Son moving to Sweden

Yes I did mean the entertaining and enlightening r4 series.

I think silverlining meant the R4 prog called The Long Swedish Winter. Highly amusing but very true about life in Sweden!

silverlining48

Would recommend the Swedish programme I mentioned upthread, it’s informative but also very amusing.

I did the SFI programme in what was basically a refugee class many years ago.

Grannysmith

My son moved to Uppsala 16 years ago after doing a year with the Erasmus scheme. He completed a masters & then doctorate at Uppsala university. He has now bought a flat in Stockholm & loves his life there. He is single & loves his job as an environmental consultant. He does indeed struggle with the long dark winters. We love visiting him & always find plenty to see & do, even in the winter!

Uppsala is a great university (Uppsala and Lund are like the Oxford and Cambridge of Sweden).

I took 2 degrees at Uppsala.

I have lived in Sweden for many years – out in an extremely rural area although one of my daughters lives in Stockholm.

As he has a Swedish gf – she will be able to help him navigate a lot of the bureaucracy involved with moving as you need to register with a lot of places in my experience.

I assume that he either has EU citizenship or has already organised his visa and/or residence and work permit. When he arrives he’ll need to register with the tax office to get the all important civil registration number without which you cannot do anything in Sweden and also register with the Social Insurance Agency (Försäkringskassan) to get access to healthcare and things like sick pay and future parental leave etc. It is also advisable to join an Unemployment Fund (A-kassa) as it gives you income related unemployment benefits after you have paid in for a year - up to 80% of salary.

I recommend that he learns Swedish. Although you can get by in a place like Stockholm with English it is a real benefit for becoming part of the community. Local Authorities (kommun) run free classes or you can do private classes – there are a lot of options in Stockholm. You can do a basic course called SFI (Swedish for Immigrants). The basic level course takes you up to early secondary school level (age 13 in the Swedish system) but you can add to it later to do GCSE/A-level which would give access to free University education if you ever want to do a course.

It's great if you like the outdoors as skiing, hiking and outdoor skating and swimming are all close by.

There are some things that may take a bit of getting used to – such as only being able to buy alcohol at the state owned off-licence (Systembolaget) or having to pay at reception before you see the doctor.

I'm Mormor ( Norwegian GC) and just wanted to say that you're embarking on a great adventure, Lindsey. Scandinavia is a wonderful part of the world.

*Meant to say "interesting".

Interested, our son met his Swedish partner when she was studying in Dublin, through Erasmus. 3 of our other children spent time studying abroad through Erasmus.

We lost Erasmus after Brexit, but its return has just been announced.

My son moved to Uppsala 16 years ago after doing a year with the Erasmus scheme. He completed a masters & then doctorate at Uppsala university. He has now bought a flat in Stockholm & loves his life there. He is single & loves his job as an environmental consultant. He does indeed struggle with the long dark winters. We love visiting him & always find plenty to see & do, even in the winter!

Would recommend the Swedish programme I mentioned upthread, it’s informative but also very amusing.

Hi Bluebelle. He is moving there so he can get to know her better. His job situation allows him to do so so it’s the best thing. He’d like to get to know Sweden too having lived most of his life in Italy .

That comment about Lindsey trying to hold her 38 yr old son back was out of order she asked about Sweden, nothing else., I did find it expensive but I was a tourist and its different if you live and work there, learning and living in a different environment for a time is never wasted.

It is absolutely fabulous there -scenic ,beautiful and delightfully underpopulated .
And you'll enjoy your visits ..

I personally don’t think it matters where they live as long as they are happy. Every country has ups and downs, good parts bad parts nowhere is perfect, nowhere is all bad. My main concern would be that your son who has recently split from a long term relationship is already involved enough to be moving country to be with a new lady ….a very big move when he doesn’t really know the lady or does he ???

I am another Farmor and husband Farfar. Danish DIL. Love being a Farmor. The family live in this country, though, Brighton but we have visited Denmark (they got married there.) Lindsey, do hope all goes well with your son in Sweden. Looks like there are some helpful people on here with useful information. Hope you get to visit and that your son settles and finds happiness.

One of my nephews met a Swedish girl 20 years ago and moved to her home town Gothenburg. His brother moved to live in Gothenburg about 10 years ago.
It’s a beautiful vibrant city and I feel the Swedes embrace the cold weather, my nephews and families do lots of outdoor activities. I have been in the winter and lots of the cafes and bars are full of people sitting outside with heaters and blankets. They are very social people, Although they don’t get British sense of humour.
In fact my sister in law who is nearing 80 is moving to live with her sons next month, Although she may struggle to learn the language.

Farmor15 I also have a scandi GC and that’s what I am called.

Stockholm is my favourite Scandi City.

Lindsey hopefully your son will be happy there 🤞

Thank you so much again. Very interesting. Love the idea of “the cruise”. I’ll definitely do that . I’m planning on going in March actually.
I must say i really like this Gransnet site. It’s full of interesting people

Just checked and programme is called The cold Swedish winter and is on bbc r 4.

My friends daughter and her Swedish partner have lived together there for some years. She is settled and happy there.
My daughter moved abroad too, it’s something many of us have to get used to, but if you have lived abroad too it may be easier for you to understand .
A while ago there was a r4 series about an English man who moved to Sweden where his Swedish wife and her family lived. Not sure what it was called but it was interesting. You might find it on Google.

Since I started typing my reply, I see you posted again, Lindsey. Having travelled in southern Europe, as well as Germany, Netherlands, Sweden has more in common with Northern Europe. People are more reserved, but also more direct - can be perceived as rudeness.

They really like the outdoors - now there's snow, they'll all be out skiing, sledging, skating. Summers can be quite warm and hiking, canoeing, sailing etc are very popular. If you decide to take a trip, wait till March or April, but then consider taking a mini-cruise across the Baltic to Helsinki or Tallinn. You get on the ship in late afternoon, view the amazing scenery sailing though the archipelago - thousands of islands - have an "all you can eat and drink" buffet. Then some entertainment and wake up in the morning to tour Helsinki or Tallinn. You get back on the ship in the evening and return to Stockholm overnight. Quite reasonably priced - not luxury cruise ships - more like ferries, but a good experience.

Farmor15 How kind of you. Thank you

My son has been living in Sweden for about 12 years - just north of Stockholm. He moved there from Ireland to join his Swedish girlfriend and is well settled by now, with 2 children.
He learnt Swedish in his first year there - special classes for new immigrants - almost full time for some months. We were surprised that he was able to become fluent as he didn't have an aptitude for languages when in school! And Swedish people are good at English, but his girlfriend's family all spoke Swedish with each other, so he was surrounded by Swedish, which helped him learn.

He worked in a few different jobs, before settling on his current job, which he seems to enjoy. They rented for a while, but then were able to buy a house at a very reasonable price. The small town they live in is quite cheap for housing.

Some prices seem to be high at first, but eating out lunchtime is excellent value. There are lots of buffet style lunch places where you can have a main course, unlimited bread and salad, dessert and coffee for about €12.

It is cold there at the moment, but everywhere indoors is well heated. People wear heavy outdoor clothing, but strip off when they get inside, including shoes. Normal practice to take off shoes inside.

madeleine45 gives good advice. There is some bureaucracy to negotiate, I gather. However, learning language and as much about culture as possible will help.

Feel free to ask me more questions, Lindsey - I can ask my son if I don't know the answer. My username means grandmother - father's mother - in Swedish! It's quite a literal language.

Yes the question is for me really. He has been in Italy for most of his life and I lived there too until 12 years ago so I have an affinity with Italy and Spain but I know nothing about Swedes and Sweden!