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British man deported from Sweden despite living there since childhood (www.theguardian.com)
submitted 2 days ago by CAVOK@lemmy.world to c/europe@feddit.org
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[-] eigenspace@feddit.org 8 points 1 day ago

My main question is why he didn't get Swedish citizenship. I thought this would be another article about someone who just didn't bother to apply, but he did apply and was rejected:

Sellers was aware that Brexit might affect his right to stay in the country and, without any communication from government authorities, he considered his best option was to apply for Swedish citizenship.

This he did in September 2021, before the Brexit deadline of 31 December that year.

Not only was his citizenship rejected, but two subsequent attempts to remain in the country under family rights in national migration laws via his partner, now his wife, were also turned down.

The latest adjudication, after he appealed against the first decision to refuse him residency on the grounds of a family relationship with Caroline, whom he had yet to marry, was that they had “not lived together abroad for an extended period of time”.

That leaves me wondering why he was rejected for citizenship. It makes me wonder if it's something like a criminal history, or living on social benefits or something like that, or if it was just a series of beaurocrats that have a directive to try and get immigration / naturalization numbers down.

[-] grue@lemmy.world 49 points 2 days ago

What a load of cope on The Gaurdian's part, trying to blame this shit on Sweden instead of the UK.

Examples:

The problem centres on the Migration Agency’s apparent refusal to allow late applications from people who were not aware they had to formally apply to remain post-Brexit – a process used in only 12 other EU countries.

Yeah, "only" more than a third of the total, so rare and weird!

But in the post-Brexit scenario in Sweden, deportations of Britons have been ordered even when no crime is involved.

As if Sweden shouldn't be allowed to do that, even though the UK insisted on being considered separate and foreign.

Part of the problem, he says, stems from the lack of communication to registered British people living in the country, causing missed deadline applications.

He said the Sellers’ case was “yet another example of systemic failings in Sweden’s implementation of the withdrawal agreement”.

Blaming Sweden for British immigrants' own failures.

Sucks for the individuals involved (which I sure hope voted against Brexit, as that's the only thing that stops it from being a !leopardsatemyface situation), but the UK is getting exactly what it demanded.

[-] Schmuppes@lemmy.today 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I think if I were in his shoes, I would have been asking myself and my country's embassy some questions. As a EU citizen, I am now required to get myself a travel passport if I want to travel to London for just a weekend, as well as some kind of electronic mini-visa similar to the US Esta thing. Assuming that new (in my eyes absolutely bonkers) post-Brexit restrictions only work one way is pretty silly.

[-] creamfresh@lemmy.world 23 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

At the end of the day, your immigration policies suck when you can kick out someone who lived there for 24 years, fully integrated.

[-] squidie@feddit.org 28 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Well it actually starts before that, how can someone live in another country for 24 years and not claim citizenship?
And yes Brits living in another country should be able to read up on what they have to do after Brexit.
It's not like that Brexit never hit the media.

Why is everyone today calling for someone else to manage their own life?!
Get your shit together.

[-] creamfresh@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago

They must have managed their life quite well considering they were no citizen.

[-] ramble81@lemmy.zip 3 points 2 days ago

You know that’s an interesting thought there. If you’ve lived in a certain place for at least 10 years, I almost think that you should be forced to renounce citizenship of your prior country and become a citizen there or you’re basically just a long term squatter.

[-] matelt@feddit.uk 3 points 1 day ago

Long-term squatter here, applying for citizenship is expensive (almost 2 grand) and it's a bloody awful process. It involves taking a test that I'm sure the vast majority of actual citizens would fail. I'd rather put the money towards a house deposit.

[-] kuiskaaja@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 day ago

that wasn't the case in sweden until very recently, no test, no language requirement, not sure about the price but i'm sure it wasn't that expensive cus there were no language tests or knowledge tests to bump up the fees

they basically gave out citizenships to everyone that had lived in the country for a few years.

basically the only option for him to be denied citizenship is that he committed a crime and got jail time or a suspended sentence, and that's his fault at that point. maybe get citizenship before commiting serious crime lol

[-] ZombiFrancis@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 day ago

I get that, but consider getting a house deposit requires paperwork and financial testing. Skipping or ignoring that paperwork may not serve getting a house deposit.

But it does seem like the person in the article did their paperwork and still ended up being rejected.

[-] ramble81@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 day ago

Then I’d argue you’re refusing to integrate and you shouldn’t be there. You’re talking about a house, which means even longer term roots. If you’re going to take advantage of their system, you should become willing to integrate.

[-] urandom@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Can you truly be fully integrated, if you did not obtain citizenship?

[-] Auli@lemmy.ca 0 points 1 day ago

Well the UK left the EU so of course there are consequences. People should have paid more attention. Britain really just wanted to separate and not have any consequences.

[-] atomicbocks@sh.itjust.works 5 points 2 days ago

Sweden shouldn’t be allowed to do that, just like Trump shouldn’t be allowed to remove people who’ve been living in the US for 24 years.

[-] grue@lemmy.world 17 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Unless The Guardian left some important details involving masked, armed thugs and concentration camps out of the article, what Sweden is doing is nothing like what Trump is doing.

And speaking of things left out of the article, it doesn't explain why his "three failed attempts to remain in the country" actually failed. It makes me wonder if there's a good reason for it that we're not being told. (And that, by the way, also sounds markedly different from the complete lack of due process currently happening in US immigration "courts.")

[-] Auli@lemmy.ca 0 points 1 day ago

Why if your not a citizen you don't really have any rights in the country.

[-] huppakee@lemmy.world 10 points 2 days ago

Really sucks leopards also eat faces of remain voters. But at least they saved a lot of money and grew their economy. Oh wait, they didn't. https://www.cer.eu/insights/cost-brexit-ten-years-impact-leaving-customs-union-and-single-market-uk-trade

[-] Sibbo@sopuli.xyz 13 points 2 days ago

I should really get Finnish citizenship, in case Finland or Germany ever leave the EU.

[-] Quittenbrot@feddit.org 5 points 2 days ago

If you're a German citizen living in Finland, absolutely!

Who knows how fast there'll be an AfD government in Germany and you certainly wouldn't want to be kicked out of Finland / lose your EU freedom of movement just because they think its a great idea to leave the EU.

[-] murvel@piefed.social 4 points 2 days ago

I see The Guardian is still pushing this garbage

[-] VibeSurgeon@piefed.social 6 points 2 days ago

We can only hope that the right-wing shitstains currently in power get voted out by a large margin in the upcoming elections

[-] AbaixoDeCao@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Other news. Meanwhile, I'd like to know Farage's opinion on the matter...

[-] pantherina@feddit.org 1 points 2 days ago

Sweden also has no cash anymore basically. Anyone know how invasive Swish is?

Nice country, but idk

[-] CAVOK@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

Swish is wonderful. I pay petty much everything with swish these days, just to avoid using Visa or any other US payment system.

[-] pantherina@feddit.org 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I dont ask if it works but how private it is. Cash is nearly completely private. I go to the usual supermarket and get 200€ cash then I spend it however I want, repeat.

That is a very good mix of privacy and convenience. My bank even has some kind of deal to allow free cash retrieval from supermarkets 5 times a month or something

We can already pay securely with instant bank transfer but nobody does that. WERO is some pseudo independent service that involves phone numbers which is something I would very much prefer not to share.

Does swish work on uncertified Android phones? What nasty things does the app do? Does it work on rooted phones? If the bootloader is unlocked? Does it load code dynamically from memory? Does it debug its own code? Does it use Play Integrity with fallback for no support at all, or does it explicitely not use Play integrity because it is useless garbage? Do they officially allow certain free android builds like GrapheneOS?

Those are other important points.

[-] CAVOK@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Might be a little more anonymous than Visa, but not as anonymous as cash. The bank will still be able to see where you buy, but probably not what. Swish is like WERO in that it uses your phone number, so yeah, if you get a payment you can see their number.

It probably won't work on uncertified phones, but also because it uses BankID, the digital-id card everyone uses. If anything, the bank-id is the bigger problem because you basically can't function in Sweden without one.

[-] Squizzy@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

Tell me more,is it available across EU? I am moving to Walt and need to get away from Visa and Mastercard.

[-] CAVOK@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Sweden only I'm afraid, but there's also a nordic one called Vipps that works in all (I think) nordic countries.

Would love to have it EU wide though.

[-] NextNoobi@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 1 day ago

Well there is WERO, which is a product from the European payments Initiative (a partnership of european banks). I hope that it will continue to expand. https://wero-wallet.eu/about

[-] CAVOK@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Sadly only in Germany, Belgium and France atm.

this post was submitted on 02 Sep 2026
109 points (94.3% liked)

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