A country has slammed the door shut to asylum seekers - and its government is now boasting of achieving "net negative " as asylum applications drop to a forty-year low.

has sought to introduce mandatory language and integration tests for anyone seeking citizenship. The policies of the Moderate government have won support from the hard right and make it easier to revoke residency permits. As reported by the , Sweden welcomed 163,000 asylum seekers in 2015 - the highest number per capita of any EU country at the time. It came just a year after Prime Minister Fredruk Reinfeldt pleaded with his people to "open your hearts" to refugees and "have patience with what is about to happen".

His liberal-conserative coalition went on to lose the election just a month later, sparking a change in the mindset on migration. In 2015, Sweden joined Germany and its Scandinavian neighbours in a response to the "migrant crisis".

A large number of the refugees in Sweden were from Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq. They settled in housing blocks which were built through the 1960s and 1970s.

Although Liberal-minded Swedes argued that accepting refugees was the correct thing to do, areas housing refugees soon became associated with high levels of crime and unemployment. The nation has seen a wave of gang crime in recent times, which has been blamed on the poorly implemented integration policies.

The government has since responded by seeking evidence of language ability and integration before qualifying for citizenship. This has made it easier to revoke residency and confine those not qualifying to special centres.

Tensta, a suburb of Stockholm, was built to address a housing crisis at the end of the 20th century but, by 2018, had a foreign population of 90%. Meanwhile, four in five people in the area lived on welfare benefits or low incomes.

Interpeace said in its Voices from Tensta report: "As in many other immigrant suburbs, Tensta's youth are often caught between two worlds: the traditions of their parents who immigrated to Sweden and modern Swedish culture.

"Navigating the complexities of being a young person, an immigrant and a Swede is not easy for many of them. Despite the challenges of forming their identity, young people from Tensta have developed a strong bond with their district. They spoke passionately about Tensta as a multicultural and community-based area."

Many residents were vulnerable to being exploited by criminals due to the limited work and education opportunities in Tensta. A total of 16 people were killed in the suburb in 2016, mostly in drug-related conflicts.

Police say local gangs have started to openly recruit children on social media. They recruit children as young as 11 using "digital marketplaces" to commit bombings and murders.

In 2023, 53 people were killed in shootings across Sweden, which has been dubbed by mafia groups abroad as a "haven" for their activities. The crime groups have also found ways to smuggle military-grade weapons into Sweden.

The far right were quick to capitalise on the issue, highlighting problems linked to immigration. It prompted the left and the centre to echo their fears, with Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson conceding that Sweden didn't need more "Somalitowns or "Little Italies" in August 2022.

This narrative was a far cry from her previous claims of how "segregation" in such communities had created "parallel societies... living in different realities". In the 2022 election, reforms came thick and fast after the Moderates formed a government with the Democrats. It gave the conservative party significant influence over crime and immigration policies.

Residency permits are now more easily revoked and asylum rights have been slashed to the bare minimum allowed under EU law. Some immigrants are being urged to return home while others are put under electronic surveillance or confined to special centres.

The government is also now pushing more migrants into the weaker "subsidiary protection" category. Unlike full asylum, this status requires renewal every 13 months and only extends beyond three years for those who can prove they are financially independent.

Migration Minister Johan Forssell shared how asylum-related residence permits had fallen to a 40-year low earlier this year. He told The Times: "We are implementing what we describe as a paradigm shift in Swedish migration policy, and we are doing this with a very outspoken agenda that we want to limit the number of people seeking asylum here in Sweden".

He added: "What happened during the refugee crisis was that all these very nice words, all this open-heart policy, met a very tough reality."