Erin Cory, a senior lecturer at Malmö University, was still living in Denmark when she started working at the university, and the university’s human resources department mistakenly believed that she did not require a work permit. 

The department managed her salary and tax payments according to the deal between Denmark and Sweden, but did not ask her to apply for a work permit.

According to court documents seen by The Local, university staff said they assumed that Erin was a Danish citizen because she lived in Denmark and was married to a Dane, although she had submitted her US passport during the recruitment process.

While Danes and other EU nationals do not need a work permit to work in Sweden, as a third country national Erin did need one, but when she asked her university if there was anything she needed to do, she says she was told that there wasn’t.

It was only when she gained a permanent position as a senior lecturer, decided to move to Sweden and applied for residency that she discovered that she had been working without the required permit.

Earlier this month, the Court of Migration ruled that she had been negligent in not checking that the university was correct, finding her guilty of a crime under Swedish immigration law. She was ordered to pay fines totalling 20,000 kronor as well as further legal fees.

“Erin Cory could easily have checked whether a work permit was required, by, for example, checking the website of the Swedish Migration Agency,” the judgement read.

“This means that Erin Cory has been negligent. This judgement is not affected by the fact that the university gave reassurances, and also not by the fact that it is the responsibility of an employer to cooperate on work permit applications.”

Cory told The Local that the fines and legal fees would “take me well up over a month’s pay”.

“What’s mystifying to me is that the university is a state institution, so basically, the state is saying, ‘you trusted the state, you shouldn’t have trusted the state, and so now the state is going to punish you’. It’s confusing logic,” she added.

Cory’s friends organised a crowdfunding campaign to cover the fees, which on Wednesday raised 51,918 kronor, well ahead of the 40,000 kronor target, meaning she will at least not be out of pocket. She plans to donate any remainder to a Malmö cultural centre and an organisation supporting foreigners who face work permit issues.

Several of the HR staff and management at Malmö University have already been found negligent, and Cory said that the university had been helpful, even though they have not offered her help with legal fees. 

“To be honest with you, my communication with the Dean and the Vice-Chancellor has been fantastic, they’ve been as supportive as they can be, within the parameters of what they are legally able to do,” she said. 

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But she said she now feared that she might face problems when extending her work permit this autumn, because the issue will show up on her file.

“Highly skilled labourers in Sweden get deported all the time for mistakes on the part of their employers,” she said. “I am concerned about what this will mean for my work life and personal life in the long run.”

Cory was living in Denmark and teaching part-time at a Danish university when she was offered a post-doc position in Malmö in Refugee Migration and Media Studies in 2017. When she later received a permanent position and decided to move to Sweden, the problem of her missing permit was discovered. She then had to take leave from her lecturing at Malmö while she tried to get residency in Sweden, which she eventually did in early 2019. 

In 2018 she was called to the police station in Malmö for an interview. The following year, unbeknownst to her, the university was fined for negligence. It was only in November last year when she received a court summons, that she realised that she herself might also risk punishment. 

She is now worried about the consequences if she loses her Swedish residency and is forced to return to the US.

“I would hate to lose my job because I am passionate about my field, and feel I have ended up in exactly the kind of department I would like to work in for the rest of my career,” she told The Local.

“If the verdict affects my ability to work and live in Sweden, I also risk being separated from my daughter, who is almost six. The idea of being forced to live apart from her is absolutely unbearable.”

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