The thesis, presented here, deals with the regulation and practice of pre-removal detention of foreigners in the Swedish system.

The paper describes a system in which, unlike in our system, the administrative detention of foreigners has a human face in terms of detention conditions, which are respectful of minimum standards and the fundamental rights of detainees.

However, beyond this relevant profile (certainly of interest to the Italian observer), what emerges very clearly from the work is the contrast that exists in the Swedish system between the treatment of citizens, whose personal freedom is considered a supreme value and for whom detention measures therefore represent the extreme ratio (the so-called Nordic exceptionalism), and the treatment of foreigners, whose personal freedom is compressed without the guarantees provided for the generality of citizens, in the name of the regularity of migration flows.