In a series of articles, The Local interviews foreigners voting in the Swedish election for the first time. Here's our last interview with master's student Deepshikha Monga – and here's our guide to voting in Sweden.
Can you tell me a little bit about yourself?
I'm from Ireland and met my Swedish wife when I was studying in Berlin. We moved to Ireland, and then we moved to Sweden in 2019. I got my citizenship last year.
How does it feel to be voting in the national election for the first time?
I've voted in the regional elections before, but voting in the national election was the main reason I wanted to get citizenship. I'm an EU citizen, so it doesn't make too much difference in practical terms, but I wanted to have a say, especially after the last election.
We have two kids here and are going to be staying here for the foreseeable future, and I want to have a say in the government and how the country gets run.
What issues matter the most to you?
Immigration is a big one and all the citizenship changes they're making, just because I've been through it myself and also seen how it has affected a lot of people I know.
Other than that, education, because we have two kids now. And coming from Ireland where we have a much worse social net than in Sweden, I can see that there's a push to privatise more stuff or reduce the strength of the public system, and from what I've seen firsthand, I think that's a big mistake.
So many of the reasons that we wanted to move to Sweden are because of the policies of the parties on the left side – for example there's no proper paternity leave in Ireland so that's one of the big reasons why we moved – so I don't want to see that weakened or lessened.
Do you mind if I ask you what party you're going to vote for?
I'll definitely vote for a party on the left side. It's kind of between two at the moment.
I feel that the Social Democrats would normally be a good fit, but I've been pretty disappointed with them in the last few years. I feel like they've shifted more and more to the centre or to the right, even on some stuff just to appease voters that they think they're losing.
There's no party that ticks all the boxes. You always have to make some kind of compromise.
How easy have you found to inform yourself of Swedish politics?
I found it good, because I've been watching debates on, say, SVT and also the coverage that you guys have, which is really good as well, including the podcast. Kind of as you've said yourselves, you often cover stuff that doesn't get covered in the main media, especially when it affects stuff like immigration or citizenship and things like that.
But I do think that in Ireland we have more of a newspaper and debate culture in general. I feel like people have a lot of discussion around politics.
It could also be that I'm not aware of it because I still don't have perfect Swedish and I'm maybe not consuming as much Swedish media as I would consume Irish media. But I do feel like there's a bit more healthy discussion in Ireland.
Maybe the åsiktskorridor ("opinion corridor") makes it harder for people to have debates. A lot of people have opinions that align with the Sweden Democrats but you wouldn't know that from being here and talking to people, because they never discuss them publicly.
For all the problems that we have in Ireland, we have more of a media culture in general too. There's a huge selection of newspapers in every shop and people are pretty informed. I feel like they also read a lot, and I almost never see anyone reading a newspaper here.
What are your thoughts on the Swedish election campaign in general?
I had expected to be home in Sweden for Election Day, but I happen to be back in Ireland at the moment to look after a family member who is in hospital. And if I can't be back in time, it's super easy for me to do a postal vote and there's really good information online in both Swedish and English.
You can't actually do postal votes in Ireland, I've always had to go to Ireland, but I've been a citizen of Sweden for a year and can already vote by post.
Just generally, it's so well documented online and lots of stuff is digitised as well. Also things like the early voting, and how they really make it super easy for you to vote, is great, because in Ireland we have pretty bad attendance.
Also how people make a big thing out of going to the polling station on voting day. It feels like people love exercising their democracy, and it is amazing how whole families go together to vote. I like that quite a lot.
What do you want native Swedish voters to know about immigrant life in Sweden?
I joke with my wife that they should force all the Swedish citizens to go live somewhere like Ireland or England or somewhere else that has a bad social system for six months to realise how good they have it and the stuff they're trying to undo by voting for certain parties.
Immigration-wise, I think it's not as bad if you're an EU citizen, but if you're not from the EU you have so much uncertainty, and I think the retroactive rule changes have been the most frustrating for a lot of people. Say you've applied and then they change the rules when they're reviewing your application and you don't fit the requirements any more, even though you did at the time and you did everything correctly.
Also hearing stuff like "we want qualified immigrants" and then the people that are qualified are also not getting approved and decide to go to other places.
For me, I want a Sweden that has lots of people moving to it from other places, because I feel like it makes it a place I want to live, and it makes it a more exciting culture and a more exciting country. I think it's better for the country in general to have that.
But people feel let down and also betrayed by the government, because they did it right, and then they still didn't get citizenship. I think people may have moved here to work because they saw a path to citizenship, and then that got pulled away from them during the process.
I know it's easier for myself, being a white European person. But I can see how people do get treated differently if they don't fit the mould of what people think is a Swedish person. I would hope people think that being Swedish is more like following Swedish principles or what Sweden stands for, rather than having to live a certain life or look a certain way.
Even just talking about myself, I moved here because of parental leave and stuff like that. I think a lot of people hear about how Sweden is a great social system and has a better quality of life and move here because of those reasons – and embracing that should be enough to qualify for being part of society.
There's also a lack of embracing multiculturalism. Even Magdalena Andersson's comments about how there will be no Chinatowns in Sweden that she made last time. It was just so ridiculous.
What do you want to say to foreigners voting in Sweden for the first time?
Think about what was the thing that made you want to move here in the first place, and which parties are the ones that are actually trying to protect that or to improve that.
Obviously people can vote whoever they want to vote for. But I do also feel like there is one side that is being very anti-immigrant. Also people who do have citizenship, don't pull the ladder up behind you. Maybe you got here before they changed all the rules and then they made it harder, but don't make it even harder for those who are coming after you.
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