Strong social protections are essential for reducing health inequalities in society. Sweden has long been recognised for having one of the world’s most generous social welfare systems, which to date has been available to all residents regardless of their length of residency or citizenship status, but even this system has not been immune to political change.1The Swedish government has proposed a reform that would introduce new residence-based rules for accessing social security benefits. Although framed as a way to incentivise employment and reduce long-term benefit dependency, the reform is expected to disproportionately affect migrant residents by excluding them from core welfare protections. As a result, these rules are likely to exacerbate the well-documented health and social inequalities between people with and without migrant backgrounds in Sweden. By conditioning access to social protection on duration of residence or prior income, the reform introduces mechanisms of selective inclusion and exclusion that disproportionately affect individuals in more precarious socioeconomic positions.