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LISTEN: Work permit holders appeal to Sweden to let them stay

In this week's episode: Foxtrot leader reportedly arrested in Iran, Swedish reaction to Israel-Hamas war, and lots of reaction to Sweden's new pay threshold for work permits.

Published: 14 October 2023 09:13 CEST
Updated: 16 October 2023 06:13 CEST
Sweden in Focus
Sweden in Focus. A podcast by The Local. Image: The Local

Host Paul O’Mahony is joined by The Local’s James Savage and Becky Waterton, and this week’s guest, Sweden’s former education minister Anna Ekström, who also has a background as a labour law lawyer.  

Here are links to some of the stories we discuss this week:

Gang crime

Israel-Hamas war

Work permits

Listeners in Sweden seeking support about mental health about can contact mental health awareness organization Mind or call Sweden’s national health hotline 1177 for help in English.

You can follow Sweden in Focus and listen to the episode on our podcast page. 

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Alternatively, you can search for Sweden in Focus wherever you listen to podcasts. 

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SWEDISH TRADITIONS

Why is Pentecost not a public holiday in Sweden?

Danes and Norwegians will get to enjoy three days off this weekend because of Pentecost and Whit Monday. But not Swedes. Why?

Published: 17 May 2024 10:17 CEST
Why is Pentecost not a public holiday in Sweden?

Whit Monday, also known as Pentecost Monday (or annandag pingst in Swedish), falls on the day after Pentecost Sunday, marking the seventh Sunday after Easter.

It is a time when Christians commemorate the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples of Jesus, an event described in the Bible.

It was long a public holiday in Sweden, a country which is very secular today but where the old religious holidays still live on. In fact, up until 1772, the third and fourth day of Pentecost were also holidays.

In 2005, Whit Monday also got the boot, when it was replaced by National Day on June 6th. The Social Democrat prime minister at the time, Göran Persson, saw the opportunity to combine calls for National Day to get a higher status in Sweden with increasing work hours.

The inquiry into scrapping Whit Monday as a public holiday looked into May 1st, Ascension Day or Epiphany as alternative victims of the axe, but in the end made its decision after “all churches and faith associations in Sweden agree that Whit Monday is the least bad church holiday to remove”.

Because Whit Monday always falls on a Monday, whereas June 6th some years falls on a Saturday or Sunday, this means that Swedish workers don’t always get an extra day off for National Day.

This is still a source of bitterness for many Swedes.

And so it came to pass in those days, that apart from the occasional grumbling about Göran Persson, Whit Monday now passes by largely unnoticed to most people in Sweden. Unless they are active church-goers, or go to Norway or Denmark, where it’s still a public holiday.

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