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OPINION AND ANALYSIS

‘I’m not a quitter, but what have I done to deserve this?’

Zeeshan Khan from Pakistan works in Sweden, is married to a Swede and has a young daughter. But the long wait to find out if he may stay in Sweden is taking its toll.

Published: 31 January 2017 06:59 CET
'I'm not a quitter, but what have I done to deserve this?'
Zeeshan Khan with his wife and daughter. Photo: Private

My name is Zeeshan Khan and I'm from Pakistan. I came to study in Sweden on August 24th, 2009. I work in IT as a project manager – I started in April 2012 and have been working since. I pay my bills on time, I pay my taxes on time, I have no credit history nor any criminal record. I don't even have a parking ticket to my name.

I am married to a Swedish girl and we have been living together since October 2012. We have a kid together, a two-year-old girl.

In January 2015 I applied for citizenship, but after eight months of waiting my application got rejected on technicalities.

I took the decision to the Migration Court and they rejected my application too, by saying I need to have a permanent residence permit prior to citizenship.

I tried to explain myself that I applied for citizenship since at the time the Migration Agency website said if you are married or living with a European citizen for two years you are allowed to apply for citizenship. But they never mentioned that EU citizen means a citizen who is not a Swedish national.

I got a letter from court saying that I need to have a permanent residence permit before the citizenship, but they did not want to comment on the points that I raised, in fact the letter said nothing about the points that I raised to court.

I called the judge to discuss this situation and the judge said on the phone that yeah, this is confusing and misleading, but this is not our problem. I talked to the Migration Agency and they said yes, this is misleading, but we can't do anything about it, the law is the law and this is what it is.

I saw no way out and in the end I had to apply for residence permit. I was frustrated, so frustrated that I thought that I chose the wrong country to start a family, where interpretation of the law is based on person to person and laws are made to annoy people who help the society with their efforts.

It has now been 14 months since I applied for a residence permit, 24 months since I applied for citizenship. All this time, I have been waiting for a decision. I haven't seen my family in years, my parents are old, they are not very healthy and sometimes they cry on the phone. They miss me and so do I, frustrated that I can't do anything about it. I can't do my job properly either, sometimes I need to travel outside Sweden for work but I can't do that, thanks to the Migration Agency for screwing my personal and professional life.

I'm not an 'I quit' person. I tried my best and am still trying to get through this. I try to call people at the Migration Agency to help me out. Unfortunately most of them don't care, on vacation, never pick up the phone, or too busy fixing asylum cases or having fika, I don't know… but what have I done to deserve this?

I work harder than an average Swede, I earn more than an average Swede. I pay more taxes than an average Swede, but when it comes to treatment I have been treated like someone who doesn't matter, whose effort doesn't count, whose opinion doesn't matter and most of all, his money is all we care about.

Today you can pay and approve your tax declaration by an SMS in Sweden. When the government needs money from our pockets they have a state-of-the-art system to do that, everything is so convenient and super fast. But when it comes to helping their tax payer they have answers like we have so much to do, we are busy, can't answer calls, send a letter by the post, we are busy, you have to wait in the queue where the waiting time is years, we can't do anything if your parents are sick, we can't do anything if you lose your job, we can't do anything if your wife and daughter have never met your parents.

What have I done to hear this?

The government doesn't have money and resources to solve my crises? But they have money to finance a royal wedding? They have money for everything else?

I spoke to the Migration Agency last week again and the answer was that I have to wait one more year. I'm frustrated and emotionally unstable, I try to start every day as a normal day but it is hard and it doesn't get better. Every week I try to call the Migration Agency, sometimes I wait on the phone for hours just to hear “WE CAN'T DO ANYTHING”.

This opinion piece was written for The Local by Zeeshan Khan.

FOOD AND DRINK

OPINION: Are tips in Sweden becoming the norm?

Should you tip in Sweden? Habits are changing fast thanks to new technology and a hard-pressed restaurant trade, writes James Savage.

Published: 5 April 2024 13:59 CEST
OPINION: Are tips in Sweden becoming the norm?

The Local’s guide to tipping in Sweden is clear: tip for good service if you want to, but don’t feel the pressure: where servers in the US, for instance, rely on tips to live, waiters in Sweden have collectively bargained salaries with long vacations and generous benefits. 

But there are signs that this is changing, and the change is being accelerated by card machines. Now, many machines offer three preset gratuity percentages, usually starting with five percent and going up to fifteen or twenty. Previously they just asked the customer to fill in the total amount they wanted to pay.

This subtle change to a user interface sends a not-so-subtle message to customers: that tipping is expected and that most people are probably doing it. The button for not tipping is either a large-lettered ‘No Tip’ or a more subtle ‘Fortsätt’ or ‘Continue’ (it turns out you can continue without selecting a tip amount, but it’s not immediately clear to the user). 

I’ll confess, when I was first presented with this I was mildly irked: I usually tip if I’ve had table service, but waiting staff are treated as professionals and paid properly, guaranteed by deals with unions; menu prices are correspondingly high. The tip was a genuine token of appreciation.

But when I tweeted something to this effect (a tweet that went strangely viral), the responses I got made me think. Many people pointed out that the restaurant trade in Sweden is under enormous pressure, with rising costs, the after-effects of Covid and difficulties recruiting. And as Sweden has become more cosmopolitain, adding ten percent to the bill comes naturally to many.

Boulebar, a restaurant and bar chain with branches around Sweden and Denmark, had a longstanding policy of not accepting tips at all, reasoning that they were outdated and put diners in an uncomfortable position. But in 2021 CEO Henrik Kruse decided to change tack:

“It was a purely financial decision. We were under pressure due to Covid, and we had to keep wages down, so bringing back tips was the solution,” he said, adding that he has a collective agreement and staff also get a union bargained salary, before tips.

Yet for Kruse the new machines, with their pre-set tipping percentages, take things too far:

“We don’t use it, because it makes it even clearer that you’re asking for money. The guest should feel free not to tip. It’s more important for us that the guest feels free to tell people they’re satisfied.”

But for those restaurants that have adopted the new interfaces, the effect has been dramatic. Card processing company Kassacentralen, which was one of the first to launch this feature in Sweden, told Svenska Dagbladet this week that the feature had led to tips for the average establishment doubling, with some places seeing them rise six-fold.

Even unions are relaxed about tipping these days, perhaps understanding that they’re a significant extra income for their members. Union representatives have often in the past spoken out against tipping, arguing that the practice is demeaning to staff and that tips were spread unevenly, with staff in cafés or fast food joints getting nothing at all. But when I called the Swedish Hotel and Restaurant Union (HRF), a spokesman said that the union had no view on the practice, and it was a matter for staff, business owners and customers to decide.

So is tipping now expected in Sweden? The old advice probably still stands; waiters are still not as reliant on tips as staff in many other countries, so a lavish tip is not necessary. But as Swedes start to tip more generously, you might stick out if you leave nothing at all.

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