In this video my friend Gracie talks about her experience falling in love with a Swedish guy, moving to Sweden, and her impressions of the Swedish work and music culture. Check out Gracie on IG: gracieschram?ig...
My wife is from the US. We became penpals back in 1992, and she visited for a week in 2000. I was in a long relationship then, but in 2015, she was in an unhappy marriage and I was single since a few years. We chatted on Messenger, she sounded unhappy, and I asked her why. She told me that things would become a mess, but that she loved me. Four days later, we had agreed that she would divorce her husband, apply for a Swedish residency permit, and that we would marry. Then - eight weeks later - we met again for the first time in 15 years when I visited her in Boston. We married in 2016, and she moved here shortly afterwards. Craziest thing I've done in my life, and I don't regret it.
@@chromberries7329 Sometimes, we've thought that it all sounded like a Hollywood movie, and had to remind ourselves that it was really happening. There's been enough drama for a couple movies, though. Last year, she suffered a brain hemorrhage that could've killed her, but she survived and is slowly getting back to something approximating normal.
I stayed in the USA for 6 months and met my husband. We got married after 3 months and have lived in both country’s. We have now been married for 42 years
Hah, when i got the notification and it said "falling in love with a Swedish guy" i was like.. "eehhm.. okay, you got something you wanna tell us there Buddy?" Lol
As a Swedish immigrant in the US, I can tell you that the processing time and expense at the US side is considerably longer and more expensive. It took me 14 months to receive my work permit on a marrige visa. Then an additional 6 years to turn my temporary permanent residence into permanent. I spent well over $10k.
@@larsnordstrom364 Tack för svaret, intressant! Gick du en högskoleutbildning för det? Pluggar själv Digital Design och Innovation och är intresserad av att flytta till USA men har hört att det är svårt att få jobb/ett sponsrat jobb utan en högsk. utb. eller år av erfarenhet.
@@axelnordstrom3900 nej jag lärde mig det på jobbet. Jag har inte gått högskola, endast teknisk linje på gymnasium. Skulle nog inte råda att flytta till USA. Visst, man kan tjäna bra pengar, men allt annat är sämre, förutom vädret beroende på vart man bor.
My husband and I love watching your videos! I’m Swedish and he’s American and we are trying to move to Sweden. Can’t wait! He relates sooo much to your experiences!
Would love to see more of Gracie, find it really interesting to see the perspectivesfrom diffrent angles so to speak also it would be very interesting to know what a male versus female perspective would be on the first reactions to Sweden
my father is marrying an American woman next Saturday. So I'm going to meet my new stepbrother that is flying to Stockholm from Dallas in a couple of days! We're both adults and roughly the same age, but I'm still kinda nervous 😅
The Arlanda situation is definitely not typical for the airport or of Swedish airports. It’s a special situation at the moment and it’s basically the same everywhere in Europe right now. Airports downscaled during covid and now they are struggling to hire people again when travelling is starting to normalise, and yes, there are fast tracks at Arlanda airport like everywhere else.
@@Wloppish Wow.. Airports were severely down-sized in regard of personnel during 2020-2021 = people lost their jobs and sought new work in other sectors. Then we normalize air travel in march 2022 and everyone is surprised that there werent thousands of people just waiting around to be re-employed. And most of those jobs are low income ones as well.. The failure is on our parliament that should have understood that air- and sea- ports should have been supported to be able to keep all staff during the worst pandemic. Now we do not even have the resources available within the security police to have all of the new personnel through security review in a timely fashion.
The reason Sweden as a small country has so many entrepreneurs is that the safety net gives you a chance to come back if you fail. Your life isn't over if you fail so people can take bigger risks with their ideas.
So, the first Swedish song to ever reach the first place on the BIllboard was a slong called "Hooked on a feeling". Blue Swede, the band, from what I heard, was touring sweden, and kinda ignored it. So from what i understand, it didn't stay at the no 1 spot for that long. I have heard the swedish producers and execs did kind of learn that if they had take the time to go over to the US, and play some TV shows and promoted the song, it might have been an even greater hit (stayed longer on the charts). You will defenitely recognize the song, it is part of the Marvel Universe now...
I’m in the same boat! I moved to Sweden to be with my fiancée on the sambo visa and have been in Sweden for 8 months now! We did 6 years of torturous long distance (I’m from Texas) after 4 days of being actually together in Sweden when we met in the summer of 2015. so fun to hear how other Americans move to Sweden! 😄
Regarding work flexibility, working hours and deadlines. Yes, many of us do work normal working hours or leave early to pick up the kids, but do also in the evening, when kids gone to bed, continue working 1,2,3,4 hours to keep up with everything. This makes the flexibility possible for many out there at the Swedish job market but also take away the border between between work and free time. The hours for recovery get fewer and many parents with younger children struggle a lot to keep the balance, but the flexibility wins for most of us.
Very well said: the security of benefits allows one to take a leap. In Finland where I am from, and I presume in a lot of EU countries, there are structures of benefits of working as an entrepreneur even if one if on benefits or starts from benefits. There are VAT reductions etc. And the whole wide EU market that is more free than the US market in terms of providing services inside the EU...
I was in Sweden again for several days a few weeks ago. The last time was in 2019 before corona. I took a ferry from Finland to Sweden and drove through southern Sweden to Denmark. On that route I spent nights in Trosa and Jönköping. Then I contunued to Denmark, Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia and finally sailed back to Finland from Tallinn yesterday. That was a really cool trip :)
I'm from Sweden but been living in London for the past 17+ years. Looking back, I'm more productive in Sweden than in London. Better public transport, not as many reasons to go out in the winter, great infrastructure etc all contribute to it. But business networking is definitely better in London, and other opportunities to socialise. So for productivity it's Sweden. For growth and expansion it's London. I like both. Can they please be combined, in some magical way? As for songwriting, I'm quite amazed about the level of quality of production in the music industry for the international market in Sweden, considering that English generally not Swedish songwriter's native language.
Very interesting video and perspectives. I totally agree with your view and ideas about the problems at the airports. Sweden can be very bureaucratic and sluggish when it comes to solve problems. But people into private business often has a attitude closer to your ideas (American way?).
It is the opposite for me.. My Swedish husband moved to Singapore and has been here since 2005. Married for 16 years and raising our two teens here. We try to get back there once a year but then the pandemic happened. Not sure if we would ever move to Sweden - life is very settled here in Singapore with the lower taxes, cheap food, etc.
The US doesn’t have two weeks of vacation. The FLSA doesn’t require payment for for days not worked, such as vacation, holidays or sick leave. The federal government doesn’t require companies to give payed vacation days for employees so the number of vacation days can be 0. American employees typicality offer 5-15 payed vacation days a year but millions of Americans have no vacation at all.
@@gaelle4328 Most states don't have any kind of paid sick leave either so it's quite common for people to use their vacation days for that purpose instead.
I think you lift something very important with your reflection on the airport chaos. Swedes aren't the fastest bunch when it comes to improvise, adapt and overcome. But when we eventually do we usually do the tasks pretty well. But when it comes to fixing stuff fast when needed I as a Swede also get upset of the lack of determination to speed up a process(like hire more policemen for example). There was(and probably still is) like a saying from the Soviet military during the cold war "conduct submarine intrusions in Swedish waters after 17 o'clock, on weekends or like during the Christmas holidays because no Swede is working then". Of course not completely true but there's too much truth in it and the same mentality can especially be found within authorities, state owned companies etc where excessive "union laws" are present.
a swedish person hearing you offer extra money for something to be done more quickly would IMMEDIATELY assume you are corrupted haha we loooove our bureaucracy
In Denmark graduated are driving from one parents to another parents to another parents......... it is the parents who supports the liquor to the kids...imagine how sober the kids are at parents no 21 !!
Max Martin is another biiig name. Check him out. Britney, celine dion, backstreet boys, n'sync, pink, katy perry, kelly clarkson and so on and on❤️❤️❤️
Sometimes I’ve wondered if the time it takes at Migrationsverket and other authorities is to see how commited you are to become a swedish citisen. I’m pretty sure it’s not, but that thought has struck me when I’ve seen the struggle people from outside EU and Schengen area have.
.. yeah 10:00.. hmm so as a person growing up with a background in Family&Private/Familje&Egen Business/Företag sector I can say that its a serious pain. The best thing would in many cases be if the system and people were flexible enough to meet halfway between the US-American way of things and the old Swedish way of things. Currently the issue causes a strangle hold on businesses that are in the transition phases so to say from small to medium and so forth. - Now in things like the Airport issue you guys mention, its a No go because of bureaucracy and security. Its just not feasible partially because of some of the same issue but on a macro scale. Mostly though its probably that there literally are no more of those people to hire. They'd literally need to train up new people which compared to the US is a much more serious thing. Another possibility being temporarily re-acquiring people who have worked with the like before then moved on or retired. Probably need to pay them even more lol.. oh and then there would probably be re-issuing of sec-clearances. Bottlenecks. - A comparative thought Swede/Ami, I can of course only speak for myself but as a Swede I consider US-America/ns rather slapdash in its/their approach to certain things. The whole any warm body "Will Do" mentality as long as it gets done, consequences.. what are those!? ;) Like for example schooling and other requirements for police and similar professions in the USA compared to many European countries. Truly Scary.
Regarding the taxes in Scandinavia vs living in the US it's actually not that much more you "lose" of your salary over here. It's a myth that the US is a lot cheaper to live in because of the low taxes. Almost nothing is covered by them and if you want some "social security" you have to pay for it and if I remember correctly everything will add up to an average of ~40+ % of a normal workers income. It's just more difficult to see the whole picture since you are paying different fees to the left and right. But the thing with for an example a high income tax is that it's immediately visible how much you're paying. It's a little bit like when people were actually able to see how much they spent on their membership of the Swedish church. A few decades ago it became visible in the tax declaration and there was a mass exodus. xD
Thinking back to my graduation-party. I got so wasted, I vomited in my sleep as my brothers, more or less carried me upstairs - so they tell me, I don't remember. I DO remember the next day: On top of my first and worst hangover, I got some kind of bug. I stayed in bed the whole day. Man, I was sick!
I understand how you would like to pay the government to work for you faster, but then the people who can't pay would have to wait even longer if you "skip the line". That could be seen as fair, but it could also lead to inequality and you know what Swedish politics thinks of that 😄
Processing time in the US is horrible, it takes forever, years for some and that's how it was already before COVID. The thing with the airport as well, not only does the processing for security workers take time, which I think it should if it's about security, but people are also less inclined to work at airports and such now in general because of COVID and how easily the workers at airports and airlines got laid off. Unless there is some kind of guarantee or safety net in case there is another situation similar to COVID I think most people would rather work at a grocery store or something.
So relaxed and informative. If only America could adapt to other countries ideas more. We have fallen into a deep depression/regression. Thank you both.
Well you could just simply rent a wagon from a farmer and ask them to take you and your friends around town for a party. So you could experience the graduation process without actually graduating :P But it wouldn't be the same ofcourse. Partying with friends compared to classmates.
Working in Sweden with dead lines and over time does exist. I suppose it depends in what field of work you are working in. Also, living in Stockholm you do not really get the real winter darkness experience. You should go to north of the Arctic circle for the real deal.
Inkomstskatten är hög.. håller med. MEN skatten för företag är förhållandevis låg. Lägre än USA. Kanske därför så många startar upp sitt företag här. Samt att det är populärt hos utländska investerare att komma hit.
Well as a swede I agree that we have great songwriters and producers from here, but when it comes to Max Martin, he actually demands writing credits on every song he produces regardless of him contributing to the actual songwriting or not. That is why it seems like he has written every song he produced during that period. I am sure he has written songs for many artists who cannot write themselves, but in the likes of for example Taylor Swift, she wrote the majority of those songs herself and he produced. He even admitted it publicly for the first time ( eventhough most people know by now) in a recent lawsuit against the song "shake it off" That he did not write those songs and that she is the main writer. He is a talented producer for sure, but he did not write ALL those songs like it seems in the credits of artists music. Just fyi. Love the video though
I met my Swedish LTR thru a dating site. My former roomate took off, leaving me to pay all the rent. I was texting a Swedish man, telling him about this problem. He mentioned to me he was in a one bedroom apartment but would rent me the bedroom and he would sleep on the sofa. I was up against it so I agreed. This was 2 and a half years ago. It was not a wise decision to agree to move in with a stranger but it worked out well. We get along really well
It's not that everyone here work like short days, most people work eight hour days which is standard and too many swedes also work very much and long days but it's not the ones with small kids 😉 Regarding Spain, they are much more inefficient than Swedes, Germans and other in the upper half of Europe. They have siesta which is a long break from work during the hottest part of the day, and that's why they work until later in the evening. We have high taxes, but not 50% of what you make! The so called marginal tax is 50% but just on the part which is over like 40.000 a month or so. If you for example make 40.000 a month you just have local tax based on the city you live, varies between like 29 to 32%. If you make 60.000 a month you pay 29-32% on 40.000 and 50% on 20.000, that equals 36,7% on your whole salary of 60.000 ;) Very important to clarify!
The USA I migration process is super expensive, inefficient, complicated, time consuming, confusing, and chaotic…..it’s hard to imagine any other country being worse.
The problem is only to some extent due to covid. Encrochat and ANOM showed that the security and customs were heavily infiltrated by organized crime. That´s the reason they have increased the vetting procedure
Swedish private companies are usually quite efficient, its the stuff that has a connection to the government (police, health care, work permits, immigration control (migrationsverket) etc) that are super slow. And the reason is usually that they are underfunded and not cared for. I work as a software dev and yeah there can defently be lots of times with real urgency to fix things for us when someone has a problem. As for running a business in Sweden, its actually quite terrible. If your in the IT business, the bureaucracy isn't the issue but you will be taxed to death, people in the US talk about the valley of death for startups well that ain't nothing compared to being in sweden
Well, if you don't have the high taxes, you don't get the healthcare.. I can tell you that despite the higher taxes here - and they are high, I have much more disposable income here than I ever had Stateside.
It is a pitty you comment about Spain working life as examples of working longer hours or lack of creativity when you both have never worked there. It would be more fair if you were living and working in both places for several years as I did and had the experience to comment objectively. I have worked more than 10 years in Spain and never worked longer than 4PM and flexibility also exist absolutely. But if one comes as a young foreigner as most of people do and pick up whatever job to party around instead of a qualified job, one also need to be careful after to bring that experience to any comparisson or acting as a speaker from someone else comments. Have you asked to Ubereats employees in Sweden till what hour they work for example? And talking about creativity, Why housing queues are that huge in Sweden? Why there is a big missmatch between offer and demmand? Why healthcare is that expensive in taxes but queues to have an appointment are overwhelming? Have you tried to go to a doctor in Spain to compare, being aware healthcare system might be even better than Swedish one by last world rankings surveys? Are Spanish doctors not creative people? I would suggest to be less afraid to hurt possible Swedish audience as you both live there right now and keep away stereotypes but bringing more straightforwardness and realism, that would be appreciated.
Stefan, you need to come out, there is no way her boyfriend (or anyones straight boyfriend) would allow to have a good looking guy like you as a friend😜 Damn you would have so many other hot guys chasing you so you if came out😉😏
I believe it’s the same all over the world right now. Though out of all countries, getting through American migration is always the worst on a normal day. It could take hours even before covid.
The slow bureaucracy in random areas of government is something you'll find all over the world, but there really is no excuse to have these kinds of problems in the most modern of countries. I suspect it is a result of agendas of the political parties, though I don't know what these agendas might be. There really isn't a reason why it can't be fixed, but it just goes on and on.
He: like..like..like...like. She: like..like...like...like! It's amazing how often those words pop up. Not really a criticism, but like ..well..it is so.
Regarding Arlanda situation. It is NOT ok. They have been hugely criticized in the news etc. As well as the train problems. But hey. Government and municipal companies are immune to critics and they never get fined as much as private companies. That is a one of the huge cons living here. As an individual you’re completely defensless. Good to know is, that this “fantastic social system” isn’t really working for all inhabitants. A lot of ppl fall through the “safety net”. I mean if we really had that great system why do we have so many homeless ppl? It is better not having the system if gov cherry pick who is going to make use of it.
sweden has the least police officers per capita in the whole world. ppl just dont want to work for the police so "to just hire more police officers" is not possible
Speak slower and more distinctly and more people will understand what you are yakking about. A better microphone and a room with better acoustics would also be beneficial.
