Oslo, Copenhagen or Stockholm?

PLL wrote: »

In a few years time we want to emigrate for a while and Norway, Denmark & Sweden have always been our top choices.

My other half is a fine dining chef and is drawn to Scandinavia for its culinary reputation.

After a small bit of research I know Denmark & Norway are the most expensive and although wages higher they are not significantly higher in the hospitality sector.

We would be traveling with an 8/9 year old, so any info on schools or the education system would be great.

If anyone could tell me anything about these cities I would greatly appreciate it. Personally I think Stockholm looks incredible but obviously there are other factors!

First: Good luck finding something in Stockholm, 18 years or more waiting list. You could find something more far away from Stockholm but never in Stockholm except if you have a few million euros in your account.

Second, in Sweden "we" do not accept people that do not know the language, "we" have enough of those people and "they" are getting annoying.

If you decide to move to Sweden, make sure you know the language already, at least the basics or you won't be accepted.

I’ve spent sometime living in Copenhagen and Asmooh’s attitude is pretty typical of the local’s view of foreigners. I would try to have a job lined up before you go as it’s not that simple to be accepted as a foreigner there. I think this is typical across scandinavia. It is expensive but you can economise, if you live far from the city centre it is cheaper and the transport system is good so commuting is not so bad.

I would not advise a regional city such as Aarhus or something similar in Sweden as its pretty bleak in terms of being a foreigner.

In terms of language all the Scandinavian languages are tough, you don’t need them to get by but you need them to integrate well. In Denmark you can enroll in free language classes, they are very mixed. I learnt a lot in a year and can read Danish well but never got the hang of speaking it because they simply cannot tolerate any kind of foreign accent, I mean really at all. They are not very open societies, not at all like us in terms of accepting outsiders as other than asylum seekers. That said I think it is important to study the language and I am glad I did it.

In terms of school’s I don’t have kids so I can only say what people have told me. The child care is good and state subsidised. The education system in Denmark is ok, it ranks lower than ours tho, also an older child might struggle due to their lack of language skills and in all honesty the kids are as bad as the adults when it comes to being anti-foriegners. If it were me I would be worried about the child’s language issues as it has a knock on effect on all subjects except English.

All that said it’s not that bad, you can’t really afford to go out socialising all the time but the wages are higher, but you pay much, much more tax. I mean everything is more expensive, electricity, water, rent, TV licence, VAT, food, really everything!

I hope that hasn’t put you off, it’s a good adventure but it’s not as easy to move to that part of the world as it would be to another English speaking country, it’s culturally very different.