“The most, most important thing is the personal meeting”

Reception capacity first! That is the starting point for the attraction work in the North Sweden Green Deal. Here, Piteå is a role model. In one year, Inflyttarservice has helped 70-80 new residents of Piteå to land softly. – We saw the importance of the personal meeting, says Hannah Degerman.

The fact that Norrbotten needs tens of thousands of new residents has hardly gone unnoticed. But so far, we in the county have been frugal with big campaigns and offers. Instead, the North Sweden Green Deal project has focused on ensuring that the municipalities are equipped and ready to take care of potential immigrants. That there is an organization, a plan and information in more languages ​​than Swedish. Because once interest has been aroused, when the window is open – then all links in the chain must hold.

– Infyttarservice is really nothing if it weren't for all the collaborations we have. It's the business community, other administrations, private individuals. Without it, we are three completely unimportant people, says Sara Holm at Piteå Municipality's Infyttarservice.

Close-knit trio

The three “completely unimportant people” are named Fredrik Blom, Hannah Degerman and Sara Holm. They form a tight-knit trio, finishing each other’s sentences and always ready to laugh.

– The ceilings are really high here. Something that is fantastic in this constellation is the ability to lift each other up, says Sara.


Infyttarservice is located at Stadsporten in Piteå. “Freshly Piteå residents” is presented on a digital screen. Showing off Piteå's new skills is important to Fredrik Blom.

Watched Hannah on TV4

New names will be added soon. A family of six is ​​moving up from the Gothenburg area this March.

– We have helped one parent find a job and we are on our way with the other. They have got an apartment. And they saw Hannah on TV4 and decided. They must have thought about it for a year, but then they saw that here there is actually someone who can simplify things, says Fredrik.

When Hannah stood in front of TV4's cameras in central Piteå in November, they didn't know that the feature would be on TV4's news at 19 and 22 p.m.

– It was a three-minute segment on national television. The next day, people from Dalarna called after seeing us on TV, says Sara.

Workshops with Swedish Lapland

In March 2022, work began on helping people who had no previous connection to Piteå to build a future there. A month later, the North Sweden Green Deal project was launched, with the Swedish Lapland Visitors Board as a partner in the Receiver Capacity and Attraction sub-project.

The Swedish Lapland Visitors Board has worked with all of Norrbotten's municipalities in the project, but Piteå was the first to do so. In a series of workshops, for example, they identified what already exists that is worth developing, and problems that need to be addressed in order to move forward. Using different methods of innovation, ideas were born and further developed. During the autumn, prototypes for a landing page were tested on real residents.

In a quick exercise, Piteå Municipality identified the factors that give wind in the sails and what holds the boat back.

– We were a few from the municipality who came with input and inspiration, and so Swedish Lapland developed a prototype for a landing page. For example, there were VR features – you can sit in Holland and look at the pedestrian street and go into shops and stuff. There were very visual maps, where you can look at houses for sale, grocery stores, playgrounds. We selected six prospective movers, it was really fun to include stakeholders in such a process. But what the movers said was that the most, most important thing was the personal meeting. It confirmed what we do, says Hannah.

Families with children and highly educated people

During the first eleven months of Inflyttarservice, 70-80 people who have had contact with the trio have become residents of Piteå. All of those who have arrived work and are self-sufficient. The digital screen informs that the new residents represent 3,4 million kronor in annual tax revenue.

The trio estimates that native-born people make up perhaps 30 percent of the group, foreign-born people in Sweden 50 percent and foreign residents 20 percent.

– What's funny is that the majority of these people are highly educated people who come here. Which is very inspiring. Also that it's families with children who choose to uproot their roots, says Sara Holm.

If you want to move to a completely new place, there are a lot of things that need to be done.

– In many ways, it starts with the job. We brainstorm their skills to match it with the business community's recruitment needs. Then it's about helping with the placement of housing, showing how to apply for a preschool place and school. It's about arranging other contacts. We had someone who wanted to go figure skating, "then you should talk to the Piteå figure skating club, they have this number". They might wonder what to do on a Saturday when the sun is shining, then we say that now you should contact them at the tourist center, says Sara.

Many who have moved to Piteå are families with children.

Detective work

On the Friday we meet, they are working on such a question, a new resident of Piteå who is keen to have a barbecue outside this weekend. While we are sitting, a Belgian also calls and wonders when he can expect an answer to his job application. Earlier that day, they have shaken out a ten-square-meter storage room for a woman who has moved there. It is high and low, often with elements of detective work. But they do not offer their services to returnees, which means a shift in focus.

– Returnees have their network, they will come anyway, they don't need move-in services. Now it's recruitment with a focus: "what can we do for you, you are needed."

To recruit, Inflyttarservice participates in job fairs, for example.

– Our strongest arguments for moving up are very concrete. Here they invest in the school. It's safe here, you can let the children out in the neighborhood and they can play until half past six in the evening without you having to be out and watch them. We saw how it ended up when we talked about it down south. "Do you mean they can play outside by themselves?" That they can go to school by themselves in grade one. Here it's more the rule than the exception, says Sara.

– It's so obvious to us that we didn't think much about it, that those are THE values. It's hard to see what's unique because we take it for granted, says Hannah.

Questions about gang violence

Of course they have been surprised many times. They have been asked about killer slugs. Someone wondered how much their help costs, if it was a monthly subscription. And someone thought that Piteå was a company.

“Then we can't go home and be offended. Instead, we'll put up a map,” says Sara.

It's always close to laughter when Inflyttarservice talks about the past year. 

The issues of school quality, access to housing and jobs have begun to be joined by others dealing with gang violence, car fires and vulnerable areas.

– Then it's nice to be able to say that we have no troubled areas, no bombs and grenades or "cannula alley", says Fredrik.

New ambassadors

They talk about some of the new additions, André and Carsten Wiethaus from Cologne, who became residents of Pite at the end of last year.

– They are real Pite ambassadors on Instagram. Before, they kind of apologized for the snow, and that's why they're moving up. These are the ones who portray the living Pite, we don't need that. We can, but the credibility is here, says Hannah.

The Wiethaus couple are only two with whom Inflyttarservice continues to have contact.

– We have brought immigrants together so they can continue the contact, which feels fantastic. They are new residents of Piteå now, but we are not taking our hands off them just because of that, they should be included and become ambassadors, says Hannah.

“Hard work”

Now Inflyttarservice is looking ahead. The goal for 2023 is to help 100 new immigrants become residents of Piteå.

– The goal is to achieve harmony and balance that makes things go faster and faster for each person who moves in. Increase the number of people moving in but keep the same quality, says Fredrik.

They emphasize that it is not just a success story, there are speed bumps and hard work is required. One issue is internationalization and getting companies to realize that they need to accept English as a workplace language. Now – not in four years.

– This is not about growing being festive. It hurts to grow, but we can't even manage the supply of skills today. How will it be later? That's where the worry lies. But it's a privilege to be part of this. Together with other nodes and islands, we can become a great force, says Hannah Degerman.

Text and image: Sara Stylbäck Vesa

SARA HOLMS' THREE SUCCESS FACTORS:

"When we started, the benefits of having people from different administrations and departments were shown very quickly. Now we see that the collaboration is on a completely different level within a year."

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"It's a lot about including others. Making others feel that 'I'm also part of moving to Pite'. Alone is not strong, everyone who wants to can get on the train and it's very clear that people want to get involved and be involved."

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"We need to be in all arenas where people are. We started a phone number that was easy, an inbox called move-in service, we started a chat and we made an interest form that you can fill out at home on a Friday evening. In a short time, we acquired four contact areas to accommodate all target groups from young to old."

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The North Sweden Green Deal is an initiative to realize a sustainable societal transition, in the wake of the new industrial establishments.

The project is run by Region Norrbotten and Region Västerbotten together with a number of other actors. It is financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).