Dutch invaders

When I told my colleagues at the embassy in the Hague that I was moving back to Sweden to the small town of Ulricehamn the ambassador said;
- I guess we will see you back here next year at the emigration fair, trying to attract some Dutch people to Ulricehamn!
More and more people in Sweden move to the bigger cities and in some parts of the country small towns have completely disappeared. Everyone has moved away to places where you can find jobs or get the services you need in today’s life.

Borås is a city located half an hour drive from Ulricehamn. 150 years ago the cities (Ulricehamn and Borås) had the same size. This was the textile region of Sweden. Today Ulricehamn has approx. 22 600 inhabitants and Borås 65 000. What happened? Well, one thing is for sure. Ulricehamn was not ready when the textile industry moved away from Sweden.

The goal for Ulricehamn is to become 25 000 inhabitant in 2020 and there are many ideas on how to reach this. One idea is to attract foreign companies and the Dutch have showed many Swedish municipalities that they are good at settling in and starting their own businesses. So, now I am working on this while Jochem worries about the Dutch invasion! The emigration fair takes place in the beginning of next year but I will visit the Netherlands already in the end of November and I hope to see many of you then (I will be in Nijmegen and the Hague from the 19th to the 23rd).

As for life in Ulricehamn the semester has started and the kids are busy with school and all their sports activities. We just heard that the football season will be over in two weeks and wont start until April! Surprising but Ingrid will try handball and badminton instead and Elsa will start horseback riding on Sunday. Jochems parents are arriving on Friday for a 10 days visit and in two weeks time we welcome my family to celebrate Elsas 8th birthday. Time really flies!