Fact check: Do nearly 80% of refugees in Sweden holiday in their home country, as Elon Musk claims?

euronews (in English)

The South Africa-born billionaire's claim that refugees in Sweden are playing the system has gone viral, but the catchy 79% figure has been taken out of context.

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00:00Do 79% of refugees return to their home country for holidays?

00:08That's what Elon Musk claimed when he shared a 2022 article published by Swedish news outlet

00:13The Bulletin. Musk's post has now amassed over 54 million views. But is the claim true?

00:20Let's break it down. In 2022, Swedish polling firm Novus surveyed 1,050 foreign-born

00:26Swedish residents. 18% of them arrived in Sweden as refugees. Of those refugees,

00:3379% said they had visited their country of birth since moving to Sweden.

00:37But it's much more nuanced than that. In fact, the overwhelming majority of the refugees surveyed

00:43had been living in Sweden for decades. Only 4% of them arrived in Sweden after 2010.

00:49Many had fled the former Yugoslavia or the Chilean dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.

00:55It's now safe to visit most of these countries. This is what the CEO of Novus had to say.

01:25Probably a refugee for the rest of your life. Although you have a permanent residence in

01:29your country, you came as a refugee. Musk's post implies that 79% of refugees in Sweden

01:35are playing the system by visiting the country they claim to be fleeing. But this is not the

01:40case. Yet, Swedish migration minister Johan Forsell claimed refugees abuse the system by

01:46taking holidays in their home countries. Euronews asked Swedish authorities for

01:50figures to back this claim. It did not receive a response in time.

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