Sheona Urquhart Smångs, who has lived in Sweden for nearly six years, is leaving to return to Australia in two weeks’ time, after a court in Malmö confirmed a Migration Agency decision to reject her request for a work permit extension.
Last year, she married her Swedish husband, Victor, an elite runner with a dedicated online following.
Until the court’s decision last week, she was working as Marketing and Communications Manager for the driving school app, My Driving Academy, but she has had to resign since losing her work permit.
“My intention is to apply for a family visa, but as you know, these visas take a year and a half to get, and Victor has to keep his job because he has to show he can support me and be my sponsor, so we have a creative year ahead of us.”
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After Sweden announced proposals for changes to work permit regulations, there was cautious optimism that the new rules could help improve foreign workers’ stability in Sweden, but criticism that a proposed ‘talent visa’ was not innovative enough.
The Local’s team discussed ‘talent deportations’ and Urquhart Smångs’ case in our latest edition of the Sweden in Focus podcast.
Click HERE to listen to Sweden in Focus on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or Spotify.
In its decision, the Migration Agency said that the insurance Smångs’ employer had bought for her was only for an ordinary “worker” or arbetare, when it should have been tjänsteman or “executive” level.
“This was all approved by the Migration Agency in 2018,” she says.
But after she applied to extend the visa in August 2020, a new handler ruled that the insurances that had been ruled adequate in 2017, in fact, were not.
“They sent a letter saying they intended to reject me because, according to them, these insurances – livsförsäkring and sjukförsäkring — were not at the right level for my role, and should be tjänsteman not arbetare. My role had not changed. It was just that the person extending my work visa said that the insurance was not sufficient, even though they had approved these insurances back in 2017.”
Her boss immediately reinsured her at the slightly more expensive tjänsteman level but this was not enough for the Migration Agency, which refused to extend her work permit and ordered her to be deported.
“The crazy thing is that although this particular insurance company differentiates between arbetare and tjänsterman, not all of them do,” she continued. “There’s barely any price difference between these insurances. The fact that my boss had insured me clearly shows his intentions were to do the right thing by Migrationsverket”.
She and Victor now plan to spend the next year partly in Australia — where he can stay for 90 days — and partly living nomadically, so they can spend as much of the year together as possible.
Urquhart Smångs’ case shows that despite repeated attempts by Sweden’s government to push the Migration Agency to stop so-called kompetensutvisningar, or “talent deportations”, the deportation of skilled workers for minor mistakes made by their employers, they continue to happen.
On April 20th, Sweden’s parliament is due to vote through a new law on Tightened and Improved Work Permit Rules which specifically calls on the Migration Agency to forgive minor mistakes.
“A time-limited work permit does not need to be revoked in the event of minor deviations or if a revocation does not appear to be reasonable in view of the circumstances,” the bill reads, as it stands.
But it remains to be seen if that language will be enough to solve the problem, seeing as the Migration Agency criticised the uncertainty of the language in its response to the consultation, and warned that employees were at risk even if they lacked the correct insurance for a short, limited period, as they might have an accident while they had inadequate cover.
Urquhart Smångs disagreed that the Migration Agency’s strict interpretation of the laws was in the interests of foreigners living in Sweden on work permits.
“My lawyer says that all these rules were designed to help migrants, to stop them being abused by Swedish employers, but they’re being completely used against us,” she said.
She says that she feels very integrated in Sweden.
“I’m so embedded here, I’ve got a band here which has performed all around the country. I’ve performed with Swedish artists, including singing in Swedish. I’ve launched two podcasts (here and here) about how great life is here in Sweden – I feel I’ve definitely thrown myself into the community.”
“Victor’s family are so shocked. It’s crazy that they’re willing to separate the marriages of their own citizens.”
“They even said in my initial rejection letter, that they “acknowledge that she’s engaged to a Swedish citizen, but they think that that’s not enough to show that she’s established a life in Sweden.”
Urquhart Smångs is flying back to Australia on Saturday.
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They should also be looking into the court in Malmö that confirmed a Migration Agency decision, as that was the place the decision should have been overturned.
Good God !!!
Even the french wouldn’t dare…..
Totally crazy
Absolute madness. I guarantee if you denied that Migrationsverket case handler ANYTHING, no mater how trivial and small, in their life (even on a temporary basis) over an extraordinarily minor technicality they would squeal so loud they could be heard across the Baltic in Tallinn.
This is a continuance of of a long line of ‘let’s make Sweden a laughingstock of the EU’ level buffoonery.
Mr. Orange and the Local write the the “Migration Agency is still deporting talented foreigners”
But what makes her so “talented” and in need of special coverage in this newspaper?
She has a very ordinary, some might even say sub-ordinary, job. She works for a very mediocre business doing surprisingly pedestrian work.
She’s not writing specialised AI software. She’s not developing new algorithms. And she isn’t on the leading edge of biochemical research changing the world with new pharmaceuticals.
Where’s the talent? I ask this sincerely as it seems that the Local and Mr. Orange believe that everyone who has a job, no matter how ordinary that job might be, should be recoginised as a special talent and granted exceptions to the rules.
I think Sweden needs to be clear about what it means by “talent” and who should be admitted.
Marketing managers like this are a dime-a-dozen.
And there is a legitimate administrative error in her paperwork. And, frankly, she seems like the type who just might make such an error. Is she a nice person and someone who would be great to socialise with? almost certainly. But wothly of the title “talented” and an article dedicated to her sitaution? Doubtful.
Mr. Orange and the Local write:
“Migration Agency is still deporting talented foreigners”
But what makes her so “talented” and in need of special coverage in this newspaper?
She has a very ordinary, some might even say sub-ordinary, job. She works for a very mediocre business doing surprisingly pedestrian work.
She’s not writing specialised AI software. She’s not developing new algorithms. And she isn’t on the leading edge of biochemical research changing the world with new pharmaceuticals.
Where’s the talent? I ask this sincerely as it seems that the Local and Mr. Orange believe that everyone who has a job, no matter how ordinary that job might be, should be recoginised as a special talent and granted exceptions to the rules.
I think Sweden needs to be clear about what it means by “talent” and who should be admitted.
Marketing managers like this are a dime-a-dozen.
And there is a legitimate administrative error in her paperwork. And, frankly, she seems like the type who just might make such an error. Is she a nice person and someone who would be great to socialise with? almost certainly. But wothly of the title “talented” and an article dedicated to her sitaution? Doubtful.
This is sad indeed , not sure what is the rationale behind this. It seems counter intuitive by all means. I do not understand why something aimed at protecting employees turns out to be so disadvantageous for the them.
It seems to me that in this case it was not the employer who made the mistake, but the Migration Agency, which misinformed the employer. If anyone should be penalized, it should be the Agency employee who gave the wrong information in 2017, NOT the company or the employee, who both properly followed the instructions given by the Agency.
With all my experience as an employee with work permit struggles I’d say she probably chose a bad lawyer for her case. I think it could be possible to win this case
Interesting comment Kio. You sound very bitter and upset.
Have you considered Canada? The door is wide open for educated immigrants such as yourself. You might want to tone down the attitude a little though. Not every rejection is based on racism. But regardless, your best bet in life as a person of colour is Canada. It’s an advanced nation, with the most lax immigration policies on Earth and a leftish PM who is pouring favours on people of colour such as yourself. You should give it a shot. It is a great country.
Oh – and please ignore any comments from “An academic in Sweden” and “Another Academic in Sweden” on this. They are a both rather bigoted and are unable to deal with helpful advice that I offer on the topic of immigration and nationality. Completely unwilling to take positive advice and suggestions, and attempting to shut down constructive dialogue. I sincerely believe Canada would be a better place for you. Especially Toronto, which has a relatively large financial sector and is well integrated with New York and Chicago. It’s also highly diverse.
@kio
What do you mean by “amount of indians is too much to handle”? If you take the immigration statistics they are by far well educated, hardworking, silent, almost 0% crime and “mind their own business” community when you compare with other immigrants.