Sweden is a strange country with many peculiar traditions that have always fascinated me. We love to sit outside in the cold and embrace the warmth of the sun. We queue as if it were an Olympic sport, yet we’ll happily let you cut in at the checkout if you only have one or two small items. We write angry notes to each other in the stairwell instead of saying things face to face. We celebrate every holiday with pickled herring, ”must” (a sweet, non-alcoholic drink), and two halved eggs. And when we visit our old people and drink coffee together, they for some strange reason always put out five cookies when we are four people.
I’m a second-generation immigrant with an Austrian surname, but I was born here, this is my country. Sweden has always been a land of people who came from somewhere else. When the ice melted after the Ice Age, the first humans wandered in. Over time, groups like Svear, Götar, and Sámi formed. Later came waves of Finns, Germans, Afghans, and many others, people with unfamiliar surnames, different languages, histories, and cultures.
When I was young, waving a Swedish flag could get you labeled a racist. But it’s not just racists who love this country. There is another Sweden, one that does not see immigrants as a problem to be deported. In fact, few things make Swedes happier than inviting newcomers into our strange land and our strange customs.
I’ve lost count of how many times abroad I’ve said, ”In Sweden we…” and then enthusiastically explained something bizarre that we’re secretly proud of. ”In Sweden we eat fermented fish in the summer. It smells like vomit but tastes amazing!” (That’s ”surströmming”, our famous delicacy.) Or when foreigners are shocked by our cold summers, we eagerly describe our wonderful winters. We complain when it’s only 10°C in the summer, yet we happily take off our jackets and bask in the sun at –10°C in the ”spring-winter”, our fifth season.
We love it when new people join our weirdness. Nothing makes a Swede prouder than seeing someone from another country embrace our odd traditions, we almost burst with pride. You could almost call it an initiation ritual. It doesn’t matter whether you’re from Austria, Finland, or Iran. Eat surströmming? You’re one of us. Complain about the chilly summer but enjoy the winter sunshine? One of us. Say the magic word ”fika” while drinking coffee and eating a ”semla” (a cream-filled bun)? Definitely one of us.
Integration is about give and take. Swedes are famously conflict-averse; disagreement makes us deeply uncomfortable. We often twist ourselves into knots insisting that ”actually, we basically agree” just to preserve harmony. We don’t like it when someone disrupts the quiet consensus or stands out too much. Instead, we stay silent, clench our fists in our pockets, and mutter to ourselves.
But sometimes even Swedes have to react. Sometimes we reach a point where we can no longer stay quiet.
For me, that moment is now.
When I see my country doing something so profoundly un-Swedish as deporting people who have become part of us, people who bake homemade semlor, eat pickled herring, go to church on Sundays, work in shortage occupations, pay taxes, speak Swedish, have bought their own homes, and have children born here. Sweden has gone so far that it is deporting people with Swedish hearts.
At that point, clenching your fist in your pocket is no longer enough. We have to raise our voices. We have to protest. We have to speak up.
People who want to come to this strange country and become part of us should be welcome. For centuries, Sweden has welcomed newcomers. It is one of the traditions we have been most proud of.
That is why I started protesting the migration policies connected to the Tidö-Governement last autumn.
It began in October 2025, when I visited a church in the small northern town of Norsjö and realized that Sweden was about to deport not only a Christian family to Iran, where Christians risk severe persecution, but also a well-integrated family who had bought a house in a rural community and worked in sectors with labor shortages.
More and more unjust, unreasonable, and deeply troubling cases began to surface, and eventually it boiled over. A national debate began about the Swedish government’s migration policies connected to the Tidö Agreement.
At first the debate quickly turned into a meta-discussion: first about whether pastors should speak about politics, and then about whether the Christian Democrats (KD) should speak about Christianity. To me, these are two sides of the same question.
I believe the church has not only the right but also the duty to ”Speak Truth to Power” when politics goes too far, especially when it harms the vulnerable, whom the Bible often summarizes as ”the widow, the stranger, and the fatherless.”
And I, as a Conservative Pentecostal Pastor, have no problem with the Christian Democrats having ”Christian” in their name. But that naturally comes with obligations. In the best of worlds, churches and the Christian Democrats would share Christ as common ground and have meaningful dialogue about Christian values. Hospitality and welcoming the stranger are, after all, among the most fundamental Christian (and Swedish) values there are.
Some critics claimed that opposing the Tidö migration policies meant supporting ”free and unlimited immigration”. That is one extreme. But deporting well-integrated people who have done everything society asked of them is another extreme. I am not arguing for open borders. I am arguing against policies that punish people who have already become part of our communities, our church members, neighbors, colleagues, classmates, and friends. I criticize the government because I believe they have gone to the other extreme. That doesn’t mean I’m for the first extreme.
As the debate continued, increasingly troubling cases emerged, teenagers and even babies facing deportation decisions that many people found deeply unreasonable.
Eventually, all of Sweden’s major party leaders were forced to respond to the criticism:
– Ulf Kristersson (Moderates) acknowledged that the changes may create ”transitional problems” and said the government is investigating possible transitional rules.
– Jimmie Åkesson (Sweden Democrats) stated that ”the purpose is obviously not to make life difficult for law-abiding people”, is open to adjustments and wants teenage deportations to be paused until an exception mechanism is in place.
– Ebba Busch (Christian Democrats) said that if the reforms in some respects have ”landed slightly off target,” her party is prepared to review the legislation.
– Simona Mohamsson (Liberals) argued that revoking permanent residence permits risks creating uncertainty and disorder.
– Magdalena Andersson (Social Democrats) called the deportation of long-resident teenagers ”unreasonable.”
– Elisabeth Thand Ringqvist (Centre Party) described the teenage deportations as ”really bad integration policy, a catastrophe for Sweden.”
– Nooshi Dadgostar (Left Party) called the cases ”inhumane” and ”absurd.”
– Amanda Lind (Green Party) has participated in demonstrations against what she calls unjust deportations that are ”unworthy of a humane country.”
The debate has clearly reached those in power.
But fine words are not enough. What we now need is action.
– Transitional rules for people who have already integrated into Swedish society.
– An end to retroactive revocations of permanent residence permits.
– Policies that keep families together and prevent teenage deportations.
– More legally secure assessments of religious converts, for example through a national coordinator for conversion cases.
This is not about throwing the entire Tidö Agreement in the trash. It is about correcting the parts that have gone too far and that unjustly harm people who have built their lives here.
If Sweden want to be strict about new migration we can still be fair to those who are already part of our society. That is not a contradiction, it is common sense and basic human decency.
If Sweden has let you into this country, given you permission to work, if you have followed all the rules, lived here for more than 10 years, done everything right, bought a house, learned Swedish, etc., then it would be unfair, unjust and unrighteous for Sweden to suddenly change the rules and deport you.
As Ebba Busch, leader of the Christian Democrats, once said: ”If you make a deal with a Swede, that is a handshake you can trust. You know what you are going to get.”
I love this strange country, and I want it to remain true to its welcoming heart.
To an outsider, Sweden can seem cold, both the weather and the people. But that is exactly why we cherish the sun when it appears, why we bundle up and still enjoy the warmth even in freezing temperatures, and why we always offer hot, strong coffee. And as the old people taught us; In Sweden we always put out one extra cookie to the coffee. That extra cookie is for the unexpected guest.
That cookie is for you.