That is why we are reviewing the situation in Filipstad

Sweden was in the midst of a refugee crisis, which later led to the government quickly being forced to introduce measures that severely restricted the opportunities for asylum seekers to come to Sweden.

Then, in 2015, Assignment decided to review the effects for the small municipalities around the country. Filipstad was also twice affected because the municipality did not count on the state's privatization of the refugee reception. In a short time, Bert Karlsson opened three asylum houses and suddenly the municipality had hundreds of more refugees to take care of.

After the Minister of Migration's visit, a lump sum was paid to Filipstad of SEK 50 million.

But when Assignment Review left Filipstad in 2015, hardly anyone knew what would happen when the money ran out.

When we saw that the municipal manager in Filipstad created headlines that the municipality should be bankrupt, the idea was born to return to Filipstad, four years later.

We contacted several of the people we met in 2015 to try to understand what has happened since. When integration manager Jim Frölander told us about his trip among Sweden's municipalities, we realized that it was time for another visit to Filipstad. By examining the statistics for unemployment, social security contributions and population development, it becomes clear how serious the situation is.

And Filipstad is far from the only municipality in the country that testifies to concerns about how welfare should be maintained in the future.

In May, the interest organization presented Sweden's municipalities and county councils, SKL, "The Economic Report". The content is bleak reading from the country's municipalities and regions. In 2018, 69 of the country's 290 municipalities suffered a loss. According to figures from Statistics Sweden, the situation has not been so bad since 2003.

More than a third, 110 out of 290 Swedish municipalities, expect to go minus this year. The municipalities' losses total a total of more than SEK 2 billion.