.

“There is a distinct difference between what we see in Europe and the intense polarisation of American society.”

Last week, American billionaire Elon Musk addressed an AfD campaign event in Germany via video link, where he warned that multiculturalism “dilutes everything”.

“I’m interested to see how it works out in Germany,” Mr Bildt said. “Whether Elon Musk’s intervention has a positive or negative effect, because there could also be a backlash against it. I mean, Americans coming in and preaching to the German electorate is not necessarily something that is appreciated. Could be. Remains to be seen.”