| As a foreigner in Sweden you will face the following problems: - most of your friends will be other expats. Swedes, at least in Stockholm, do not seem very keen to open their social circle to you. Language is certainly a part of it, but there is a darker cultural side to it that neither myself or others have been able to crack. - As others have said housing is a shit-show. Fortunately public transit is quick and makes long commutes tolerable. - If you have a foreign-sounding name, then you will want to change it. Swedes love to play the multicultural card all over the place and virtue signal at every level, but facts are facts. Your CV/resume is passed over by recruiters and HR people if it not Swedish enough. Indian, Muslim, and African names go to the bottom of the pile or are never called. Seriously, take a Swedish name when you get here. - Working in the tech sector, there is little incentive to learn Swedish. The amount of time it takes you to become proficient is not worth it. Worse, if you are dark-skinned and speak broken Swedish it only hurts you more socially and professionally. Best to keep it in English. Save Swedish for social things. - Quality of life by many measures is high, but there is a depressive darkness here. Strangers don't chit-chat. I've never seen a subway car so full of people be so quiet. Everyone is silent, and that makes it incredibly lonely. - Customer service sucks. I mean it is pitifully bad in Sweden. From restaurants to banks it seems that there is no training or appreciation for customers. This is where Americans really kick ass, and I wish Swedes could take a couple of notes here. - There is no 24-hour culture. Strange that a place claims to be the capital of Scandinavia, but literally everything shuts down before midnight save a a couple of bars. - Gypsies everywhere panhandling, but you are from EU -- so nothing new there. - Drinking culture here is strange. People are absolutely hammered by 10pm - The tech scene here is nascent and lacks the pay-it-forward attitude that you might find in the US, Berlin, or London. There is an American guy here named Tyler (@steepdecline) who has worked his ass off for 3+ years to make something happen. However, I fear that if/when he leaves, this scene will die. He might be a good resource to ping. All in all, quality of life in Sweden is high (clean, healthcare, etc). However, there is a cultural darkness/sadness/loneliness that touches everything -- and I think Swedes would agree with me here. |
If you are white sweden will be great, but if you are anything other than white you will be in a quite cold hell where people do not like you.