‘Fest Swedes, go home’: Do Swedish immigrants get a bad rep in Norway?
In May 2008, a wall was graffitied on St Olav’s Gate in Oslo. Scrawled across it were the words: ‘Party Swedes go home!’ The slogan, which asked ‘party Swedes’ to leave Norway, played with neo-Nazi songs from the 1980s and 90s.
But with free movement of people and a shared Nordic identity, Swedes in Norway had a history of being treated as “different immigrants”, or often simply not as immigrants at all.
The slogan was therefore generally interpreted as something benign and humorous. That was until a later addition to the wall, in 2009, which asked “but is Norway Swedish?” (But isn’t Norway Swedish anyway?’).
Rebecca Jafari, who writes for the Norwegian tabloid Dagsavisen, took up the debate. “They work hard,” she wrote, “are service oriented, rarely engage in crime and pay taxes. Yet Swedes are bullied by their neighbors.
In 2014, the problems of some young Swedish immigrants in Norway were depicted by the director Ronnie Sandahl, who named his latest feature film. Swedeskævel (Swedish devil).
The film follows 23-year-old Dino as she arrives in Oslo to seek a life of wealth and happiness, only to be thrown into a cycle of odd jobs and partying.
It was a trip that seemed to document the life of an archetypal ‘party Swede’ and it was highlighted as an example of the treatment that awaited young Swedes on their way across the border.
By the end of the 21st century, the Swedes had grown to become Norway’s second largest immigrant community (after Poles). The unique combination of high youth unemployment at home, versus a strong job market further west, saw them flood into higher paying jobs from hospitality to engineering.
At the same time, Norwegians continued to flow in the other direction, heading across the border to take advantage of Sweden’s low prices. On the way along the border, the large supermarkets are plain to see, erected just a few kilometers into Swedish territory, their parking lots full of Norwegian license plates.
Academic Ida Tolgensbakk wrote a study from 2015 that investigated how young Swedish workers were treated upon arrival in Norway. She says the term “party Swedes” is generally used more humorously than other immigrant songs, but that doesn’t mean everyone in the reception thinks it’s funny.
“Some people think it’s funny,” she tells The Local, “and interpret it as a sign of equality and closeness. Others think it’s stigmatizing and racist.”
Tolgensbakk based his research on interviews, fieldwork and a media study. She says that Norwegians and Swedes have a long history of mutual jokes dating back to the 1970s.
“Swedes joked about Norwegians and vice versa. But at that time there was no significant migration between the two countries, so it was just neighborly banter. The meaning changed when one neighbor became a minority in another,” she explains.
Norway had been independent for years, but there was perhaps some lingering anxiety among Swedes about being the laughing stock of a country they ruled until 1905.
In 2013, journalists Jerker Ivarsson and Victor Stenquist research for Aftonbladet and went on location in Oslo to meet Swedish workers aged 20 to 30.
Two-thirds of the Swedish immigrants they spoke to had settled in Oslo, and it was to this carefree age group that the term party Swedes seemed to apply. However, the then 23-year-old bartender Sarah Thegerström told them that “party Swedes” was far from a joke and spoke of the all-too-common bullying experiences of Swedes in her profession (she was apparently the victim of frequent anti-Swedish abuse from drunk customers herself).
During the time he was writing for Nyheter 24, Haviet Kok was in Norway when he took a phone call from his landlord. Kok says he was harassed by a Norwegian passerby who had heard his Swedish accent and swore and pleaded for him and his compatriots to go back across the border.
Despite their rare frequency, Tolgensbakk, author of the 2015 report, admits that these experiences are far from non-existent. Many of the respondents in her study had difficulty getting to know their Norwegian neighbors, and she says they were often naive in their belief that their culture was identical.
“If you look at the three Scandinavian nations from abroad,” she tells The Local, “you’d think we’re the same country: our history is intertwined, our languages are mutually intelligible. But when you get up close, there are noticeable sticks that separate us. We have our own quirks, and it can be confusing if you expect everything to be the same.”
Migration researcher Jan Horgen Friberg says for his part that in the social hierarchy of Norway’s immigrant groups, the Swedes are at the top. “Although they may face negative stereotypes,” he tells The Local, “I think the term ‘racism’ is taking it way too far.”
Along with reports of pranks, pranks, even abuse and struggles to settle – which are not just limited to Swedes in Norway, there are of course many positive experiences of Swedes moving across the border.
Tea Lovcalic, who moved to Norway from Lund in southern Sweden, is perhaps just one of many Swedes who smoothly settle into life in Norway.
She says she felt included right away.
“The experience was positive and welcoming, both in the workplace and outside.”