Hej, 

When I was on maternity leave a couple of years ago, my two-month-old and I once met up with my colleagues at The Local, Becky and Richard, for lunch. 

It was right around the time of Swedish high school graduation, when students travel around the city on the back of trucks, loudly celebrating the end of school, so I struggled to get her to nap, despite bouncing her up and down.

I suddenly noticed Richard doing “the sympathy bounce” next to me, which I had already done myself on a few occasions. It’s deeply rooted in parents, a subconscious bending and straightening of the knees as soon as you hear a crying baby, regardless of whether or not you’re holding it in your arms.

That was one of the things Richard did not mention in his article this week about the things he still carries with him from parental leave 12 years ago.

Sweden’s gender-neutral parental leave celebrates its 50th anniversary this year (before 1974 it was only available to mothers, which is still the case in a lot of countries), and according to Richard, the six months each he took off to look after his children changed him more than anything else in his life.

What do you think? We’re running a reader survey at the moment, asking fathers about their experience of Sweden’s parental leave. I’m also interested in hearing from mothers – do you feel your partner took a fair share of parental leave, and how did that affect your family, relationship and careers?

In other news

Sweden’s government has decided to cut the monthly salary needed to qualify for an EU Blue Card by about 10,000 kronor per month, as it brings the EU’s new Blue Card Directive into Swedish law.

The Swedish government’s own inquiry, asked to find ways to make more immigrants return voluntarily to their countries of origin, came to the surprise conclusion this week that “no such methods can be found“.

Sweden’s inflation rate was slightly higher than expected last month. But it’s still below the central bank’s target, so we’re still expecting the Riksbank to next week cut the country’s main interest rate, the so-called policy rate.

The economist tasked with proposing a system for financing new nuclear power stations in Sweden was unexpectedly frank and up front about the costs and risks involved. Richard looks at how this is changing the debate.

Sweden doesn’t yet have a citizenship test to check prospective citizens are informed on Swedish society and culture, but that could change. We adapted some real questions from Denmark’s citizenship test. Can you answer them?

We continued our short series this week about layoffs and employment in Sweden. Here are five things you should do right away if you’re facing layoff. Work permit holders who lose their job have three months to find a new job – difficult, but not impossible. Here’s how to find a job in three months.

Foreigners arriving in Sweden get advised to join a club or association to help make friends and get integrated. But how open is Sweden’s famous föreningsliv for foreigners? The Local spoke to researcher Niklas Hill.

We also asked The Local’s readers for their best tips on how to find friends in Sweden, so if you’re a Membership+ subscriber, listen to them on this week’s mid-week episode of Sweden in Focus Extra.

Thanks for reading and have a good weekend!

Best wishes,

Emma

Inside Sweden is our weekly newsletter for members which gives you news, analysis and, sometimes, takes you behind the scenes at The Local. It’s published each Saturday and with Membership+ you can also receive it directly to your inbox.