DEFENDING DEMOCRACY IN EXILE Policy Responses to Transnational Repression Migration F oreign-born residents in Sweden account for 14.4 percent of the total population,22 and the country has a record of welcoming newcomers. In 2015, Sweden experienced an unprecedented influx of asylum seekers as nearly 163,000 people—triple the annual average—arrived in search of safety from instability and war in Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq. The Swedish state then came under political pressure to shift the focus of its migration policies from facilitating permanent settlement to deterring would-be asylum seekers. While Sweden maintains a rights-sensitive approach to evaluating claims for asylum and considers privacy rights in its handling of information, the government’s prioritization of efficiency has created opportunities for authoritarian states to target vulnerable people through transnational repression. By imposing temporary status on almost all asylum seekers, the Swedish government ensures that vulnerable people will have to interact with institutions tasked with surveilling and harassing them. A reformed system Immigration, asylum, and naturalization are managed by the Swedish Migration Agency (Migrationsverket), which is governed by both national laws and EU directives, including the Dublin II Regulations. In 2016, Sweden introduced important legal changes that made the asylum process more restrictive for the express purpose of reducing the number of people seeking asylum in the country.23 These changes included reducing the number of grounds for protection, making temporary protection the norm, and limiting opportunities for family reunification. Sweden also limited access to its welfare system for different types of migrants, in what amounted to a stark departure from previous policies of open access for all residents of the country.24 Previously, once someone was recognized as a refugee in Sweden, meaning they were found to have a “well-founded fear 6 @FreedomHouse of persecution on the grounds of race, nationality, religious or political belief, or on the grounds of gender, sexual orientation or other membership in a particular social group,” 25 they would be issued a permanent residence permit, which allowed them to remain in the country indefinitely. Now, asylum seekers who receive refugee status are given a residency permit for three years. In order to convert the temporary residence permit into a permanent residence permit, refugees must meet a number of conditions, including language and employment requirements. Those who do not meet the asylum standard can be granted “subsidiary protection.” 26 Such individuals receive temporary residence that must be renewed every 13 months. People with subsidiary protection do not have the right to family reunification or Swedish travel documents. Although these changes were first introduced in 2016 as a temporary measure to deal with an unprecedented situation, they were codified into law in July 2021. Extending periods of “temporariness” for refugees and limiting opportunities for family reunification can open the door to certain methods of transnational repression. Temporary legal status in receiving states forces people to remain in contact with repressive regimes in their countries of origin in order to renew their travel and identification documents. As research has shown, many political exiles and refugees express wellfounded anxiety at the prospect of interacting with diplomatic representatives of their home countries.27 Syrians, who are among the largest groups of both historic and recent asylum seekers in Sweden, have reported harassment, intimidation, and surveillance undertaken by the Syrian embassy in Stockholm since 2001. Members of the diaspora have been photographed by diplomatic staff at protests and public events, questioned using information that was collected surreptitiously in Sweden, and subjected to intimidating phone calls from embassy personnel.28 In 2010, a Syrian intelligence officer was expelled from Sweden for actions against the diaspora.29 By imposing temporary status on almost all asylum seekers, the Swedish government ensures that vulnerable people will have to interact with institutions tasked with surveilling and harassing them. Restricting family reunification leaves refugees’ loved ones stranded in origin states and facilitates coercion by proxy, a common tool of transnational repression. Threatening, intimidating, or punishing people who remain within the #TransnationalRepression