I drove Jochem to the airport on Tuesday morning and we decided that it is time for a date soon. In the last 4 weeks I have been on 13 different flights, travelled from Spain in the south to Härnösand in the north and been to Jacques funeral in the Netherlands in between. Jochem also had to travel and my parents came over to help out. It is great to have parents who help out despite having to travel in snowy weather to get here, who cook for us and who spoil us all! Now I am planning to stay put in Ulricehamn for a while and enjoy the snow, the family and you visitors coming to enjoy the winter in the coming weeks.
The last 5 days I spent in the Netherlands taking part in a Dutch emigration fair. 305 Dutch people choose to leave the NL each day and the interest for moving to Scandinavia is great. For many Swedish people it is odd to think of emigration if you have a job, a house and a social setting you feel comfortable in. However, the reason that so many people look at the possibilities at living in another country has to do with the size of the country and its population. The NL is 14 times smaller than Sweden with a population of 16 million people. It is crowded, enormous traffic jams, high property prices, higher crime rate than here and almost no more nature. In Sweden, which is one of the largest countries in Europe and with a small population of 9 million, we have a lot of nature and many Swedish people prefer to move to bigger cities. Of the 290 municipalities we have in Sweden, 250 are losing their inhabitants.
You could say that if people do not want to live on the countryside – why care? Why do we want to attract more inhabitants to the Swedish countryside and why should we aim for the Dutch? Well, first of all Swedish municipalities have taxation right and each municipality is an economy of its own. With a decreasing population, less money enters the municipality and the harder it is to maintain a high social standard and offer good schools, good elderly care, run swimming pools, libraries etc. Due to this most municipalities wants to grow and attract new inhabitants. Secondly, when people leave the countryside and move to the bigger cities it gets harder for remaining businesses to find suitable staff, to grow and develop their business. Of all European countries the Netherlands is the most successful country when it comes to starting new businesses and the country is famous for its entrepreneurial skills. Therefore, attracting Dutch families looking for work or to start their own businesses in Sweden is something worth looking into. About 10 000 people attended the emigration fair in Houten this weekend – all interested in a new life outside the Netherlands. At the same time the Swedish labour organisation (AMS) is expecting 65 000 new jobs to emerge in 2011 and in the coming 15 years 1,6 million Swedish people will retire leaving a huge shortage within certain sectors.
In other words – we need the Dutch or any other high skilled worker willing to test life on the Swedish country side and I hope we can get some of the doctors, veterinaries, IT people, teachers etc. we met at the fair this weekend to have a look at life in West Sweden.
And now I will prepare tonight’s salmon dish, enjoy Elsas fruit pie and a read a long, good book for the kids before I tuck them in. Not to forget to arrange for Fridays date with Jochem!
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