I wasnt allowed to vote for Brexit. I had been strucken from the electoral role. I had left England at teh start of 2003. As soon as the Brexit vote went through I put in my application för citizenship in Sweden. At the time no one knew what was gonna happen but I figured my permanent residency permit wasnt gonna cut it anymore cause it relied on me being an EU citizen.
At the time the migration crisis was happening in Sweden. So many asylum seekers from Syria and Afghanistan so my application was low priority. It took 2 and half years from application date to getting my citizenship but now I am Swedish.
Always wondered how England would be able to fuck up my life despite me leaving the country and Brexit was a big fuck up to my life. Now a new law has come along and I am not allowed to enter England on my Swedish passport. I got citizenship in Sweden while England was still in the EU so I got dual citizenship. I have to enter England with my British passport. A British passport costs 2600kr and requires dna. A Swedish passport costs 500kr and can be picked up at a police station.
Britain is a weird place that still effects my life despite leaving 23 years ago. I have looked at renouncing citizenship but that is also an expensive affair that involves handing over my dna to the British government. I have just made the choice to not go back. I dont agree with handing over my dna to go see my country of birth.
This lady? It wasnt hard to see the writing on the wall when Brexit happened. And now the climate in Sweden has changed. I dont know if I could get citizenship with this government. I certainly couldnt pass the citizenship test. Then again I dont know a single Swedish person who could pass it either. Let alone the minimum income required for citizenship.
Its a weird time through out the West right now.
I feel bad for her in the same way that I feel bad for myself that my fellow citizens (USA) are terrible people. We have to suffer their horrible choices until we stand up to them and create a better society.
This is the patriotism we need more of!
I have a crippling phobia of speaking on the phone, my husband handles all of the paperwork as a result. If he died today I wouldn’t know where to begin. This could have been this case with this lady, maybe she simply didn’t know until it was too late. I feel like bullying pensioners is not the best way to make immigration arguments though.
if you don’t mind me asking, can you tell me more about your phobia? Asking out of sheer curiosity, nothing more.
It comes from autistic fear of being perceived. I don’t want attention on me in any way and the phone is a great example. I was one of those really shy kids. Also anxiety makes my mind blank, so whatever poor soul I’ve tried to call is just sitting there waiting for me to say anything at all, instead I’m crying in fear. It’s fucking ridiculous and I hate it.
It’s not ridiculous. Anxiety is a very powerful emotion and takes the wind out of you. And it’s not your fault.
Thank you for being open about it.
Yeah it really sucks. She should have gone for the permanent residence any point in the last 18 years but it wasn’t necessary until Brexit happened.
Definitely not proper how Sweden handled it, they should have sent at least a couple of letters and emails notifying them of their right to stay not being permanent anymore. Parliament could have passed law saying “person that has been legally residing in Sweden using their freedom of movement for at least before Brexit gets automatically permanent residency” and this wouldn’t have been a thing.
Parliament could have
Politicians aren’t known for caring much about the plebs
Nordic countries are known for at least making an effort
We have a right wing government depending on the support of a far right party currently, they don’t give a fuck.
I totally get all the views in the comments calling her out for applying too late. It doesn’t really say when exactly she applied, just that they only realised late 2022 and got rejected end of 2024.
But I want to point out that the Swedish imigration office or whatever you’d call it in English (Migrationsverket) is one of the laziest and scummiest governmental organisations I have ever seen. And I have nothing to do with them, I only know from non-European colleagues how terrible they are themselves at keeping time. I had a colleague who made their application for extension of residency well ahead of time, only for Migrationsverket to take so damn long my colleague was forced to leave the country as no decision for them to get residency had been made yet. This is about someone with a steady job already living there 5+ years. A few weeks after they left they got the ok to return.
So, fuck Migrationsverket. While this woman probably fucked it too, I’d not be surprised if it wasn’t all her fault actually.
The problem is most likely budgetary constraints. It hasn’t exactly been a priority to make the immigration experience good for the last 10 or so years
A lot of countries have reduced the number of personnel working for the immigration department to deliberately slow everything down so they can claim it’s because of “too many immigrants”.
And then also surprisingly tone down the news about overworked employees there a lot.
Most immigrants are escaping governmental policies brought about by meddling by Western nations. We cause the problems, then get pissed off when the people from the countries we’ve destroyed try to go somewhere better to live.
If we helped those countries, instead of abusing and exploiting them, those people wouldn’t have a reason to leave and come here.
Can confirm, gov department created just to fuck immigrants in the ass. Ask the 100k people they just stole around $30000000 from with their citizenship bullshit.
While rough, why didn’t she apply for residence before? It was pretty clear during Bre it that this would be a consequence.
It just baffles my mind. In Spain there’s also tons of british pensioners that had the attitude of “doesn’t apply to me” who were flummoxed that they now couldn’t stay, when they had every opportunity to apply for residence. It was even made easy for them, but they kept arrogantly insisting that it didn’t apply to them.
I can understand Sweden on this, “I didn’t know” doesn’t sound like a “reasonable reason” to apply late. She messed up by not being minimally aware of stuff she needed to as an immigrant. “My husband takes care of that” is not an excuse.
None of this sounds like a good reason to kick out an almost 80 years old woman from her home of 20 years. If the rules say otherwise, well maybe the rules are wrong.
well maybe the rules are wrong
You are correct, Brexit is wrong.
That’s a complete non-sequitur, but yes.
My statement does not follow logically from the previous ones? I do not believe so, since the rule change was due to Brexit, which is a causal relation
I wasn’t talking about Brexit, though. Britain isn’t forcing and can’t force Sweden to deport people; that’s on the Swedish government.
Britain decided to stop being part of the free movement agreement with the EU because they didn’t want Eastern Europeans taking all their jerbs. Getting rid of that agreement was quite literally the goal of brexit.
Sure, but it can’t force Sweden to deport British people living in the EU; that’s a decision they made themselves. This is particularly clear when contrasted with literally every other country in the EU. From the article:
According to the most recent European Commission annual report on implementation of the WA, almost 4,000 applicants for post-Brexit residency status in Sweden were refused, out of 14,200 made.
By contrast, Bulgaria, which has a similar number of applicants at around 16,000, refused just five people, and Belgium, which had 13,000 applicants, refused 605, according to the same report.
According to FCDO analysis, Sweden’s refusal rate of 27.5% is three times higher than any other member state and considerably higher than the EU average of between 3% and 4%.
Bigots in Britain decided to throw British people in the EU under the bus, but that doesn’t absolve authorities in EU countries (in this case Sweden) for running over them with the bus. The Bulgarian example is particularly useful here; they got their excuse to deport the shit out of Britons in Bulgaria but just chose not to do so (presumably due to their center-left government).
Edit: I just want to say thank you. I appreciate seeing your comment, because what I overwhelmingly see in response to this topic here in Sweden is “well, them’s the rules so it sucks to suck.”
I know that the rules are wrong, that they’re inhumane and treat people without dignity. However, I never see this expressed by others, at most you get an apathetic shrug, and that’s more than a little discouraging.
Sweden has this mythology around it, that we’re a highly liberal and humane country. Perhaps we are in some regards, living here though and having grown up in poverty, I’ve seen some really ugly aspects of Swedish society I wish wasn’t that invisible.
It’s happening because of the current right-wing nazi government in Sweden putting more focus on deportations and tightening the rules around immigration. There’s been so many stories past couple of years of either elderly people being kicked out despite having lived here for decades, or teens/young adults that were raised and educated here being kicked out because their parents didn’t file a form correctly.
I recall this article from some months ago. A 95 year old woman, Rabea Allah Wais, who has lived in Sweden for approximately 20 years. She’s wheelchair bound. She lives with her daughter who takes care of her. There’s no one for her back in Iraq.
Even so, Migrationsverket believes that she should be sent home to Iraq because she isn’t legally allowed to be here. She’s applied for residence permit several times, but been rejected. During the period 2008-2022 migrationsverket says that she was “missing from their radar” which sounds like mismanagement on their part to me.
So now they want to put a disabled, 95 year old, woman, who possibly has dementia and needs full-time care on an aeroplane to be sent over to Iraq where she has no family to advocate for her.
I get that the laws are what they are but like you said, maybe they’re wrong. This case just strikes me as extremely inhumane and undignified. We should be doing better.
Jag vill bara vara med min familj, jag har inga egna armar och ben. Jag känner ingen i Irak. Snälla, låt mig dö här, säger Rabea Allah Wais.
I just want to be with my family, I have no legs or arms of my own. I know no one in Iraq. Please, let me die here, says Rabea Allah Wais.
Then there are the weekly articles about teens, who grew up here, speak Swedish, got fed and educated in our schools, and for all intents and purposes are fucking Swedish being deported because of some stupid formality somewhere.
See, when the right-wing nazi government took power they did this with the pretense that they were going to deport the rapists, the gangbangers, the criminals who couldn’t be fixed, what have you. Obviously, being idiots, people bought into that idea. They lapped up that fearmongering and voted for the burning children in great big ovens party, and now here we are.
And this is why I didn’t accept a job offer in Sweden.
That said, I accepted one in Germany and then Merz got elected 😒.
I mean we could follow suit. Currently our government is run by the Moderates. They’re the bourgeoisie economic liberals who put money before anything else. They’re in coalition with the Christ Democrats, who quite openly say things like “pride is too sexual” and “RFSL has gained far too much influence at far too young ages. Gender dysphoria is a result of their propaganda” this election season.
Also part of the coalition and actually outnumbering the Moderates is the Sweden Democrats. They’re the “Make Sweden Great Again” party, whose roots are in the Sweden Party, a very clear white-power nazi party. Their party leader has repeatedly said things like
”Till skillnad från Magdalena Andersson och hennes socialdemokrater kommer vi varken att lämna eller överge våra rötter.”
“Unlike Magdalena Andersson and her social democrats we’ll never leave or abandon our roots.”
If you’re generous, they’re a socially conservative nationalist party. If you’re realistic, they’re nazis. Every single thing in their party programme hinges on non-Swedish people bad. They used to be the nazis you shamed because they openly assaulted people on the street with an iron pipe (while also being heavily misogynistic in the process), but they’ve since not cleaned up their act exactly, but rather gained more general acceptance. It’s cool to be nazi now.
Why was there a need for deadline if she qualified?
authorities told her a post-Brexit application to stay had been submitted too late.
Yeah that sucks hard.
If the rules say otherwise, well maybe the rules are wrong.
People getting into trouble because they don’t bother with the rules for years does not mean that the rules are wrong.
Generally, people getting into trouble should have a justification fitting the degree of the trouble. If the rules impose arbitrary trouble on people (say, by uprooting them from their home of 20 years for missing an arbitrary deadline), then that does make the rules wrong. The punishment very clearly does not fit the “crime” here.
How long had England been a part of the EU before it left? Maybe the whole country should bear the shame of this woman being deported. If they didn’t want it to happen, they shouldn’t have left the EU.
Downvoted because you’re not addressing anything I said, but also that’s a complete non-sequitur. It’s not the Middle Ages anymore for us to act like the tribe owns the individual; there’s no reason the life of this woman should be upended by the foolish actions of the British voting public just because she happens to be from Britain. What Britain wants is frankly irrelevant here.
Would you judge an American doing nothing about their government’s actions the same?
I’d say anyone living in America who is able to do so should be taking part in some kind of resistance because the atrocities their government commits are funded by their tax dollars. So if that American wasn’t living in America, yes I’d judge them exactly the same way.
Well, I’d say not bothering with the ramifications of the largest, most important and influential referendum your home country has ever had for 10 years in is very grave. It is incredibly naive and/or remarkably negligent.
This isn’t a ‘side effect’ from Brexit, but exactly what it was about: we want out, no more membership, no more free movement. To assume that this wouldn’t affect her freedom of movement is absurd. You’d even call it arrogant.
I’m sorry, this is entirely on her. To now try to shift the blame on Sweden for implementing what her populace voted for, is absurd.
Well clearly we have radically different values when it comes to empathy for our fellow man, so let me just say: I guess some people (i.e. you) do deserve the far-right. I wonder if you’ll change your mind if the AfD or National Rally or what have you leopards eat your face at some point.
This isn’t about empathy but about responsibility. I have empathy for her situation, but in my eyes, its her responsibility.
As for face-eating leopards: this is exactly such a situation. The British populace was lured into this vote by populist ‘promises’ and lies. Now, they have their face eaten. And that should be our problem/responsibility now? Imo, the only antidote to populist bullcrap such as Brexit or Trump is inevitably having to bear the consequences of your actions.
It’s a nice spin in the Guardian article, but let’s not forget that this whole ordeal called Brexit was not brought upon the UK from the outside but they chose so themselves. Including the consequences described in the article. Now trying to blame Sweden instead is exactly a leopard-manoeuvre. And don’t worry, should my country be dumb enough to vote the likes of AfD or RN (and it quite looks like it), I’ll not ask for special treatment either.
Some relatives of mine were in that very boat, in Spain. It required some admin, and annoying coordination of appointments (they weren’t there all the time), but wasn’t THAT difficult.
It’s been obvious for years now that British living in Europe would need to deal with the loss of EU access. Most EU countries made it as easy as they could to comply.
I would hope that the host country would still show some flexibility. However, I can also see a retired Ex-pat ranting at the official, and so burning any goodwill that would have got them any rule bending to dig them out of the hole they made.
In general immigration enforcement institutions are about as ghoulish as banks so there’s no reason to give them the benefit of the doubt, especially these days, but also as the article notes Sweden is very heavy-handed here. See:
According to the most recent European Commission annual report on implementation of the WA, almost 4,000 applicants for post-Brexit residency status in Sweden were refused, out of 14,200 made.
By contrast, Bulgaria, which has a similar number of applicants at around 16,000, refused just five people, and Belgium, which had 13,000 applicants, refused 605, according to the same report.
According to FCDO analysis, Sweden’s refusal rate of 27.5% is three times higher than any other member state and considerably higher than the EU average of between 3% and 4%
Deporting as many people as possible seems to be a deliberate policy choice—not surprising considering who’s running the show over there, but it does mean there’s no reason to think this woman was shown any flexibility.
Deporting as many people as possible seems to be a deliberate policy choice
Nailed it. That’s exactly the platform that the Sweden Democrats ran on when they became the second largest party in parliament back in 2022. They still became the backing for the current government, because a significant portion of parliament does not wish to work with them due to them being nazis, hence why the Moderates (the third largest party) formed government.
It still gives the nazis a massive influence over the politics, and in the past four years they’ve unsurprisingly made big strides in passing policies that serve to get immigrants out of Sweden.
why didn’t she apply for residence before?
Or citizenship. If she really feels that Sweden is her home she should learn the language and become a citizen.
you didn’t need to know swedish to become a citizen until very recently
Knowing the language of the country you’re living in is just common sense
yeah i know, ive actually been learning swedish for the past few months cus i’ve thought of moving to sweden myself haha
just meant that it wasnt a requirement for like 90% of the time she lived in sweden
True, she could probably have gotten citizenship right after Brexit, since she had lived in Sweden for 15 years at that point. The rules were pretty lax back then (and now of course Sweden is over-correcting, because that’s just what you do).
Say that about Indians / Chinese in Canada and you get labelled a racist 😂
Wonder what they would say in this case where it’s all white people involved.
get labeled a racist by a tiny minority of chronically online idiots maybe, if you say that on the internet
i don’t think that’s a thing that the average person does anywhere, but what do i know, i don’t live in canada and can only speak for my country :D
Could have applied for citizenship, no?
“Authorities say application to stay was made too late”
Brexit feels like forever ago now. It is sad… But It’s not like she hasn’t had ages to do it.
Btw speaking as someone who HAD to do it myself.
Editing myself quickly. I really didn’t intean that to sound as aggressive. Especially with her age.
I think she didn’t know she needed to do that. Doesn’t matter how long you could have done something if you never knew about it.
I only skimmed the article earlier, I think it explains the whole situation if you’re interested.
I think she didn’t know she needed to do that.
Well, that’s on her then. Not knowing about laws does not make them not apply to you.
Brexit was decided 10 years ago. So 10 years to sort out the consequences of Brexit. What did she expect? That Brexit does not apply to her? Yet she never felt the need to apply for Swedish citizenship despite calling it her home for more than 20 years now?
Yes, it is a personal tragedy, but why now blame Sweden for something the British populace decided? And what could easily be avoided by her in the last 10 years?
Her husband, Gwynne, died in 2023 of cancer. It was on a trip back from the UK in 2022, when they visited their second son in Brighton, that they first learned they should have made a formal application to stay in Sweden after Brexit.
She said her husband had been meticulous at keeping up with news relevant to British people in Sweden and had taken responsibility for all the administration in their household. She was sure he would have made the Brexit application had he known about it.
While late applications are permissible under the UK’s withdrawal agreement with the EU, Thomas’s submission was rejected in 2024 as she could not demonstrate “reasonable grounds” for applying late. A subsequent application to stay under national immigration laws was also rejected.
As someone with ADHD and debilitating allergy to bureaucracy, I can’t help but relate. I see what you’re saying, of course, but I also know that it’s too damn hard to navigate this kind of crap and figure out exactly what paperwork you need to submit and to where. Things slip through the cracks, and some forgiveness should be afforded.
As someone with ADHD and debilitating allergy to bureaucracy, I can’t help but relate.
Sure. Yet you will still find ways to pay your taxes, apply for passports, obey the traffic rules, etc. You either fight through it yourself and/or have people around you helping with what is most difficult for you. It doesn’t mean these rules and obligations don’t apply to you.
It was on a trip back from the UK in 2022, when they visited their second son in Brighton, that they first learned they should have made a formal application to stay in Sweden after Brexit.
Honestly: how can you, after hearing/seeing Theresa May on all channels and newspapers in Europe year after year repeating her “Brexit means Brexit!!!” mantra, be under the impression for so long that this won’t affect you, a foreign national living abroad? Because they are British? Because Brexit would only mean they can’t come to us, while we are still free to go wherever we please? I can’t help to feel some amount of arrogance emanating from this.
She said her husband had been meticulous at keeping up with news relevant to British people in Sweden and had taken responsibility for all the administration in their household. She was sure he would have made the Brexit application had he known about it.
I mean, we aren’t in the 50s any more. She’s her own person and has her own responsibilities. Also, the article mentions a family (son + grandchildren) in Sweden, so they weren’t alone these last 10 years. That would be one of the first things I’d ask them as their son after the Brexit vote passed: mum, dad, have you sorted out your citizenship here? This is serious.
You come across as callous.
Sure. Yet you will still find ways to pay your taxes, apply for passports, obey the traffic rules, etc. You either fight through it yourself and/or have people around you helping with what is most difficult for you. It doesn’t mean these rules and obligations don’t apply to you.
ADHD people often don’t. That’s what makes it a disorder. Also “or have people around you helping with what is most difficult for you” do you mean like her husband who was dying of cancer? Perhaps that was greater in the forefront of her mind than bureaucracy that the state could easily have automated.
Grief does strange things to people, particularly so for long term partners.
If you still can’t grasp how administrative formalities can feel like a Herculean task to some I recommend watching this: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LCgHX5i6Ph4&t=2460s
She said her husband had been meticulous at keeping up with news relevant to British people in Sweden and had taken responsibility for all the administration in their household. She was sure he would have made the Brexit application had he known about it.
She did.
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It’s not that much of a surprise from the Swedish government. They collaborate and implement the politics of a party which considers you basically a foreign invader if you have two foreign born parents, a la the Replacement theory, and you are making the Swedish ethnicity impure. And yeah, I know replacement theory is commonly used to target non-whites and/or non-christians, but they produce replacement theory content where anyone with two foreign born parents are considered to replace Swedes (second generations are considered too, and they signal that they are worried about third generation impurities too). This is just Sweden now. Cruelty for anyone they consider impure.
Luckily the current coalition is down like 10% and the election is in three weeks.
That is good, but I highly doubt that the socdems will do anything about the state of things, since they adopted similar language and politics.
Fair point. They will at least try to look like they’re being humane while still “being responsible” but that’s about it.
Surprising would be if the laws were passed and not applied. This seems like just a government that works.
#NotEveryMunicipality
Immigration law is stupid exhibit 3001:
“…Simply stating that the person was unaware of the requirement to apply is not, in itself, considered a sufficient explanation.”
The question is then, were any attempts made at all to make people aware of this? On the face of it it just seems to be petty anger taken out on unsuspecting british people for brexit.
If you move to another country, it’s expected that you read up on the laws of the country you’re moving. It’s the same with driving a car to another country; the police or government will not stop you when you arrive to hand you the book, but it’s expected that you have read up on the rules. If you didn’t and you broke the law, there’s no excuse. It’s part of the del when you travel tot h country.
It is worth noting that the institutions that are supposed to know these things generally don’t, so if you’re seeking information you’ll often find it conflicting depending on where you look, and when you seek out information directly from a person, you’ll be met with a whole lot of shrugs.
The issue is that the law changed and the couple missed the news. I agree that ignorance of the law is not a legal excuse, but you try to give people some leniency…
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The issue is that the law changed and the couple missed the news.
I’d agree with you had Brexit been two months ago. But we’re talking 10 years here and I really (!) don’t understand at all how you possibly could have missed that news all the years.
This is not a small law that just happened to change without anyone realizing. This is brexit. And it happened 10 years ago to very big fanfare, and has been a hot topic even to this day.
Well maybe the deal is wrong then and important information does need to be communicated to people.
The question is then, were any attempts made at all to make people aware of this?
I don’t believe there is any European alive that is unaware of Brexit having happened.
I can’t find any information about this myself but I read somewhere they they should have gotten information somehow. I would guess a pamphlet in the mail or something.
I would be surprised if they didn’t get any information directly from the migration agency but even if they didn’t they have some own responsibility to think of the consequences of leaving the EU and actively seek out information.
Not at least calling the migration agency during the whole Brexit ordeal is quite bizarre considering that immigration was the main reason they left the EU to begin with.
