Tough summer for care – fewer hands for the elderly when staff are expelled

SEK 28,480 a month. So much, a person outside an EU country who moves to Sweden must currently serve in order to obtain a work permit. The sum corresponds to 80 percent of today’s Swedish median salary, according to a decision on increased income requirements that were clubbed by the government on November 1, 2023. The supply requirement is also expected to be increased in June, as the median salary is listed.

According to the Migration Board, the number of work permits has decreased since the increase – from 36,000 2023 to 27,000 the following year. Instead, during the same period, the number of rejection decisions increased – in professions such as caregivers, attendants and personal assistants from 29 to 38 percent.

A sector as clearly has seen the effects of the increased supply requirement is the country’s elderly care, not least in Norrbotten, where there has already been a large shortage of staff within several municipalities.

Marie Mattsson works as a recruiter and staff planner in the elderly care in the community Harads, which lies between Boden and Jokkmokk. 501 people live in the community, and many of the residents live in the two elderly homes in the resort, at LSS housing or are customers in the home service.

Since the supply requirement was raised, many employees in care have been expelled, according to Marie Mattsson.

– This has greatly affected our business. In 2023 I had 25 employees who worked here from different countries outside the EU. 15 of them were here on a work permit, but when the Migration Board and the Migration Court chose to call us a rogue employer who bypass the legislation, nine of them have been expelled one by one, she says.

Which further exacerbates the already hard -pressed personnel situation in Harads is the abolition of the so -called track change on April 1 this year.

The parliamentary decision, which was clubbed just two weeks before the introduction, means that people who have been denied their asylum application, but during the asylum process received a work permit via a track change, must leave Sweden to apply for an extension of existing work permits in their home countries.

According to Marie Mattsson, the consequences are devastating for the provision of skills in Harad’s elderly care.

– It will be the next big problem after the increased wage requirement. We have always worked with the idea that we might get an exception to the abolition of the track change, in order to be able to retain more employees. But there has been no exception, and now it is a total stop in recruitment, she says.

The abandoned track change Also makes the situation before the planning of the summer holidays look darker than ever before, says Marie Mattsson.

-We are responsible for both home service, LSS housing and the elderly, and in terms of some of these places I dare not even go in and look at the holiday planning. And admittedly you are always mining for summer planning, but this year it feels much worse. It is so bad that I feel that it is no idea that I put something to worry about worrying, she says, adding:

– So I don’t really know what to do. It’s awful.

One who suffers from the abolition of the track change is the nurse Snezana, who together with her husband came to Sweden from Serbia in 2013. Three years later the family, which also consists of three children, came to Harads.

Here Snezana works at the Älvstrand elderly residence, while her husband instead works as a care assistant at the other elderly residence, Edelstrand.

After being assigned Many weekend passes Snezana managed to come up with the sum required after the increase in the salary requirement in 2023. But when the track change in April was abolished, the family’s situation changed radically.

– Our work permits will expire in October next year. So even though we so far meet the salary requirement, we have no chance to stay, she says and continues:

– It feels awful when our employer has struggled so that we can work more weekends to raise our salaries. And that now that it has resolved with the salary comes such a message.

The message about the abandoned track change also meant that Snezana and her husband canceled the last element that remained by the SFI studies the couple has begun for an earlier period.

– Working full time and at the same time studying at SFI takes a lot of time, but if you have a goal it is okay. Now I had to call our teacher instead and say that we cancel the studies because we have no chance to stay in Sweden, she says and adds:

– And she was very sad.

Snezana testify to How the expulsions of many of her colleagues at the elderly in recent years have affected the residents, where several suffer from dementia.

– People who have suffered from dementia need people they recognize. Then it is not good that the staff is constantly replaced. I feel sorry for the old ones, she says, adding:

– And for me, a job means more than just money. I want to do something that feels meaningful, and this is what I want to work on.

Marie Mattsson, for her part, describes a sense of abandonment. In recent years, she has spent many hours of her working hours rebuilding schedules to ensure that the staff can fulfill the salary requirement, to fill out forms to the Migration Board and to try to help desperate employees who have received an expulsion message.

After the message The abolition of the track change feels comforting, says Marie Mattsson.

– It feels like the government has only decided to send out these people at all costs. People who have been integrated, work and are part of society, she says and continues:

– An increasing proportion of the population is getting older and needs care – but who should take care of them? It’s a headline you want to see, « Who will take care of those who built up the welfare that has soon been demolished? », She says.