Besides the UK and Ireland, Sweden were among the countries of the old EU member states that first opened their borders for migrant workers. Is there a Polish baby boom coming in Sweden as well? And how is it then received?

Report by Gabriel Stille

Sweden also opened its borders to migrant workers from the new EU countries in May 2004. But being a smaller country and, as it turned out, not as attractive, alarms about the downsides of labour migration have now vaned. In an infamous remark, Swedish Prime Minister at the time, Göran Persson, warned about “social tourism”, that migrants from new EU countries would come and put unproportional strain on the health care system – as is now being suggested by British tabloid Daily Mail. But the Swedish Parliament voted no to restrictions. And Sweden opened its borders.

As for the Polish community in Sweden today, Monika Szmigiel-Turlej, press secretary of the Polish Embassy in Stockholm, says there are no statistical data about Poles spending less than three months working in Sweden, but more about those staying longer.

'First I would like to point out that it is not possible to compare the situation in Sweden with for example that in Great Britain, because we are talking about a completely different scale. We judge that it may be an increase in about 10 % in the number of Poles in Sweden, in the years following the EU accession. It is a little hard to say how many children are born, but the Consulate in Stockholm sees an increase, now 60-70 % of the passports issued are for newborn children. It might be an estimate of five hundred Polish children born in Sweden this year. And the Polish School in Stockholm has seen a 20 % increase in pupils.'

There are thriving Polish communities in Sweden, most notably in Stockholm, and Malmö in the south. As previously reported by Polish Radio External Service, the autorities cooperates with the Polish community to greet the newcomers. In Malmö, fifteen Polish associatons cooperate to greet the newcomers. Robert Sadokierski from the Polonica Catholic Youth Club in Malmo:

'The most important thing is that the Polish community here, which has existed for a long time, is open to receive the newcomers, both children and adults. You can see that many who have come here are already doing quite well, as whole families and not just the guy who is working, has come.'

As for how Swedish authorities are treating Polish families and children, neither the Embassy nor the Polish associations of Malmö have any complains.