US Americans living abroad don’t really have Congressional representation. Representatives just don’t care about people who don’t reside in their districts. As such, US tax law assumes emigrants are either tax evaders or terrorists.

Here is an example of how FACTA is fucking over a European who had the misfortune of being birthed in the US and now cannot open a bank account in Sverige.

https://www.reddit.com/r/TillSverige/comments/15za0q7/worth_fighting_bank_as_a_us_born_eu_student/

#TillSverige #USPol #FACTA

@bkhl @Gina Thankfully, most immigrants are not going to experience cancer scares and mental health challenges.

Just surviving, keeping a job, and being a net positive to society should be enough to be here.

Some Swedes fear their language will die just because more people speak English. We're expected to become culture preservationists for a language with little economic benefit and even when we speak it, we're still dismissed as outsiders. It's a lot to put on people.

#TillSverige

I generally crave salty snacks (popcorn!), but when I crave sugar, my favorite candy is SweeTarts. I wondered why it was not available for purchase in Sverige.

TIL SweeTARTS contain synthetic dyes that require safety warning labels in the EU, which make them unappealing to consumers. Specifically relevant for me, there is evidence synthetic dyes exacerbate ADHD symptoms.

https://www.additudemag.com/food-coloring-dyes-adhd-symptoms/

And now I need Trader Joe’s to make a better version of SweeTarts.

#TillSverige #ADHD

Skåne is home to the largest flies I have ever seen. This one is on the small side. Also, they are everywhere. #TillSverige

A “living in Sverige is like living in the future” moment:

Caltrain, the Silicon Valley commuter train, just now has a portion of its service area able to use electric trains. It is “the first undertaking in North America in a generation in which diesel trains and their infrastructure components are transitioned to an electrified system.”

https://www.caltrain.com/news/electric-trains-running-caltrain-corridor-first-time-160-year-history

All of Sverige’s railways were electrified in the 1950s. Sverige is the size of California.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_rail_transport_in_Sweden

#TillSverige

The race is on: will Siri or I reach university-level Svenska proficiency first?

At the rate Apple is adding support for the languages used by a hundred million people, Swedish should be added around 2040. [cries in Moderaterna, the right wing party leading Sverige’s xenophobic immigration policy changes]

#TillSverige

From: @Techmeme
https://techhub.social/@Techmeme/110705349043573158

Sverige rejected my legal name change. Because there are fewer than 2000 people with the last name Lee in Sverige, they do not have to allow it. They considered it, but I was not able to demonstrate my use of the name for over 10 years adequately.

I'm crushed. I don't know what more I could have done.

I will have to move back to the US, at least temporarily, to change my legal name now since it is a state matter and I have no state living abroad.

#TillSverige

TIL 62% of men in Deutschland sit down to pee. Half of men in Sverige do.

#TIL #TillSverige

https://today.yougov.com/topics/society/articles-reports/2023/05/16/where-world-are-men-most-likely-sit-down-wee

After squinting to read ingredients and nutrients information all week, I can say that US food nutrition facts labels are far superior to the EU’s requirements in terms of legibility.

https://www.fda.gov/food/nutrition-education-resources-materials/new-nutrition-facts-label

#a11y #TillSverige #EUPol

While several Ferrara brands are available in Sverige, my childhood favorite—SweeTARTS—are not for sale here. Every few years, I buy a 36 roll pack in the US like I’m a movie theater owner.

I don’t eat them all. It’s one of my favorite things to give kids at Halloween and when my friends come to dinner. 100% of Swedish kids have told me they like them.

https://www.sweetartscandy.com/

#TillSverige

Met with a new psychiatrist today. He started by saying I should be fluent in Swedish since I have lived here for 6 years. He was the third healthcare professional to make such a statement to me.

“Learning Swedish is something I look forward to being able to do once my mental health allows me to,” is an effective way to say, “Fuck you,” to a doctor.

(Also, I *can* read some Swedish. I just can’t hear it at all. Other than ordering food, I can speak some slowly.) #TillSverige

The expansion of daylight over Stockholm continues to slow, now down to 4 minutes 59 seconds today.

However, we are about to cross 16 hours of daylight and I now need a sleep mask. The Manta Sleep Mask Pro (for professional sleepers?) is my favorite.

https://mantasleep.com/products/manta-sleep-mask-pro

(Not sponsored, just a really great product! #TillSverige)

🌞 04:46 (15h 59m 19s) 20:45 🌔

English and French are unnecessarily difficult languages. I wish we had a better international standard. I wish Esperanto were more widely known and used.

The hard truth:

Every economy with a declining birthrate that is then dependent upon immigrant labor and attracting the brightest minds to out-innovate other economies should be enthusiastically welcoming people fluent in the world’s most common languages instead of sulking about not being as popular.

#TillSverige #svPol #esperanto

It is not the responsibility of immigrants to:

• keep their host country’s dominant culture alive

• keep their host country’s language globally relevant

Being a contributing member of society economically while dealing with displacement is a difficult enough task without a host country adding its own cultural insecurities onto an immigrant.

#TillSverige #svPol

I am leaning Swedish at my own pace and ability for my own curiosity, not because it is required for getting a job/running a business (it’s not) or because rando SD & Moderate voters yell at me online.

I just want to be able to talk to Swedes in social settings without feeling like I’m imposing. That’s it. That’s the big benefit.

For nearly everything else, there’s machine translation or someone willing to speak English. This is a good thing.

#TillSverige #svPol

A notable part of Swedish culture in 2023 seems to be getting big mad at immigrants who don’t speak an economically useless language. In English.

#TillSverige #svPol

“You will never understand the culture unless you speak the culture’s language fluently,” is such a bizarre argument to make to an immigrant.

Why would you refuse to share your culture with me because of a language barrier?

How much of a loss for me is it really if you refuse to share your culture because I don’t speak your language?

Some of my best understandings of other cultures have come from food and behaviors. And mean comments to me on social media in my native language.

#TillSverige

If you feel the need to tell an immigrant they are not being a good enough immigrant, no, you don’t.

Adapting and surviving in a new country is difficult enough without your added criticism on their language acquisition skill or time management.

#TillSverige

2 randos, a Swede and a fellow immigrant, made me feel like shit for not being fluent in Swedish yet. Thanks, asswipes. #TillSverige

6 years ago today, I landed in Stockholm.

I thought it would be a short break from San Francisco, but I now call another city, country, and continent home.

Here are 2,700 words about life as a US emigrant and Sverige immigrant.

#TillSverige

https://www.jeremiahlee.com/posts/till-sverige/