Hej,
We organised a pop-up newsroom at the International Citizen Day in Lund on Friday, so I was there with Nordic Editor Richard Orange to represent The Local.
As always, I enjoyed being back in Lund, where I spent most of my upper teenage years.
Being a small newsroom, we rarely manage to go to events like these, but since both Richard and I are based in southern Sweden, and since we were able to combine our stall with working a bit on the side, all the stars aligned and we thought why not? And I'm glad we went.
We got to speak with several readers of The Local, both newcomers and long-term residents (the record was one reader who had lived in Sweden for around 30 years – and she still reads The Local).
And we got to meet some of the organisations working in the international sphere here in the Lund-Malmö-Helsingborg region. In this day and age when immigration laws are tightening, and so much of society and so many countries seem to be moving in an anti-immigration direction, it was a nice reminder that there are still a lot of initiatives to attract international residents and make life easier for them once they've arrived in Sweden.
Two things kept being brought up by the readers we spoke to: immigration laws and jobs.
We've reported a lot on how unpredictable immigration laws are making international talent feel uneasy building a future in Sweden, as well as the job market, which can be tough for foreigners to break into.
Several people we spoke to were just about to wrap up their master's degree or PhD (this was the university town of Lund, after all) and were slightly dreading the job search, not quite sure how long they would be able to stay in Sweden and look for jobs before having to maybe go elsewhere. So it's clear that more work is needed to facilitate that transition between university life and the labour market, which can be surprisingly challenging.
Thank you to everyone who came and said hi – and if anyone is organising a similar event in the future, let us know!
If you listen to our Sweden in Focus podcast this week, you will hear us loudly celebrating at one point. That's because our colleague Becky Waterton, who used to be deputy editor of The Local Sweden and is now editor of The Local Denmark, officially became a Swedish citizen! Amazing news!
We found out mid-recording when our producer, Paul O'Mahony, suddenly interrupted to say: "Richard, there's too much background noise coming from your microphone, and by the way, Becky just became a citizen" (we cut that particular bit from the episode, so that's just some behind-the-scenes info for you). She applied a year and a half ago and has been one of the 100,000 in the queue, waiting to find out whether or not they will manage to get their citizenship by June 6th. A lot of readers have been wishing her luck, so I thought I'd give you that update on Becky's behalf.
Not everyone will be so lucky, and as I wrote in an article earlier today, the hard truth is that if you haven't yet had your personal appearance, the in-person appointment at the Migration Agency which is usually the last step of the process, time is running out, with relatively few available slots left in the coming week, even if you were to get called to a meeting. If you have had your personal appearance, you may still have a chance of getting citizenship before June 6th – that's assuming your case officer doesn't fall sick or happen to go on their summer vacation on June 1st, which just goes to show how strange the lack of transitional rules is.
I interviewed some of the people currently in the citizenship queue for this article. If you prefer to listen to a podcast version of the interviews, you can do so here.
Migration news
The Green Party is trying to trigger a rare parliamentary mechanism which could force a new vote on citizenship transitional rules to happen in parliament.
Ukrainians in Sweden under the Temporary Protection Directive will soon be able to apply for a different type of residence permit without leaving Sweden.
It took them more than two years, but Sweden's government finally published the list of jobs that will be exempted from the new higher minimum salary for a work permit which comes into force on June 1st. Here's what you need to know.
In other news
Former Sweden Democrat MP Katja Nyberg has been barred from working as a police officer, after she was changed with a series of offences, including drug possession.
Various Swedish news sources are reporting that the union IF Metall, which represents the Tesla workers, has ordered strikers back to work. But it seems to be part of a changing strategy by the union, not an end to the conflict.
When The Local's Mandy Pipher moved to Umeå with her Swedish husband, their two-year-old understood Swedish but spoke only in English. After a month of preschool in Sweden, that flipped – long before Mandy herself could follow along, she writes in this deeply personal piece.
Ukraine plans to buy up to 20 latest model Gripen fighter jets and Sweden will donate 16 older models, the two countries announced as Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky visited Sweden this week.
Swedish supermarkets, pharmacies and banks must do more to accept banknotes and coins, a new decision in parliament states.
Malmö police rushed to the city centre following reports of a corpse on a cart, it was reported this week. Imagine their relief when they realised it was in fact a sex doll.
Marrying your cousin is currently legal in Sweden. But that will change this summer.
Stockholm residents for the first time enjoy the highest life expectancy in Sweden, new statistics reveal.
Sweden is halving the price of monthly public transport tickets from July 1st until the end of the year, funded by a multibillion-kronor subsidy paid out to the regions.
Apparently several (or at least some) municipalities across Sweden have banned presents and cash collections for school staff in council-run schools.
Sweden has reached its target of fewer than five percent of the population smoking regularly – and is consequently considered "smoke-free".
And finally, the story that brought us the greatest sense of relief this week was the toddler who was found alive and well after going missing in the forest for over 14 hours.
Have a lovely weekend,
Emma
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