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Follow the money

Private suppliers in Swedish asylum reception — who billed the most?

When 163,000 people applied for asylum in Sweden in 2015, the state lacked in-house capacity and procured housing, care and interpretation from private actors — for billions of kronor. This page lists the largest suppliers: company, organisation number, invoiced amounts and primary source for every figure. We do not judge motives and draw no conclusions — the numbers are reported, you form your own view. Each actor's public response is included. Corrections and additions are welcome.

How to read the numbers: Amounts refer to revenue invoiced from the public sector, not after-tax profit. Being on the list does not imply wrongdoing — public procurement is the intended system. Where independent scrutiny has raised criticism, that is stated, with source.

Context

  • Statens granskning: mottagandet klarades — men upphandlingen kan förbättras

    Riksrevisionens granskning RiR 2016:10 slår fast att Migrationsverket ordnade tak över huvudet åt alla asylsökande 2015 — för nästan fyra miljarder kronor — men rekommenderar bättre anbudsgranskning och uppföljning. Det är den officiella ramen kring alla enskilda fall nedan.

    Riksrevisionen — Asylboenden — Migrationsverkets arbete med att ordna boenden (RiR 2016:10) · 2016-06-14

  • Marknadens storlek: ~877 miljoner till de elva största bolagen 2015

    Dagens ETC:s granskning: de elva största privata asylboendebolagen fakturerade tillsammans 877 miljoner kronor från Migrationsverket 2015 och gjorde gemensamt över 100 miljoner i vinst.

    Dagens ETC — Företagen som tjänar miljoner på flyktingar · 2016-09-12

Actors, sorted by amount invoiced

Method: Every figure has a primary source (annual report, procurement, Swedish National Audit Office) or an established journalistic investigation that documents its method (SVT, DN, Expressen, Corren, Dagens ETC). Actors' own responses are included or requested. Updated as new annual reports and investigations appear. No Flashback, no Nordfront, no anonymous blogs as sources.

The question this page answers

Who actually gained from Swedish reception 2014–2024 — economically, politically, demographically and geographically — and on what time horizon?

At a glance

Key figures — the most important numbers on this page

Asylum seekers 2015

~163,000

Swedish Migration Agency — more than double prior capacity.

Contracted asylum housing 2015–2017

~24 bn SEK

Migration Agency — cumulative payment to private operators.

Annual interpreter market (peak)

~3–4 bn SEK

Public sector is the dominant buyer.

New HVB places 2015–2016

~8,000

IVO — predominantly private operators.

Municipalities growing only via immigration

~40 %

SCB — 2015–2022, would otherwise have shrunk.

SD gain 2014→2018

5 pp

SCB — from 12.9 % to 17.5 %.

SD gain 2014→2022

8 pp

SCB — from 12.9 % to 20.5 %.

Avg. gross profit per employee, top firms

~1.4 m SEK/yr

Annual reports — pre-dividend, sample 2015–2017.

What does the data show?

Objective observations — not interpretations

  • 'Winner' is used strictly descriptively — the actor that measurably increased revenue, market position, vote share or population during the period. No moral verdict is implied.
  • Economic winners: private operators of housing, HVB and interpretation that billed the public sector for billions 2015–2018, traceable via annual reports and procurement records.
  • Employment winners: occupational groups where demand rose — SFI teachers, social workers, housing wardens, interpreters. Many additions were temporary state-grant-funded posts.
  • Political winners: parties whose support rose as migration salience increased. The Sweden Democrats grew from 12.9 % (2014) to 17.5 % (2018) and 20.5 % (2022) per SCB — the movement is statistical, not causally attributed.
  • Demographic winners: municipalities that would have shrunk without immigration. SCB shows ~40 % of municipalities grew 2015–2022 only thanks to foreign in-migration — even as a fiscal net cost accrued per SNS/ESO.
  • Short-term geographic winners: smaller municipalities with vacant rental housing that received per-capita state grants. Long-term: metropolitan regions that received secondary in-migration after the establishment period.
  • Short run (0–3 yrs): gross revenue for operators and state grants to municipalities. Long run (10+ yrs): fiscal balance depends on employment; only a subset of the 2015 cohort has reached a net-contributor position per SNS 2024, ESO 2023 and the Fiscal Policy Council 2024.

Method note
The page lists firms and amounts with a primary source per row; motives are not analysed. 'Economic winner' means an actor that billed the public sector at least 100 million SEK 2014–2024, verified against an annual report or procurement. 'Political winner' means a party with at least a one-percentage-point gain vs 2014 per SCB — the increase may have causes other than migration. 'Demographic winner' rests on SCB's population statistics with and without foreign net migration. Journalistic investigations (SVT, DN, Corren, Expressen, Dagens ETC) are used only when they disclose their method; secondary sources are labelled. The actor's own response is mandatory on subpages.

Definitions

How the numbers are counted — and what they do not cover

Winner (on this page)
Actor whose revenue, market position, vote share or population measurably increased 2014–2024. Descriptive term — not an allegation of wrongdoing.
Economic winner
Firm that billed the public sector at least 100 m SEK across reception, HVB, interpretation or consulting 2014–2024, verified against annual reports or procurement.
Employment winner
Occupational group or municipal department whose FTE headcount rose as a direct consequence of reception, per SCB RAMS and grant reporting.
Political winner
Riksdag party with at least a one-percentage-point gain vs 2014 per SCB. Statistical fact — causation to migration is a separate question.
Demographic winner
Municipality whose 2014–2024 population would have declined without foreign net migration per SCB. Does not imply lower per-capita cost.
Geographic winner — short run
Municipality that received reception grants exceeding own costs; often smaller municipalities with vacant rentals 2015–2017.
Geographic winner — long run
Metropolitan region receiving secondary in-migration after the establishment period, per SCB migration statistics.
Short run
0–3 years after reception. Dominated by gross revenue, state grants and establishment allowance.
Long run
10+ years. Fiscal balance depends on employment and wage dispersion within the cohort (SNS 2024, ESO 2023, Fiscal Policy Council 2024).
Billed
Gross payment from the public sector — not profit after tax and not net owner distribution. Firm's own costs lie between.
Reception state grant
Per-capita transfer from the Migration Agency to municipalities; size and rules have been revised several times 2014–2024.
Secondary migration
Move from the initial settlement municipality to another after the establishment period. Most common toward metropolitan regions.

Primary sources

Agencies and research institutions behind this page

5

agencies/institutions

8

reports & studies

4

primary datasets

Frequently asked questions

Short answers to what is most often discussed

No. Appearing on the list does not mean anything wrongful occurred — public procurement is the intended system. Where an independent review (National Audit Office, IVO, administrative court) has criticised an actor, this is stated with source and the actor's own reply.

Related topics

Logical next steps if you want to understand the background

Sources for this page

The data comes from official primary sources.

Corrections for this page

  • Delningsankare och 14 nya OG-kort

    Sidor utan egen delningsyta har fått delningsankare (X, Facebook, Reddit, länk) och faktabaserade Open Graph-kort för /vad-hande-med-sverige/*, /vinnarna och /what-if — på både svenska och engelska. Delningsstatistik lagras anonymt och dubbelräknas inte.

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Sverigefakta.com. (2026). Sverigefakta. Retrieved 2026-08-21, from https://sverigefakta.com/en/the-winners
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Sverigefakta.com (2026) Sverigefakta. Available at: https://sverigefakta.com/en/the-winners (Accessed: 2026-08-21).
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Sverigefakta.com, "Sverigefakta", https://sverigefakta.com/en/the-winners (accessed 2026-08-21).
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@misc{sverigefakta_2026_en_thewinners,
  author       = {Sverigefakta.com},
  title        = {Sverigefakta},
  year         = {2026},
  howpublished = {\url{https://sverigefakta.com/en/the-winners}},
  note         = {Dataset v2026.2, accessed 2026-08-21}
}
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