On Friday, January 31, Elon Musk retweeted a resurfaced poll on X exposing that nearly 80% of refugees in Sweden travel back to their home countries on vacation.
While many refugees in Sweden claim to be fleeing war, violence, and persecution, reports suggest that some may have falsified details to maintain the benefits of living in highly subsidized European countries like Sweden.
In December 2023, the Swedish government announced plans to begin tracking refugees traveling to their home countries.
Data on the travels of refugees
The original survey that brought this issue to public attention was a Novus poll conducted in 2022, showing that 79% of surveyed refugees admitted to traveling back to their home countries for holidays—the same countries they originally fled from.
In the same year, data showed that seven of the top ten refugee nationalities in Sweden came from Muslim-majority countries, including Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Iran, Turkey, and Yemen.
Between Iraq and Syria alone, there were over 120,000 registered refugees in Sweden—a country with a population of only 10 million.
Following Sweden’s shift to the right in 2022, government policies on mass migration tightened, including a mandate requiring government employees to report illegal migrants.
In 2024, the Swedish government also increased financial incentives for voluntary repatriation, offering $34,000 to illegal migrants who return to their home countries.
Salwan Momika’s murder
The resurgence of attention on Sweden’s refugee population follows the recent murder of Salman Momika, an Iraqi refugee and prominent critic of Islam and Iran. Momika, known for publicly burning the Quran, was killed by Islamists who had pledged for years to take his life.
Meanwhile, some radical Islamists have openly boasted about their goal of making Sweden a Muslim-majority country through higher birth rates within a generation.
