An Entire Swedish Town Is Moving Because the Ground Is Caving In 

Let's take Kiruna, and push it somewhere else!

An American company would sell off everything then disappear with the money & workers health insurance

“Our house in the middle of the street.”

The scenes of moving 100-year-old houses really surprised me. Here in Egypt, particularly Cairo, 1000s of beautiful and historic buildings including palaces, villas, and hotels were destroyed to construct unofficial ugly towers. It is a privilege to live in a country that plans and organizes its urban development. Things have been changed here drastically with regard to urban development and planning, but the damage has already shaped our present.

American Companies: Oh, the town might cave in because of *our actions*? Ok... *leaves the town to cave in*

Takes the saying "there goes the neighborhood!" To another level...

_In Sweden you don't move into a house, the house moves to you_

*That means the houses were moving at 2mph. BOOM SMART MATHS*

This seems like that episode of spongebob where Patrick suggested moving Bikini Bottom somewhere else 😂😂

My hometown and where I currently live. Fun fact: at one clock at night time they blow up the dynamite they’ve placed during the day every night. It’s a non stop industry. You can very clearly hear and feel the vibrations of the mining going on 24/7, 365 days a year, no rest.

Thank you VICE for this amazing journalism, I never thought I would see you fellas in the northern part of Sweden where even I as a Swede have never touched foot. It is truly touching to hear the elderly people and their stories as we often in schools are taught about houses being moved (even back in the 2000's) but not that they are forcing people out of their homes to expand the mine. It is weird that I as a Swede learnt more from VICE in Kiruna than I have ever heard or received information from the government. Thank you for shedding some light for those that often do not have a voice. That is what real journalism is.

*WE SHOULD TAKE BIKINI BOTTOM, AND PUSH IT SOMEWHERE ELSE*

Imagine a mining company in West Virginia or something, doing something like this for their town.

Favorite part of the video was listening to the man speaking Swedish about the mine lol. This is the content I subbed for tho, not music videos. Really enjoyed this, please more videos like this vice.

In Brazil there's a company called Vale, they did the same thing, moved people houses to other places, but the only difference is that they had used mud to move them.

This clip was used on Grand Tour: A Scandi Flick

That must be a crazy feeling to wake up in the same bedroom, but look out the window and you're somewhere else.

This is honestly beautiful. I live in the US where companies will lay off hundreds of employees to boost their stocks. No US mining corporation would ever dream of giving up 60% of their profits to relocate families.

World: On lockdown Meanwhile in Sweden:

i can really see here how a good company handling things they affected.

if those houses were made here in america they'd break apart the moment you lifted them up

This explains how a government-owned company is generally held at higher scrutiny on standards and ethics and therefore doesn't endanger the long-term sustainability for short-term gains.

Sweden i love you 🇸🇪 Stay strong my people

I hate when I have to move my home two miles down the street. So inconvenient and my plates always break.

Bra jobbat gubbar!

Me watching this being a Swede not knowing about this 😦

I want to say one thing as a swede those old people don't comprehend how nice the company is to them and how many other companies wouldn't do the same. I'm kinda mad that Vice opted to interview a group of people that only care about themselves and can't comprehend how good they have it with this deal. In Sweden many elderly don't understand how liberal we are compared to many other countries in the world and that what they have is a privilege so they complain about everything they feel "wronged" about.

Vice makes this more dramatic then it is, sure some residents need to move into flats or other houses but there is no choice in not moving a part of kiruna. Becuse like Gunnar Selberg said LKAB (The mining company) is like a mother to Kiruna. Most people who live in Kiruna work at LKAB and LKAB gives alot of donations too the town. ~ A Kiruna Resident.

My dad worked for LKAB when I was a kid, and retired just when the move started being discussed. After retirement he moved down to the coastal city Piteå, and me myself got myself a job in Stockholm. It's very emotional to see the city you grew up in being so radically transformed, even if none of us visits Kiruna any more.

Reminder me with old Simpson episode, where the Springfield city is moving out.

Mayor posts on RU-vid: "Why I'm moving my town across town" as the title

Teacher:why you want to leave so early??..Your house didn't go anywhere you know Swedish student:

Damn Vice has been killing it with the content lately. Keep it up and I'll keep watching.

"Home Delivery"

cool. i live in a town in northern canada that was picked up and moved from one town and moved to a new one 175miles away on sleighs through the northern bush 100+ buildings moved over 2 winters.

Everyone gangsta till the house lifts off the ground

House: Aight I'm boutta head out

When they tell you to stay home but you still wanna go places 😂

My family is from a small town close to Kiruna. And the same thing is happening there. Every time we visit another part of the town has been swallowed by the huge hole haha... My grandmother will be like ”and just around this corner is where I used to work when I wa..” *almost falls into bottomless pit*

I feel bad for that lady. Being 'forced' to move is fine because of the situation. But her not getting enough money from her current home to buy a new house/flat and instead having to rent. I can imagine it would be frustrating to go from owning your own home to having to rent again.

2:52 text is wrong, she’s saying: They tore down city hall a few months ago, and that was tough because then I saw everything

The story reminds me of Most in Czechia, where the entire historic center was demolished to give way to a coal mine

Wow thats crazy moving a whole town to mine.

Didn't the Simpsons do this when they moved Springfield? 🤔 I'm onto you Matt Groening, you time traveller you.

Someone could easily make a house arrest joke

Reminds me of that Simpson episode where home trashed Springfield and everyone had to move.

My hometown. The whole block where I grew up is gone. Feels like a part of me is gone.

I saw this clip on the latest top gear episode (Scandi flick) when the hosts were passing through Kiruna. Interesting to see how mining has affected the whole town and their innovative solution....

Did we ever get a follow up to this story?

So the corporation is actually responsible? Man i wish we had that in my country

I get that it's hard to move a whole town. It's either that or your house falls into the gorge from an old mine. At least it's a giant company that is actually taking some responsibility for how the massive mine will impact other people.

I was just reading about Kiruna and now this pops up! Convenient :)

Governments in Europe: Let's move heaven and earth (literally) to provide for our people. Yank Government: Lol, you have no drinking water. Tough luck.

I saw this story back when they started the move but those buildings are unbelievably immaculate having spent a hundred years in the snow. I would have thought they were built in the 90s.

In this case I suggest total removal of mortgage interest rates. I mean just plain monthly instalments for the remaining months since there's no guarantee the homes will be in the same conditions on arrival at the second location .

i work for a company here in norway that deliveries ventilation tubes to kiruna alot and i thought that LKAB was helping the people more then this wtf

Is Vice under new management? They've had a fair amount of decent videos coming out lately.

Hiiiii everyone! So I actually live in Kiruna (this town) because of my studies I moved there, I'd love to answer some questions if anyone has any about the mine, how it is to live there, what it's like to fall asleep as the blasts go off in the mine etc.

How do they connect the pipes and electricity wiring then?

Vice, please invest in new background music. This an update on Sweden, not meditation in Cambodia.

It is very hard on the inhabitants who live there.

Wheres the footing? How they do that? I human, I need know fast.

Beautiful snow.

This happened in a town next to mine in northern Michigan

This is old reporting, honey, this is so old.

When you need to go to the grocery store but you can't leave your house

Reminds me of what happened in Paradise, Kentucky

2020 just 4 months down but damnit. Feels like 1904

I mean, I don’t think they have too much of an option. Either move or go down with the boat. I mean, unless the mining company is speeding things up.

Inside the house be like HELLO IS ANOMALY FROM SWEDEN AND TODAY WE ARE PLAYING IN A MOVING HOUSE

Music in the beginning?

I watched something about Kiruna on a tv show 4 years ago.

Is this near Falun? I know theres a mine there too

How about Centralia, Pennsylvania?

3:25 if you think about it very often then the best choice you can make is moving out immediately. This would stop worrying about it and it saves you months of headache and stress. So stop whining and start moving and keep your mind calm. You need to do it anyway.

It's not hard, the reason the 1964 Anchorage Alaska earthquake was so devastating in terms of property damage was the topography of Anchorage itself. Landfill and tideflats. Seattle's waterfront faces a similar fate..

When you move a house like that, is it still as strong once its plonked somewhere else?

god i love vice

Come to Saskatchewan.....we pass houses on the highway all the time!!

Its like when springfield moved 5 miles down the road because they had to much trash.

what’s the color of those houses??? they look very nice.

so it's not that the ground is caving in, they want to extract iron below the town so they have to move the buidlings

One of my adoptive hometowns. ♥

The fact is that the flats for buying or renting, that they are building, are far too expensive for a lot of people. Even with the money they get from LKAB a lot of the elders find they don’t have the money, even for a small flat for renting, sadly enough. That has led many elders to come to the conclusion to move away from Kiruna. Some would have done that anyway. But others would have preffered to remain in Kiruna if there were cheaper flats to buy and if there also were rental flats available that they could afford. As the lady said: ”There are not enough apartments”. They are just moving a few of the houses. A big part of the houses in Kiruna will be demolished. The newly built houses, which will replace the demolished houses, are very expensive. A solution to this problem would be, to not only build these extremely expensive houses, but also build houses with flats that are cheaper to buy and apartments that would be cheaper to rent. It is a shame they have chosen not to do so. At least not to the extent that could fill the demand. So sad.

I love how the company is correcting their mistakes with their own money and not running away with the money

Min vän kommer från Kiruna, my Swedish friend comes from Kiruna. I’ve always wanted to visit was going to go before this whole Coronavirus thing happened.

Not moving… being torn down. Like my childhood home.

At least the company is helping because in America they would leave you in the ditch. I do hope families who leave in the flats can find a new home

Fun fact: Mam Moët is a Dutch company.

Wait that's my town!

So Patricks idea was good after all...

I wouldn't be surprised if the mayor's named Patrick.

Det betyder att vi kan flytta skåne

well in my country the company would not care for the people at the town so there's that

I’m swedish and this is old news

Th-theyre literally moving the houses. And they’re gonna move back??? This is so unreal lmao

Well, Norway has oil. We have:

this is like the alaskan bullworm spongebob episode where patrick suggests moving the entire city

If it would have been any where else, long gone by now.

This is the math for those who must move from an apartment. Let's say the company pays 1755000 SEK for your apartment and you bought it for 50000 sek 20 years ago. This means that you deduct 50 000 SEK from those 1 755 000 SEK, 1 705 000. On that sum you have to pay 22% tax 375 100 SEK. This leaves you with 1 379 900 SEK. To buy a new same size apartment will cost you roughly 2 100 000 to 2 300 000 SEK. If you are lucky you will find an old apartment for sale for about 1 300 000- 1 500 000 SEK. So decide for your self if this is a fair deal.