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Local Sweden
4 days ago
- Local Sweden
Inside Sweden: Is it possible to get good airport food?
The Local Sweden's editor Emma Löfgren rounds up the biggest stories of the week in our Inside Sweden newsletter. Advertisement Hej, I'm almost nine months pregnant, so I'm staying firmly on the ground, but for a lot of The Local's readers it's that time of the year when they hop on a plane to spend at least part of their summer holiday abroad, visiting friends or family. Earlier this year we asked readers to share their tips about the best places to eat, before or after security, at Arlanda Airport, the largest airport in Sweden. Personally I wouldn't even dream of stopping to eat before security, but I'm also the kind of person who shows up at the airport two hours before my flight is scheduled to depart, which has led to many a disagreement in my family. There are two types of people, etc... Anyway, we didn't get enough responses to that survey to publish an article about it, but my hope had been to find this tiny hidden gem that actually serves good food for a reasonable price (or överkomligt pris, as you'd say in Swedish). I was flat out of luck, because the restaurant picked by the highest number (still less than a handful) of respondents was, drum roll... McDonald's. Some of the reasons were that it's comparatively cheap and it's a safe option in that you know what you get (so I guess you don't have to come face to face with the disappointment of taking your chances with a more unique eatery). Advertisement I half suspect it picked up the protest vote, though. Or maybe this was the reason, as shared by one reader: "Did you know that the McDonald's at Arlanda is the only one in Sweden where you can grab a beer? Might not exactly be fine dining – but hey, beer at McDonald's? Can't say no to that." Hawaii Poke and La Neta were the only other two restaurants that got more than one vote in the survey. I love La Neta on Södermalm (it used to be door-to-door with The Local's old office), but haven't tried the airport version. Overly expensive airport food made headlines in 2023 after SEB bank senior economist Johan Javeus shared a picture on X of an "extremely ordinary prawn sandwich and a normal beer" he bought at Landvetter Airport for an eye-watering 422 kronor (around 36 euros or 38 dollars at the time). A Swedavia spokesperson told us at the time that they were planning to roll out a price cap on food at their ten airports (which include Arlanda) at some point by the end of 2025. I contacted them to check whether this has actually happened yet, but it's the summer holiday season in Sweden, so... Maybe for now the best option is still what several readers recommended: just bring your own food. But if you find that hidden gem, please let me know! Advertisement In other news Sweden is set to make it significantly harder to become a citizen from next summer, which the government has argued will make citizenship "mean more" than it does today. So we asked The Local's readers what becoming a Swedish citizen meant to them. Thank you to everyone for your thoughtful comments. After a freeze on new citizenships earlier this year, Sweden's Migration Agency is again processing cases. So what do the statistics say about which nationalities have received Swedish citizenship in the first half of 2025? In the past few months, a number of Swedish gaming companies have gone bankrupt or laid off staff amid funding struggles. The Local's Becky Waterton looked into why this is happening, and how it is affecting foreigners in the industry. More than half of the non-European immigrants who left Sweden last year had tertiary education, new figures have shown. Unemployment in Sweden is already high, and rising. At the end of last month, around 19,000 more people were unemployed than the same time last year. There are almost 30,000 islands and islets in the Stockholm archipelago and each of them is different from the next. Here are ten worth visiting, whether you're looking for a party night, a relaxing weekend, seafood or family fun. Have a lovely weekend, Emma Inside Sweden is our weekly newsletter for members which gives you news, analysis and, sometimes, takes you behind the scenes at The Local. It's published each Saturday and with Membership+ you can also receive it directly to your inbox.
Local Sweden
12-07-2025
- Politics
- Local Sweden
Inside Sweden: What's next for the government after white supremacist scandal?
The Local Sweden's editor Emma Löfgren rounds up the biggest stories of the week in our Inside Sweden newsletter. Advertisement Hej, It's been a busy week with the big story being that Migration Minister Johan Forssell was revealed as the minister whose son had been active in far-right extremist groups. I can't help thinking that the government could have managed the scandal much better had they not tried to initially ignore it. It was a tricky one for Swedish media to handle. On the one hand the risk of outing a 16-year-old who's not a public figure – on the other the need to hold a government minister, who's in charge of immigration policy and has been one of the most outspoken ministers on parental responsibility, accountable. In the end – other than what I suspect was a growing annoyance in the Swedish media about the government's attempts to avoid answering journalists' questions – what tipped the scale in favour of naming Forssell was the Left Party's decision to call him to appear before parliament's social insurance committee. "Anonymous minister testifies in parliament" would have been a ridiculous headline, and we need to be able to report on proceedings in the highest democratically elected body in the country. The day after most of the national newspapers named Forssell, he gave an interview on morning television, describing himself as a father who's trying his best, and stressing that the boy's ties to these groups have now been cut. Dwelling on his fatherhood doesn't serve much purpose. We don't know the full back story and we can't know the full back story – ministers are also entitled to a private family life, and their underage children deserve a second chance. But some aspects of the story are very much in the public interest. Here are some of the questions I want answers to: will the government give immigrants whose children take a wrong turn a second chance, what are the security implications of a family member's ties to extremist groups, why has the prime minister barely addressed this at all (if a boss wanted to protect a coworker who's presumably going through a tough time at home, shouldn't they be out there taking the flak?), how will the government make sure its own collaboration with the far right doesn't fuel the radicalisation of young people, and how will it even be possible for Forssell to be out there pushing the government's hardline migration reforms in the election year ahead? Forssell has talked about how he as a father is taking his responsibility by having long and frank conversations with his son. Fair enough. But this is not a story about Forssell, the dad. It's a story about Forssell, the minister, and how he and the government are going to handle these bigger issues going forward. Advertisement In other news Bankruptcies, redundancies and difficulties finding investment have all resulted in a "negative perfect storm" for the Swedish games industry, according to a former game company CEO. Is the games industry going through a crisis? When the Moderates set up a new AI tool ahead of the election, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson accidentally sending personal greetings to Adolf Hitler and Idi Amin wasn't what they had in mind. Not the story they needed right now. Many experts predicted that Sweden's central bank, the Riksbank, would lower the key interest rate at its next meeting in August. Have higher-than-expected inflation rates changed that prediction? A man with a foreign dental degree was rejected for two jobs in Sweden, despite the fact that he had completed additional training in Sweden to qualify for a Swedish dental licence. Now, both employers have been ordered to pay damages. Bodyguards from the Swedish Security Police have accidentally revealed the location of the prime minister and members of the royal family on multiple occasions by uploading runs or rides to the Strava training app. Advertisement Immigrants studying Swedish for Immigrants courses will under a new proposal only have three years to complete their studies before losing the right to take part in classes, the minister responsible for adult education has said. A prenuptial agreement might not be the first thing on your mind when you get engaged, but it's worth knowing how they work in Sweden before tying the knot. After all, almost a fifth of Swedes think they're essential. Thanks for reading, Emma Inside Sweden is our weekly newsletter for members which gives you news, analysis and, sometimes, takes you behind the scenes at The Local. It's published each Saturday and with Membership+ you can also receive it directly to your inbox.
Local Sweden
05-07-2025
- Politics
- Local Sweden
Inside Sweden: Minister's family member's white supremacist links expose double standards
The Local Sweden's editor Emma Löfgren rounds up the biggest stories of the week in our Inside Sweden newsletter. Advertisement Hej, This week, anti-racist magazine Expo broke the shocking story that a Swedish government minister has a family member who is allegedly active in, and trying to recruit people to, extreme right and white supremacist movements. It's a story that comes with several ethical conundrums. On the one hand, if a minister in any government has that close links to someone said to be involved in organisations that promote violent neo-Nazi ideals, it's clearly a potential security risk and a reason to resign on the spot. This is the government that's pushed through some of the harshest immigration reforms in years. Surely it's relevant if a minister risks being influenced – even hypothetically – by white power groups, or if, say, a foreign power wanted to use the information against the minister to harm Sweden? After days of silence, the minister eventually sent an anonymous comment to the TT news agency late on Friday, via the prime minister's press secretary, requesting to stay anonymous due to the young age of their family member. "Last week I found out that a close relative in their early teens has been hanging out in completely the wrong circles. I detest all kinds of political extremism and strongly distance myself from it," said the minister. Advertisement "I have had long and frank conversations with the minor who is both remorseful and sad. All association with these circles is a closed chapter." They added that they had acted according to the standard security procedures and been working closely with the security police ever since they found out. It's important to say that we don't know what's going on behind the scenes. We don't choose our relatives. Perhaps the minister as they say knew just as little about it as the rest of us – perhaps they are, right now, as torn apart by it as anyone would be. Arguably, a minister should be judged on what they do on the job – is it really anyone's business who happens to be part of their family? Advertisement The family member in question is also underage. That's a strong reason why the mainstream media haven't been naming the minister – it's not to protect the minister, it's to protect the family member, who is not a public figure and hasn't been convicted of any crimes. Swedish media tend to be more restrictive than in many other countries when it comes to naming people, especially when publishing damaging information about them. This is perhaps also the reason why the story made surprisingly few waves in the Swedish media. Although most mainstream newspapers covered Expo's report, and in some cases got their own comments, it's been tricky to cover it in any real depth without revealing identifying information. But there are good reasons why this is an important story, and it must be possible to talk about while showing compassion and understanding of the fact that the minister may very well be facing a difficult time in their private life right now – and that young people can sometimes end up on the wrong track. Advertisement But, here's another but. Imagine that a politician could be linked to radical islamism through a family member. There would be an outcry. The current government would be the first in line to call for their resignation. And it has spoken on several occasions about, for example, parents in largely immigrant suburbs being responsible for keeping their children away from gangs. So are we responsible for our family members or not? Last year, the government pushed through a law change which means that if a tenant's child commits a crime that has a negative effect on their neighbours' living situation, it should be possible to evict the entire family. The government's far-right Sweden Democrats allies want to make it possible to revoke an entire family's residence permits if one of their members is involved in serious crime (again, just to be clear, no information has emerged that suggests the minister's family member is suspected of any crimes – but some of the groups they've been associated with promote a violent ideology). Advertisement And time and again, immigrants are told by ministers that they are responsible for raising their children, making sure they integrate and learn Swedish, setting clear boundaries to stop them getting involved in unacceptable activities, and so on. When many of them are surely fighting just as hard as anyone would, including ministers, to prevent their family members from straying off-track, and are as torn apart about it as anyone would be that they failed. The government's silence on the minister's indirect links to white supremacism via a family member is not a good look, and it must surely be unprecedented for a Swedish minister to make a statement that's not only anonymous in the published article (let's assume there have been plenty of ministers behind anonymous leaks over the years) but in which the government even refuses to disclose their identity to the news outlet the statement is given to – which in addition makes it impossible for the journalist to ask follow-up questions. Perhaps it is a closed chapter, as the minister says. But plenty of questions remain unanswered – and perhaps even more importantly, let it be a lesson that it's time to show other families compassion in return? In other news Sweden launched in-person ID checks for citizenship this spring, with all applicants having to attend before they can become Swedish citizens. The Local spoke to a reader about their appointment to find out what to expect. Just over 2,000 letters have so far been sent out to citizenship applicants, inviting them to book the mandatory ID check at the Migration Agency. Mahmut, originally from Turkey, came to Sweden as an asylum seeker back in 2017 due to political unrest in his home country. Now, he is in citizenship limbo and believes Swedish security police have branded him a security threat, without telling him why. Becky Waterton's interview is this week's must-read. Want to take a dip in a Swedish lake, but you never learned to swim? We've republished our guide to where you can get lessons as an adult. GAMES: Have you tried The Local's games for Membership+ subscribers yet? We've got a new crossword and word search puzzle out now The Swedish government has launched an inquiry over concerns about the country's low birth rate, with the aim of proposing concrete measures to improve it. As part of the 25th anniversary of the Öresund bridge connecting Copenhagen and Malmö, the prime ministers of both countries pledged to make it easier to live and work across the Swedish-Danish border. Becky has a few ideas. The Swedish government has pledged to attract international talent, while radically limiting asylum and low-skilled immigration. So why do work permit holders so often get the short end of the stick? A government-appointed inquiry has concluded that there is no need for a national begging ban, despite demands from the Moderates and Sweden Democrats to introduce one. July brings with it cheaper flights, summer holidays and pay rises ‒ for government ministers at least. Here are the new laws and events happening in Sweden this month. Hope you have a lovely weekend, Emma Löfgren Editor, The Local Sweden Inside Sweden is our weekly newsletter for members which gives you news, analysis and, sometimes, takes you behind the scenes at The Local. It's published each Saturday and with Membership+ you can also receive it directly to your inbox.
Local Sweden
14-06-2025
- Business
- Local Sweden
Inside Sweden: What do those stats about immigrants' net contribution actually mean?
The Local's editor Emma Löfgren rounds up the biggest stories of the week in our Inside Sweden newsletter. Advertisement Hej, 'Sweden long had an overly generous migration policy which led to a rapid increase in the number of immigrants. The government and the Sweden Democrats are now implementing a paradigm shift which is significantly reducing immigration to Sweden. However, to better understand the long-term consequences of the previous policy and to learn lessons for the future, more knowledge and analysis is needed.' That was the first paragraph of an opinion piece published by the Moderates, Christian Democrats and Sweden Democrats in the Aftonbladet newspaper last summer, in which they announced that the government had ordered Sweden's National Institute of Economic Research (NIER) to calculate the net effects of immigration on the economy. NIER's report was published last week, but it has mostly flown under the radar. It's perhaps no surprise that the government hasn't been wanting to shout about it from the rooftops, as it shows that not only do immigrants as a group have a positive net contribution to the Swedish economy – it's in fact greater than that of native Swedes. Let's get one thing out of the way first: NIER warns that the figures in its report should be taken with a pinch of salt – certain expenses and incomes can either not be calculated directly or the available data is not broken down on an individual level, such as healthcare or infrastructure, so many of them are based on assumptions. The figures also do not take into account other effects of immigration in the Swedish economy, such as higher productivity or effects on the labour market. And it's purely based on contribution as a financial transaction – for example if I need healthcare I'm taking money out of the state and if I pay tax it's money into the state. It doesn't take into account 'soft' contributions such as getting involved in community events or just being a nice neighbour – I think it's important not to forget about those things. Advertisement Anyway, the report found that foreign-born people as a group contributed six billion kronor to Sweden's public finances in 2022, whereas native Swedes had almost exactly the opposite figures, with a negative net contribution of six billion kronor. But what I think is almost more important than the stats, is looking at the why. For example, a major reason why native Swedes have a negative net contribution is that this group includes a large number of children, young people and pensioners, which means that it has high costs associated with children and the elderly's needs – groups that don't pay as much money into the system because they're not working. Similarly, Finns as a group have a substantial negative net contribution, because many Finns who arrived as labour migrants between 1950 and 1970 are now middle aged or older, meaning that they have high costs for pensions, healthcare and elderly care. If you break it down to 'refugees' and 'other immigrants', refugees as a group have a negative net contribution (but it's been rising in recent years). This is because refugees arrive without a job so they don't immediately start paying into the system – but if you look at refugees who've been in Sweden longer, their net contribution is positive. Indians have by far the highest net contribution to the Swedish economy – in fact enough to offset the entire negative contribution of people born in Sweden. This is because most Indians moving to Sweden already have highly-qualified jobs ready when they arrive in the country and work in highly-paid industries such as tech. Most Indians in Sweden arrived in the past decade or so, so they're at peak working age. Advertisement But all of this is a snapshot, based on figures from 2022. It doesn't take into account the lifetime Swedish pensioners spent working, or the decades newly arrived refugees will spend paying into the system as soon as they enter the labour market. If anything, looking only at the financial benefit to the Swedish state, it's obvious from the report that more barriers need to be removed for foreigners trying to get a foot through the door of the labour market, and that decision-makers need to stop implementing policies that are actively turning work permit holders away. But what it mainly tells me rather than who is financially valuable (!) and who isn't, is that these things come and go in waves. Every single one of us goes through phases of life when we pay into the system and phases when we take our fair share out of it. And the key difference is where we are in life, rather than our immigration status. Immigrants, work permit holders, native Swedes, refugees, trailing spouses, children, pensioners – we all contribute to the world around us in our own individual way. What does the word 'contribution' mean to you? I'd love to hear your thoughts. Before I move on to the rest of the top stories we've covered this week, I just want to take a moment to say that we've been overwhelmed by the response to our appeal last week for donations to help us do the journalism that matters to you. Thank you to everyone who has donated, shared the appeal, or is just here reading us. Advertisement In other news This week's episode of Sweden in Focus Extra for Membership+ subscribers features an interview with Indian lawyer Aakritee Tiwari. My latest budget tip is to swap your morning coffee for a cauliflower (not really). Anyone running the Copenhagen-Malmö Bridge Run this weekend? If not, here's what you need to know about how it will affect travel – and where you can watch. GAMES: Have you tried The Local's games for Membership+ subscribers yet? We've got a new crossword and word search puzzle out now Good news at last for work permit holders. The rule that if you want to change employer in the first two years you have to get a new permit will be scrapped next year – and the grace period for laid-off work permit holders will be extended (for some). More than 30 teachers at the IES school chain have lost their permanent contracts and either been made redundant or moved into other roles after Sweden's Schools Inspectorate criticised the group for its use of teachers without a Swedish certification. Swedish property prices saw a modest increase in May. Advertisement In many ways, Sweden grinds to a halt during the summer, as workers head out to the countryside for a well-earned rest. That's not quite true though – here are the new laws and other changes in store for June, July and August. I really enjoyed speaking with Francisca Leonardo, or Frankie, for our My Swedish Career interview this week. She shares the story of how a major health scare, just a couple of years after arriving in Sweden from Canada, sparked a radical career change: from biotechnology to running her own, unique travel brand in Stockholm. After a disappointing spring for much of the country, this weekend brings with it hotter temperatures, with the mercury potentially hitting 27 or 28C in Stockholm on Sunday. Thanks for reading, Emma Löfgren Editor, The Local Sweden Inside Sweden is our weekly newsletter for members which gives you news, analysis and, sometimes, takes you behind the scenes at The Local. It's published each Saturday and with Membership+ you can also receive it directly to your inbox.
Local Sweden
11-06-2025
- Business
- Local Sweden
Sweden proposes extending three-month deadline for laid-off work permit holders
Sweden has put forward a proposal to extend the three-month deadline for work permit holders who lose their jobs to six months, bringing Swedish work permit rules in line with a new EU directive. Advertisement Under current rules, work permit holders who are made redundant have just three months to find a new job after the end of their notice period. If they do not find another job in time, then they must leave the country. It looks like a change to that law may be on the horizon. A new government proposal, which is the result of an EU directive passed in April 2024, has suggested extending the three-month limit to up to six months, although only in certain cases. Firstly, the six-month deadline would only apply to people who have held a work permit for at least two years. They would also need to prove that they can support themselves financially for at least three months (the part of the job-seeking period extending past the current three-month deadline). This represents a welcome change for opponents of the current three-month law. Saaya Sorrells-Weatherford, co-founder of the relocation consultancy Emigreat, told The Local back in 2024 that the current three-month rule is "unreasonably short", calling for it to be extended to six months. "It can even be proportional to how long someone has held a work permit, as that indicates the level of uprooting it would take to have to leave," she suggested. Advertisement She is not the only person to call for an extension to the three-month rule. The Local's Editor, Emma Löfgren, called on the government in September last year to extend the deadline to six months, highlighting among other things the fact that neighbouring Denmark and Norway both offer twice as much time as Sweden does for laid-off workers to find a new job. The Social Democrat's labour market spokesperson, Ardalan Shekarabi, called on the government to extend the three month deadline to six months as recently as April this year. Unfortunately, laid-off workers from Northvolt and other major Swedish employers like Volvo Cars, who recently announced plans to cut over 1,000 jobs in Sweden, are unlikely to benefit from the new law, as the suggested implementation date isn't until next spring ‒ more specifically May 21st, 2026.
