(edit title) New Life Karlstad What do you think? Options

[Osorum]

Hey,

Thinking about moving to Stockholm or Karlstad, Stockholm looks amazing, but I've been told
that Stockholm is more expensive then most cities in Sweden. So I was looking for other cities
and I came across Karlstad, the city near the biggest lake in Sweden and it looks beautiful.

I want to know what life is like in Karlstad vs Stockholm, I'm guessing its laid back beings its a smaller
city. How's the social life of Karlstad, I know Stockholm has many things to see and do, but I don't
know about Karlstad. I'm planning on going to Karlstad University where I hope to meet some real
Swedish people. I want to see Swedish culture first hand, is Karlstad a nice place for that ?

Do the people of Karlstad do the Swedish traditions like Midsummer and Crayfish Parties ?
If so how easy is it to be invited to someones family gathering if I'm new to Sweden ?
Also are there nice restaurants that are friendly and maybe be able take someone I meet to ?
The most important thing I need to know is, are there the famous Swedish IKEA stores there ?

The last thing is, what's the cost of living in Karlstad, price of a 1 bedroom apartment
and what are jobs like ? I know I need to know Swedish, I can't count how many times
Swedes have told me. but besides that are unemployment numbers low and are business
looking to hire unskilled students ?

Thanks !

[bobalong]

I do not live in Karlstad but I am not that far away. I will try to answer your queries:

1. Swedes do not normally invite relative strangers to their family gathering. They are very inverted really no matter what the Swedes themselves say. They think that talking to strangers at Uni and in pubs etc makes them extroverts. I lived here for nearly 4 years before I was invited to a family midsummer party even though I would have classed the family as good friends.

2. Yes they celebrate midsummer, have crayfish parties and many other celebrations too.

3. Karlstad does have an Ikea not far from the centre of town.

4. Eating out is expensive in Sweden no matter where you are compared to the states or many other countries for that matter. There are pubs and restaurants but many have limited opening times compared to what you would be used to. There are summer cafe's etc by the dozens during the summer.

5. Most activities are summer activities here. Only yesterday we had an inch of snow and it was -2, so not what most people are used to for the end of April.

6. Karlstad is a University city so there are plenty of students. Good for meeting people etc but bad for jobs as a result. It does not have the opportunities like Stockholm but it is much cheaper to live there. On the job front, you will be competing with thousands of unskilled immigrants and students all looking to earn a bit of money. Unskilled jobs are hard to come by and you will be competing with some that have been here for years who can speak the language too. Without Swedish as well as skills you have little to no chance of finding work unliess you have a contact.
The unemployment rate is high.. around 25% of young people are out of work in Sweden and Karlstad is no different.

7. Accommodation is cheaper than in Stockholm but no less hard to find somewhere cheap. Student accommodation is limited and I do not think that there is any such thing as a cheap appartment in Karlstad. It would be probably be cheaper to be just outside Karlstad and commute. House/flat share is another option. You would be looking at about 4000 sek per month for 1 bed place in rough end of Karlstad as your cheapest I recon. You could find something cheaper but be aware that if a place is advertised for say 2500 sek rent per month you will more than likely have a service charge on top of that figure to pay as well for just as much. I have known many students that have fallen foul of that.

[Puffin]

Karlstad is a pretty small place by US standards being an industrial town of around 60,000 people - there is a lot of industry especially paper mills on the lake

The University is new - achieving university status in 1999 from being a small regional college and previously as a satellite campus from Gothenburg university - and has around 12,500 students - however it is not so well known outside of Sweden

It is unclear though whether you will meet so many Swedes - often international students tend to do stuff together as language problems can make it difficult to chat spontaneously. However much depends on whether you push to get involved with non University activities such as clubs, sports, churches, etc that might make ot easier to meet locals

Unemployment will make it hard to find work in a place like Karlstad
- are you fluent in Swedish?
- do you have experience/job market skills?

Are you talking about a rental apartment or to buy and apartment?

[Meatball]

Yes, Karlstad is very pretty...in summer and the people are mostly very friendly, as long as you don't try and take their jobs. I find Karlstad extremly xenophobic, you can go into any store in town and you will not find any immigrants working in Lindex or HM etc whereas I met a girl working at Zara in Stockholm who couldn't speak a word of Swedish...Jobs are hard to find and unless you have a chemical enigineering degree in Pulp and Paper, the rest work as cleaners and sometimes as 'undersköterska'

Otherwise the above replies are 100% correct. Culture wise and things to do you cannot in your wildest dreams compare it to Stockholm...but of course that depends on what you think is fun to do.

Good luck in whatever you decide to do...

[jan.petras]

Karlstad is also known as the sun city or something like that, because apparently it receives the most sunshine in Sweden. Which is actually true, because all this past winter and spring I've been checking three or four times a day a real-time cloud map of Sweden and the position of Karlstad in the middle, plus the proximity to the lake, somehow made it that the clouds always dissipated until it reached the town (the ones coming from oslo) and the ones coming from Finland behaved the same. Of course not always, but I noticed it a few times, how that area around the lake had little to no clouds, when the east and the west were heavily clouded.

Also, for people who wonder why I would look over the real-time cloud maps, is because, you might not have realized it, depending from where you are, but for me Sweden is notoriously spotaneous. It changes weather in mere minutes. From sunshine to heavy rain (or snow for that matter) it could take no more than 10 minutes sometimes. Which is very weird for me.

I'm from mainland Europe and I could always tell a rain is coming. I almost never got caught by surprise by a rain. You would see the sky getting darker in the distance, and then closer, and closer... but here... it's like the rain is forming just above you. The clouds are being born over your head like in the damn cartoons. So, I've learned my lesson, look at real-time data, and based on the rotation and direction, try and make an informed decision whether you'll wear T-shirt or rain jacket.

In any case, I've digressed from the subject.
If you want work, for the love of god, don't move to Karlstad. Your highest chances might be Gotheborg, seeing as Stockholm is well, flooded, and Malmo is the same, it only leaves two other bigger cities: Gotheborg and Uppsala. And the latter is a student city almost entirely, so that kinda puts your chances down to zero.

Move to Gotherborg (or Stockholm if you really must) but Karlstad, like people above me said, is highly susceptible to... well not racism, they TOLERATE you, but not really accept you as in: picking you for a job, instead of another Swede. Which I can totally relate to and understand. Being from Sweden, and Swedish, just inspires a lot more confidence.

Unless you have an Oxford degree, and even so, don't count on it. Hiring in Sweden is based on trust, appearance, name, connections, and everything else, and only at the very last comes your work experience, and education.

[Puffin]

Karlstad is a town that is common "Berslagen" type area - a blue collar town built on natural resource industries - in the case of Karlstad paper mills etc but similar to many of the mining/steel towns of central Sweden. These are not so cosmopolitan places and it is much harder for newcomers to find a place

Kalrstad is pretty in summer being on the lake - however not so sure it is charming on a wet Tuesday in November!