Speed Dating to help internationals stay

Two Student Unions want to trigger a political discussion by raising awareness on the immigration laws that create obstacles for non-EU students who want to stay in Sweden after graduation.

For that, they have decided to organise a speed dating where international and Swedish students will meet up.

Staying in Sweden after finishing the studies can be difficult for non-EU students if they are not employed. One of the few ways to be granted permission to stay in the country is by cohabiting and having a relationship with a Swedish person.

The current laws on this matter can create very inconvenient and somehow absurd situations, as Marjorie Spangler, one of the vice-presidents at the Samhällsvetarkåren, the Social Sciences Student Union, explains:

“We had a case ourselves in the Social Sciences Union, when a student had to move everything out of Sweden and just three months later moved everything back again, because she was accepted to a PhD position.”

Situations like this made people at the union think on a way to raise awareness on the issue. So they decided to organise a speed dating, in cooperation with the Teknologkåren, the student union from the LTH, on the 15th of February – one day after Valentine’s – where non-EU students can meet Swedish ones and, possibly, start a relationship:

“It’s a really big problem. So, we started thinking that this speed-dating could raise awareness. This initiative is a way to raise awareness and to put this question on the agenda, so politicians see that it actually is a problem”, says Elin Gustafsson, another vice-president at the union.

However, some aspects of the law are seen as positive:

“You have to prove to the authorities that you are in a serious relationship with a Swedish person, but you don’t have to be married, you can just live together in a ‘sambo’ status, and this is quite progressive”, says Marjorie Spangler.

But do they really want everyone to start a relationship right after the speed-dating on the 15^th?

Marjorie says no:  “The main idea is to raise awareness as a political issue, but if somebody happens to find somebody that would of course a wonderful action.”

“The headline is ‘love without borders’. It would be fantastic if somebody really found someone but the ground idea is to make a political question out of it in a different way”, states Elin.

The two vice-presidents disagree that the initiative will encourage illegal practices.

“It’s not our purpose to make people fake relationships and lead them to something illegal. The purpose is to make the politicians see that there are crazy laws and they have to change them. We can’t just have politicians who say that we have to have international, world-class universities, that are good to international students, but then they act completely differently. I think this will make more people understand how crazy the law actually is”, answers Elin Gustafsson.

“We want the law to be less rigid, so it doesn’t oblige a student to leave the country right after graduation. And this is just a kind of a provocative way of getting the message out and we are also inviting the Minister of Integration at the national level”, adds Marjorie Spangler.