Sweden is a foreign country

For some time now, I have pondered why do Swedish people in Skövde not look Swedish at all? There are faces alluding to various exotic origins - Indian, African, Chinese, Arab, South American, Central European; as opposed to those who can be associated with typical Swedish – blond hair, blue eyes – very Nordic, very cold. It seems like among young Swedes names like Rodrigo, Jorge and Asat appear just as frequently as Björn or Lars. Everytime I meet someone new, coming from Sweden but looking foreign, I have to make an effort to remember their name because of it’s novelty to me.

Another element of surprise. Someone with unlikely local features having a typical Swedish name - happens here all the time! That must be the integration in second (or third) generation; outsiders becoming insiders. One of my Swedish-foreign friends said: “Why not give a baby a typical Swedish name, might help him get a better job in the future”. Now that I come to think of it, I am myself one of those in Finland - having a seemingly local name but the facial features not quite fitting the familiar type. Rather confusing from the perspective of a common Finn.

And it’s not just Skövde, after a while I came to the conclusion - it’s Sweden. According to the official country statistics, 16 percent of Swedish population are either foreign born or have both foreign born parents. That’s one and a half million people of non Swedish descendants. No wonder the poor Swedes (the blond ones) grill themselves in solariums to the extent of health hazard - they are just trying to fit in!

It is therefore a logical consequence that a fair part of Swedish look foreign and the concepts such as ‘Swedish-Turkish’ or ‘Swedish-Chilenian’ have entered the common use of the everyday spoken language. Sweden has transformed its face, it has become multinational, with many of its inhabitants being untrackable based solely on looks. Sweden evolved into a cameleon country.

If this doesn’t convince you, watch some tv - there are actually commercials on the national television in bad Swedish, assumingly targeting the foreign share of the population. The first time I saw the latest IKEA commercial, I had to stop and think whether that was in Swedish at all. Maybe the Swedes had to think too.