A few weeks before arriving in Stockholm, I learned that one of my dear girl friend's cousin had moved to Malmö to cohabit with his Swedish girlfriend only a few months before. He, like myself, is a Californian.
Innocent coincidence.
Yesterday, I began chatting with the girl helping C pick out a pair of rock climbing shoes. As it turns out, I learn that her boyfriend is from California and is about to move to Sweden.
MIGRATIONSVERKET! I exclaimed in a sudden burst of camaraderie. The exhausted smile on her face confirmed that she is all too familiar with the pleasure of dealing with the paperwork and headache that comes with establishing a residency permit for her partner. C and I parted ways after leaving the store as I had a meeting on the other side of town with an alumna I had discovered through my undergraduate college's online directory. I knew nothing about her prior to meeting aside from the degree she earned at school and her current residence in Stockholm. A half-hour into our conversation, she revealed to me that not only is she from California (our school was not in California) but also that she moved to Stockholm 9 years ago to live with her Swedish partner.
So what exactly is going on here?
Are Californians and Swedes disproportionately attracted to one another?
If so, is it due to their common liberal values or merely the average of their hours spent in sunlight?
By what magic do Swedes persuade Californians to so readily trade their sunny, happy, produce-yielding microclimate for the notorious 9 months of the year when Sweden is not exactly...how you say...warm?
Why don't sun-seeking Swedes use above mentioned magic to secure a charmed life of 25C plus?
I can't be sure.
Probably because you'd have a snowball's chance in hell of US immigration allowing international couples to live happily ever after...in sin.
Unless you decide to get married, I do not see how it would be feasible for Swedes to relocate to the States to live and work while cohabiting with their American partners. It is very, very, very difficult to obtain a work visa or permanent residency otherwise. I suppose that a student visa would be the easiest prenuptial route except that I'm not sure I would trust a Swede who voluntarily enters educational debt and relinquishes highly subsidized healthcare.
Of course, there are significant pros and cons to living in either country.
But all this still does not account for the California----Sweden love connection.
This, however, might.
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