Stockholm - Post Report Question and Answers
What is the relative size of the expatriate community? How would you describe overall morale among expatriates?
The expat community isn't as large as you would think. Morale fluctuates as the darkness impacts everyone's moods and the quirks of working with Swedes can impact one's sense of professional satisfaction. - Dec 2020
Morale is fine. Lack of coordinated social scene makes it tough to find your friend group, but overall there is enough to do in and around town that people find their groove. It's a medium-sized embassy, so folks do hang out after hours but not a ton. - Sep 2020
Good sized. People are relatively upbeat, but sometimes get irritated with Sweden's love for rules, that you don't know about until you've violated one. - May 2020
The embassy community is small, and smaller still if you don't have children. Morale varies family to family, but people tend to go through some version of the winter blues at some point. It's easy to feel isolated here, but with some effort, it's possible to find connection within the community. - Jan 2017
The expat community is huge, but doesn't really interact much, as the majority of expats are married to Swedes and very immersed in the local culture. The embassy community tries a bit, but people mostly scatter and do their own thing. (Typical for Europe, as you don't really need the embassy community for social interactions). - May 2015
Not too many people here are really expats other than embassy people (the highly educated, English-speaking Swedish workforce, combined with the extremely high price of living in Sweden make the idea of sending expats to come work here not worth it to most companies). There are a fair number of "love refugees" - Americans and others who met Swedes, fell in love, and decided to come live here with them. Morale is a mixed bag here. Everyone agrees that it's a nice country, but the expense, the weather, the lack of affordable help and the insularity of Swedish society are downers. - Aug 2014
Large. - Oct 2008
Huge. Endless. Lots of Americans married to Swedes. Lots of Eriksson and Citibank expats. Almost every Swede has a relative in the US. - Aug 2008
