The number of Swedes who view "immigration and integration" as the greatest issue facing their country has doubled since June 2015, a new poll revealed on Monday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Immigration is an issue of concern for 40 percent of the Swedes Ipsos spoke to for a poll commissioned by the Dagens Nyheter newspaper.

"Integration and immigration rank, so far, as currently the most important social issues in Sweden. It is the first time in our measurements that this matter is on the top <…> It is rare to see such large changes," Johanna Laurin Gulled, a public opinion analyst at Ipsos, was quoted by the newspaper as saying.

In contrast, only 5 percent of Swedes mentioned immigration as a burning social issue in a similar poll in 2010.

The poll results also suggest that only 17 percent of voters think Prime Minister Stefan Loefven's Social Democrat party has reliable policies on immigration.

Currently, many European countries are struggling to find a solution to a massive migrant crisis as millions of individuals flee the Middle East and North Africa. Many refugees are trying to make their way to prosperous EU countries, including Germany and Sweden, via Italy, Greece and Turkey.

Earlier this month, Sweden’s Migration Agency announced that it expected to receive up to 140,000 asylum applications in 2016, a scenario that threatens to put additional pressure on the country, which already welcomed some 160,000 refugees last year.