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181
British widow, 78, told to leave Sweden under Brexit rules after living there for 21 years (www.theguardian.com)
submitted 2 weeks ago by Pip@feddit.org to c/europe@feddit.org
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[–] gedfromgont@piefed.ca 87 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

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.

[–] starlinguk@lemmy.world 25 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

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".

[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 4 points 1 week ago

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.

[–] birdwing@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 1 week ago

And then also surprisingly tone down the news about overworked employees there a lot.

[–] KyuubiNoKitsune@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 1 week ago

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.

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[–] Undvik@fedia.io 45 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

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.

[–] NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io 21 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

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.

[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 13 points 2 weeks ago

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.

[–] Quittenbrot@feddit.org 10 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

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.

[–] NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io 9 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

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.

[–] BigPotato@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago (4 children)

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.

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[–] Quittenbrot@feddit.org 4 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

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.

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[–] jenesaisquoi@feddit.org 10 points 1 week ago (8 children)

well maybe the rules are wrong

You are correct, Brexit is wrong.

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[–] Dojan@pawb.social 7 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] starlinguk@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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 😒.

[–] Dojan@pawb.social 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

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.

[–] cynar@lemmy.world 13 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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.

[–] NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io 11 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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.

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[–] jenesaisquoi@feddit.org 6 points 1 week ago

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.

[–] Waterpumpee@lemmus.org 21 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

Could have applied for citizenship, no?

[–] NeatNit@discuss.tchncs.de 25 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

"Authorities say application to stay was made too late"

[–] Setiyeti93@lemmy.ca 22 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] NeatNit@discuss.tchncs.de 11 points 2 weeks ago (6 children)

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.

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[–] snoons@lemmy.ca 9 points 2 weeks ago

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.

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[–] olafurp@lemmy.world 13 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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.

[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Parliament could have

Politicians aren't known for caring much about the plebs

[–] olafurp@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Nordic countries are known for at least making an effort

[–] SyntaxError@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

We have a right wing government depending on the support of a far right party currently, they don't give a fuck.

[–] Malyca@lemmy.zip 12 points 1 week ago (3 children)

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.

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[–] some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 7 points 1 week ago (2 children)

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.

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[–] mumblerfish@lemmy.world 7 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

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.

[–] MirrorGiraffe@piefed.social 6 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Luckily the current coalition is down like 10% and the election is in three weeks.

[–] mumblerfish@lemmy.world 8 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

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.

[–] MirrorGiraffe@piefed.social 5 points 2 weeks ago

Fair point. They will at least try to look like they're being humane while still "being responsible" but that's about it.

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[–] Boingboing_r@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago

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.

[–] NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io 5 points 2 weeks ago

Immigration law is stupid exhibit 3001:

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