As I have first hand experience of almost getting expulsed from another Scandinavian country, I may express my solidarity with your colleague and his wife. Awful feeling, I know.
However, social performance and qualifications often do unfortunately not count in immigration issues in countries like Sweden or - for that sake - Germany.
Paradoxically, a fair share of the negative effects of neglecting the persons economic and social performance in a society can be attributed to
mainstream/leftwing politics. Whilst leftwingers fiercely refused any attempts to control immigration by means of a scoring system, neither do expulsion strategies relate to this aspect.
In other words, if I do get you right, Swedish expulsion law does not distinguish between a criminal and a fully integrated high profile IT-specialist?
We have a similar problem in Germany and the political path of least resistance pursued both in its left and right wing variations end up with the same desastrous effect: no focus on performance and demand in immigration means more focus on formal criteria, as authorities are under increasing political pressure from the right plus a lot of the bureaucrats have been told to shut up about immigration abuse far too long. Now, they start firing with what they have to raise expulsion numbers - and get the wrong ones. Raging madness.
Sweden is not a banana republic, Mathias. They simply stick to laws that do not care a thing about the respective person's contribution to society.
I think the situation is actually worse than in a banana republic. Corrupt regimes bear no hope, no political vision or beyond-personal values. No smiles when paying outrageous taxes.
Sweden, however, seems o be a humanist vision currently going to pieces.
So, your specialist and his wife need a job in Germany or Denmark in another company nearby. Fast. Home office from somewhere else. And then return from there to your company after the lawyers have settled things.
Got some friends in companies to hire him for you to have him outsourced to somewhere else in the Schengen area?
I hope that there will be changes, and he is allowed to stay.
I hope so, too.