Dear Friends,
There has been a constant buzz in the news and on social media sites pertaining to the circular immigration bill, which is tabled in the swedish parliament at the moment. I thought of compiling a little information to provide further material on this issue to keep you upto date.
The issue concerns doctoral students from non-EU countries who spend approximately four years in Sweden and on graduation have 10 days to wrap-up and leave or find a job. Different universities in Sweden, some industries and many student organizations spread across the country have been campaigning vigorously for the past five years to amend the archaic rules and provide a more realistic solution to the problem.
There are two angles to the campaign, one is led by the EU member of parliament, Cecilia Wikström and she has been working on a bill which focuses on circular migration for students within the EU after graduation. Her work is directed towards increasing the time-limit that students can stay in country after graduation. She has proposed that EU-wide the rule should be 18 months after graduation, following the german model which allows students to stay for 18 months post-graduation to find a job. The second angle is mainly pertaining to non-EU students studying in Sweden. It works on the philosophy that it is Sweden's loss to have well qualified graduates leave the country for prospective mployment elsewhere, when the Swedish state spends so many millions on training graduate students. In order to retain this talent and to offset the problem of future aging swedish population, it would be beneficial for the state to have a talented resource pool to retain such graduates within the country and give them a fair chance to assimilate within the swedish work culture and contrinute to the development of the country. Both these proposals have made fair progress considering the time when they were actually seeded as ideas. The EU parliament has the proposal in discussion, same is the case for the Swedish proposal.
At present, the Swedish government has had vast discussions and has the support of the green party, bringing the total support in the Riksdag to 200/349, which gives the bill a clear majority. The government has prepared the bill and it has been presented to the panel committee. Generally, the committee has between 2-4 weeks to respond or file objections and/or ammendments, before it is set for a floor discussion. The bill is in for debate on the floor of the house fromnow until the 16th of June 2014 and a vote will take place on the 17th of June. If the proposal gets a majority, it is proposed to be enacted as a law fron the 1st of July 2014. The most important part of this bill will benefit Phd students who have held a residence permit for doctoral studies for 4 out of the past 7 years. These students will be recommended for permanent residency with a further option of allowing the student to work outside Sweden for a maximum 2 years before the PR is revoked for not being in the country. So, what is needed is a constant watch on the issue and spread correct news. I am providing two links which have been considered authentic. Please follow up here!
Support the campaign!
All the best!!!
Sujit
https://www.facebook.com/utlandska.doktorander
http://www.riksdagen.se/sv/Dokument-Lagar/Utskottens-dokument/Betankanden/Arenden/201314/SfU13/
