The people behind the numbers - success, expectations and hopes
It's easy to get stuck in numbers when we have to sum up the past year. And of course, I am proud that we have had over 100,000 unique visitors from over 180 countries on www.movetogothenburg.com in 2019. That we, for 3.8 million people with relevant competence, showed an attractive region with exciting development opportunities with our employers. At the same time, we see that the Gothenburg region is attracting more international talent than ever. It is no accident that between 2014-2018, the number of work permits issued over a period of one year increased by 314%, with the majority of the increase taking place in 2016-2018.
But enough with numbers. For behind these are the people who choose to embark on the adventure of their lives. More and more often indefinitely. And the reasons are as varied as the people who traverse this path. The media manager Bilitis from Germany, the entrepreneur Nicolas from France, the Claussen family from the US, the buyer Yvonne from Hong Kong and the doctor Martin from Germany are some of the people we have met. It has been our privilege to hear them tell their stories in a series of our films. You can find them on Move to Gothenburg's Vimeo channel.
In addition to these fantastic ambassadors, we have met hundreds of international talents at our events, trainings and in our Open desk service. On these occasions, we have advised, inspired, networked and guided further to the best of our ability to contribute to a warm reception and a successful start in our region. For us, this has also been an important learning process where we better understand the challenges people face in moving to a new city and country. Together with lessons learned from participating employers, municipal public actors and national authorities, we have built a strong knowledge platform on attracting and receiving international expertise. This has resulted in, among other things, a concept for an International House, advisory roles for national authorities and ministries, and a consolidated role as one of the leading organizations in Europe regarding talent attraction.
As we look ahead, Move to Gothenburg enters a new phase in 2020 where we will focus on the talent attraction as well as development and influence through the platform, which is jointly run by business, academia and city / region. The latter applies to the entire process of attraction and reception at both regional and national levels. Operational reception is further developed via a publicly funded sister platform where local / regional actors take responsibility for the procedures. An important prerequisite for this is that our determined and long-term work in coordinating the national authority process has now resulted in a pilot operation for international competence starting in a service office in Gothenburg at the end of Q1.
Despite great success in attracting competence and an exciting development of the reception process, several challenges remain in getting international skills to stay and thrive in the long term. Because when the specialist nurse from Spain has to change housing for the fifth time in two years, she decides to move on. When the software developers' accompanying partners who are educated teachers do not get a job and find it difficult to find friends, they leave for a new place. When the children of the AI researcher and their partners do not get a place at the bilingual school, they choose an offer in another country.
These are examples that we unfortunately encounter too often. We believe that in this aspect we can all contribute, both big and small, by inviting a new colleague to the running club, hanging out with them as they shop at IKEA, going out and having a coffee or inviting them to join a professional network. So my request is to share with them your contacts, that can make it easier for them to get into professional and social contexts. It costs nothing but gives so much and lays the foundation for a person to stay and enjoy the long term. 2019 has been a year when we have taken the collaboration between employers, local public actors and national authorities to a new level, which has resulted in a number of concrete proposals.
My hope is that 2020 will be a year when our decision-makers and politicians demonstrate the power of action with funding of concrete initiatives so that Sweden can attract and receive all the skills we need so much. Finally, I would like to extend a big thank you to all our partners who make it possible for us to operate. I would also like to extend a big thank you to all of you individuals who engage with Move to Gothenburg. It is with your drive the change starts and with your will and endurance that success is achieved!
Niklas Delersjö
Head of Move to Gothenburg