The Swedish government is to offer migrants enormous sums to voluntarily return to their home countries, but a survey shows that few are willing to take up the offer.

The Swedish government recently announced a significant hike in the amount paid to migrants who voluntarily return to their country of origin.

The sizable increase in the payment already available to those who agree to leave Sweden permanently puts the total payout at 350,000 Swedish kronor (over 30,000 euros). This is per person, which could amount to over a million kronor per family.

The provision would enter into force on 1 January 2026. An extra 105 million kroner is being earmarked for next year, and 1.4 billion kroner (nearly 127 million euros) in 2026, the year the measure comes into force. In order to ensure that recipients of the repatriation allowance do not return to Sweden again under a different identity (which has been the case for many deportees), participants are required to submit to having their biometric data recorded.

The current maximum payment is 10,000 kronor (nearly 1 thousand euros) per adult and capped at 40,000 kronor (3.5 thousand euros) for family units.

The Alkompis portal asked residents in an effort to find out how many people would consider accepting the offer, according to Swedish news portal Samnytt.

Of those surveyed, 77 per cent said they were not even interested in the increased amount, and only 15 per cent said they may be interested. The rest are undecided.

The survey also showed that 90 per cent of the more than 2,700 respondents had already heard about the increased repatriation grant.

Among the 77 per cent who said no to 350,000 Swedish kronor, they were also asked if they would be persuaded with an even higher amount. Of these, 66% said they would never return to their country of origin, while 25% would consider it.

23 per cent of respondents would consider returning to their home country if the amount was SEK 1 million (over EUR 88 thousand) or more.