Freedom of movement within the Schengen area is one of the cornerstones of EU cooperation. This means that an EU citizen who immigrate to Sweden does not need to apply for a residence permit or state why he/she intends to reside in Sweden. Free movement across borders, however, is not a new thing for Nordic citizens since it has been possible to settle within the Nordic area without extensive bureaucracy since the 1950s.

There are many reasons why a person choose to migrate, relocation to a relative, education or work are some of the most common reasons for migration within the EU. From a planning point of view, it is important for decision makers to understand why a person choose to come to or leave the country. Free movement reduces the opportunity to know the reason for a migration. Today, only citizens from non-EU/EEA countries have to get resident permits by reason for settlement. By 2016, 143,000 foreign-born persons migrated to Sweden, of which more than one out of four are missing information on reason for settlement. The number of persons with no information has increased significantly in recent years as a result of a change in regulation which meant that EU/EEA nationals don´t have to apply for residence permits and state reasons for settlement since 2014. As a result, 95 percent were missing reason for settlement in 2016.

Statistics Sweden is now working on a model that, with information in the Total population register (TPR), the household register, the education register and more registers will provide new information on reasons for settlement. A secondary goal for this work is to validate the quality of the immigration information contained in the registry today. The paper describes both the new model and its results.