Tyvärr. This single Swedish word, which roughly translates as “ regrettably ” or “ too bad ” and always follows bad news, reprised Irina Davydova’s first time trying to find work after moving to Sweden from her home country, Kazakhstan.
Sat in the bustling canteen of a gaudyco-working office complex, it’s hard to believe that the polite, eloquent Scripture confidently making small- talk with the kitchen staff had lost all stopgap of chancing a job just two times before.
In 2019, Irina left a high- flying job as the particular adjunct to the Qatari minister in Kazakhstan and moved to Halmstad, a small megacity on the graphic southwest seacoast of Sweden, to live with a Palestinian- Swedish man she had met online. The couple had married a many months before in her home vill of Korday, 10 km(6.2 long hauls) from Almaty, the largest megacity in Kazakhstan.
She had enjoyed her first many weeks in Sweden, relaxing and getting to know her in- laws, exercising their Levantine shoptalk, which differed from the standard Arabic she had learned at university.
Still, the love of summer soon faded, and the long warm days gave way to the dark, cold and slate reality of Swedish downtime. Her hubby, who felt the full weight of financially supporting his whole family, would regularly work overtime, and she saw little of the “ fascinating ” and “ mysterious ” man she had fallen in love with.
Meanwhile, her in- laws, although they were drinking , would frequently have guests over and as talk centred around cousins and musketeers from before their life in Sweden, Irina grew sick of the conversations.
To fight the tedium, she began to break up her daily grocery shopping into diurnal jaunts just so she could have commodity to do and an occasion to make small talk with the cashiers and supermarket staff.
Irina, a talented linguist, formerly fluent in Russian, Kazakh, Arabic and English, was eager to embrace Swedish culture and was looking forward to starting “ Swedish for emigrants ”( SFI), a free public Swedish language course. But after staying months to begin, the COVID- 19 epidemic struck and classes were moved online, leaving Irina with no chance to meet anyone through studies.
Rather, she threw everything into getting a job, diligently filling out operation forms and transferring her capsule to hundreds of companies for places ranging from a cashier at the supermarket LIDL to restatement divisions, only to meet radio silence or the dreaded, “ Tyvärr ”.
Studies have indicated that people in Sweden with foreign names admit mainly smaller positive responses to their job operations than those with generally Swedish names.
These rejections also revealed an uncomfortable reality Halmstad, like utmost of Sweden, was a deeply segregated society.
In Andersberg, the neighbourhood where Irina and her in- laws lived, utmost residers are of either Arab or Kurdish origin, and Irina said her attempts to speak with Swedes at the machine stop had generally ended with them simply moving down from her.
The innumerous job rejections and cold shoulders had left Irina bored, withdrawn and depressed.
“ With time, it came delicate to meet people, which might sound strange, but I got used to staying at home, cuisine and cleaning, ” she said.
Also, in October 2020, everything changed. At a women- only networking lunch organised by WOW, a nonprofit organisation that promotes professional and social addition by bringing together Swedish employers with women who have migrated to Sweden and are presently seeking employment, she met Jenny Bänsch Larsson, a gregarious 52- time-old former hotelier who works for WOW, and who she now fondly refers to as her “ Swedish mum ”.
‘ Anything for family ’
Jenny laughed as she recalled her first prints of Irina; “ she was veritably quiet, she did n’t smile, and we did n’t connect ”. She was latterly assigned as a tutor to help Irina find employment, but she admitted to a coworker that she couldn’t “ get a grasp of Irina’s character ” as she had been so quiet and reticent to engage in exchanges.
Irina flashed a knowing smile as Jenny described their first meeting, adding that months of rejection had left her sceptical that they would be suitable to find her work. In fact, she had heard about the lunches through SFI eight months before, but had chosen not to go. In the end, a Lebanese classmate induced her to give it a pass.
She described a meeting of two women at two different points in their life. Jenny, a robustious woman who had secured fiscal security after dealing a hostel sheco-owned, and Irina, despairing and disillusioned after a time of rejections.
Irina recalled Jenny asking her, “ What delightful effects do you like to do? ” to which she responded, “ I do n’t know ”.
Jenny leaned over and held Irina’s hand in hers, “ But also when we spoke again, I realised she was a star, she had the stylish grades( from her academy and university in Kazakhstan) in everything and a lovely personality. ”
It was the launch of a flourishing fellowship that, over dozens of online meetings and Swedish “ fikas ” – a tradition in which people take time out of their day to make small talk over a coffee or a snack, frequently in the form of a cinnamon bun – would develop into an unshakeable bond.
“ I’ll leave everything in one alternate if she needs me. You do anything for your family, ” Jenny said forcefully.
When Jenny was 21, interest rates were low and securing a loan was less delicate than it’s moment. Along with a couple of musketeers, Jenny snapped up the occasion to buy one of Halmstad’s main hospices. Over further than 20 times, they turned the structure, with its elegant red- slipup gothic armature unique to the northern European metropolises that lined the old Hanseatic trading route, into a thriving business. When Jenny ultimately vended her share in the hostel, she was determined to throw her energy into commodity meaningful.
Gregarious and open to meeting people from anywhere, two characteristics which she said aren’t generally Swedish, she had long believed in the better integration of settlers into the plant and says she set up her calling working at WOW.
While guiding Irina through thenon-profit’s seven- step programme, it actualized on her that Irina should work with them.
Until they could raise enough finances to employ her, Irina donated to help at their services. “ The first three months or so, I just hung out with you, did whatever you were doing, ” Irina said to Jenny, “ you all gave me this stopgap and energy. I felt like I was commodity again. ”
‘ Like food without swab ’
On November 10, 2020, Irina turned 30. Her hubby was working late that day and with no birthday plans, she slipped into her pyjamas and was preparing for an early night when the doorbell chimed.
At the door were Jenny and several other women, carrying champagne bottles and raring to take her out on the city.
“ I still flash back your face; you were so surprised; no bone should be at home on their 30th! So we took you out to a eatery and had such a great time, ” Jenny recalled.
In Irina’s two native languages, some expressions describe the significance of fellowship; in Kazakh, you can say, “ A person without a friend is like food without swab, ” and in Russian, “ There’s no happiness without fellowship ”.
It’s a sentiment that Irina stands by. She can easily see in hindsight how her lack of fellowship during her first time in Sweden left her bereft of confidence and happiness.
It was n’t long ahead WOW had raised enough finances to employ Irina part- time. She threw herself into the work.
But it was during this time that Irina suffered a confinement, a deeply traumatic experience. “ I was veritably sad, so I opened up to Jenny, and she helped me to realise this isn’t the end, ” she said.
“ It’s happed to me too, ” said Jenny, “ it happens to lots of women, I told her you’ll get through this, but of course, there were a lot of gashes. ”
Although the confinement was emotionally distressing for Irina and her hubby, she says she did n’t feel he was “ there when I demanded him ”. “ This affected our relationship, ” she explained with a abnegated tone.
“ My hubby’s family were automatically by his side, but I was then alone; he was girdled by cousins. ”
Irina understood that her hubby was also under an enormous quantum of fiscal stress. “ Sweden isn’t cheap, and when he arrived then( from Syria, where his family had moved when he was youthful) he could n’t find a job pressman to his position of education, so he took whatever he could find and had to work a lot to earn enough to support his family, ” she said. Before Irina moved to Sweden, he’d rented a larger, more precious flat to accommodate her and was obliged to show the Swedish migration office that he’d supernumerary fiscal finances to support Irina for her to be allowed to stay in the country.
Neither Irina nor her hubby had anticipated their new life together to be so delicate, and the relationship encountered problems. Out of respect for her hubby and his family, and because Halmstad is a small megacity where people talk, Irina didn’t want to expose farther details.
But during Irina’s troubles, Jenny took her to one of Halmstad’s popular windswept flaxen strands looking out over the North Sea, and only a five- nanosecond bike lift from her home in Andersberg.
“ Can you believe I did n’t indeed know there was a sand near me after a whole time? ” Irina asked. “ I was really in a bubble. ”
For Jenny, spending time with Irina was also a welcome occasion to learn about a new culture. She stressed the fact that Irina always tries to financially support her parents and how people in Kazakhstan happily live with and look after their aged cousins as a particularly beautiful aspect of Kazakh culture. These family values are commodity that Jenny explains aren’t so current in Sweden, where the state provides home nursing care for the senior.
On the other hand, Irina has embraced the Swedish gleeful traditions, spending Christmas with Jenny’s family. Irina’s eyes lit up as she recalled the Julbord. This traditional seven- course Swedish Christmas feast frequently includes dried whitefish, ham, hot- canine- type bangers and a selection of crapola. It was an experience that drew Irina closer to Jenny but also to Jenny’s mama , who she now refers to as her Swedish grandmother.
Jenny is unwavering in her belief that learning about each other’s societies is essential to more integration and is the driving principle behind their networking events – which are attended by an indeed split of Swedish women and women of indigenous backgrounds.
The lunches will generally concentrate on a subject that actors will bandy in lively rout sessions. Irina said in these spaces, Swedes who aren’t used to robotic relations with nonnatives are more “ emotionally set ” to socialise with people from different backgrounds.
“ It’s veritably important to break the walls – you have so numerous exemplifications like Irina and me – when you meet someone, also effects begin to be, ” Jenny says.
A resemblant society
Irina wasn’t alone in her struggle to find work in Sweden. Jenny said that she met numerous women who felt rejected and disabused by the Swedish employment system.
“ The problem is the same for everyone; we can have a woman who has fled war and only completed six times of academy or a woman with two degrees from a university in Japan; it’s the same struggle. How can it be that delicate in Sweden ” she said in an irritated tone.
Irina explained that constant rejection can leave women in a curl of tone- mistrustfulness and a feeling that they aren’t a part of mainstream society “ I allowed, what’s wrong with me? I ca n’t give anything to this world. I’m empty. occasionally I would lie in bed at 3 am awake with no energy and no positive vibes.”
Jenny jounced in agreement. “ We all need energy from someone to feel accepted; who can tell you, you can do this! ”
Four months into her part- time work, an IT company headhunted Irina and offered her a part- time job. also, in the summer of 2022, they coddled her for good, offering a full- time contract. “ Of course, I’m so proud she has this job, but I miss her, ” Jenny said as she pulled Irina in for a clinch.