Many Russians want to move to Northern Sweden
The Swedish municipality of Sorsele’s attempts to recruit Russian labor has been a huge success. Already 700 Russians have reported their interest in moving to Sorsele.
As BarentsObserver reported, a delegation from Sorsele went to Apatity in Murmansk Oblast in April in an attempt to recruit Russians to the northern Swedish municipality of Sorsele. The project has attracted great attention in Russia, and so far 700 persons and families are registered as potential immigrants.
- These are not only Russians living in Russia, but also Russians that already have residence permits and are living in Sweden, says Göran Wikstrøm in the municipality administration to SVT.
Like many other small municipalities in northern Sweden, Sorsele has a lack of skilled workers. The local population is getting older, while few new young people go to live there. 35 percent of all municipal workers in Sorsele will retire in course of the next ten years.
Sorsele plans to receive the first 20-30 new Russian settlers in the end of 2011 or beginning of 2012.
Since we wrote about this project, BarentsObserver has received many requests from Russian readers about work in Sorsele. Unfortunately, we are not able to help in such matters, but those who are interested in more information can try contacting the Sorsele Immigration Authorities at inflyttarservice@sorsele.se.
