Sweden annually receives several thousands of unaccompanied minors who have left their home countries due to poverty or abuse or because they have become trapped in warzones. These children can either receive a residence permit that grants them the status of quota refugees or go through the process of applying for asylum. Swedish municipalities are responsible for the housing of and care of these children. Two empirical phenomena are associated with this reception. First, a variation exists between those who have a reception and those who do not. Second, in recent years a tremendous change has occurred in that the number of more positively inclined municipalities has grown. To examine these aspects, we derive from structural conditions and form a set of hypotheses that is based on assumptions about municipalities’ rational acting and then continue with a statistical examination of all the municipalities for a number of years. We complement these findings with intensive inquiries into two municipalities that have both established a reception during the examined time period, and we evaluate the structurally founded causal effects from a micro perspective. Our findings show that municipalities with a challenging demographical situation are more inclined to maintain or to start to offer reception of minors. Additional effects such as economic and political consequences could also influence decision-makers. However, this article also provides data that reveal the actual effect of leading politicians’ own desires and beliefs in shaping such local migration policy.