This week I spoke to a Dutch family moving to Ulricehamn this summer. Right now it looks as if our immigration project will not continue next year as some municipalities do not see the benefit of it. However, for Ulricehamn it has been positive despite that it actually is too early to look at the direct results. From the point of the idea of emigrating to another country arrives to the actual move researchers say it takes approx. 7 years. So for us, who started this project 3 years ago, it is too early to say how successful or non-successful it has been.
Ulricehamn has seen about 5 families moving here in the last 3-4 years and this summer a family of 5 is settling here. The father got a job in Gothenburg and the family went to Sweden and had a look around Gothenburg and the areas around here and decided to settle in Ulricehamn. I think it says a lot about Ulricehamn when people, who can settle anywhere in the Västra Götaland region, decides to settle here. I am now trying to find them a rental house where they can fit 3 kids, a dog and a cat before the 1st of August. Anyone with a house to rent out in Ulricehamn should let me know! They would like to rent first, just to settle in and find a house to buy a little bit later. One thing that this project has taught me is that personal service is everything. The people I have had a chance to personally meet or whom I have had several telephone conversations with are now very positive about our region. Not everyone moves right away and some people have plans stretching 5 or 10 years but now they know about us and that is good. And, even if they don’t move here they come for holidays here and that is also important.
Last week Jochem’s brother Harry was here with his wife Miriam and oma Nell from the Netherlands. Harry, who is a keen fly fisher, visited Tranemo where they have some bigger trout fishing lakes, for a day of fishing but didn´t catch anything. Luckily he was more successful in Sämsjön in Vegby. We had a great weekend of fishing, bicycling, walking and actually a bit of cleaning too. Now the house is ready to use for the summer and this summer we are planning to use it a lot.
Jochem wondered the other day why we do not seem to get around doing more things around here. We have lived here for 3 years but still have so much left to discover and visit. We live at a place where we could easily go hiking every weekend or get out with the boat but often our weekends are filled with other activities. I guess he is not alone in feeling this way but sometimes I also think we want too much at the same time. In a family of 5 we have 5 ideas about what is fun to do and we are a family interested in very many things. It is football, peacekeeping activities with CISV, singing, watching films, reading books, bicycling, going out with the boat, spending time with family and friends, enjoying food and drinks etc. Actually, the more I think about it the better I like the idea that we still have a lot to explore. If I felt, after 3 years in Ulricehamn, that I had seen everything there is to see here or experienced everything there is to experience I would probably be planning to leave. Now we still have a lot left to explore and that is great to know!
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