<p>Abstract</p><p>During the last five years there has been a considerable immigration from the Netherlands to Värmland in Sweden. INVA, Invest in Värmland, wanted to highlight this phenomenon and therefore contacted Karlstad University to make a survey about how extensive the immigration is and what consequences it brings for the business life and municipalities in Värmland. We were luckily chosen to perform this research and the main focus in this study has been the following questions:</p><p>• Why do the Dutchmen choose to buy their house in Värmland?</p><p>• What are the main reasons for leaving the Netherlands?</p><p>• What consequences does the immigration cause for the business life in Värmland?</p><p>• How do the Dutchmen experience the contact with Swedish authorities?</p><p>To answer the questions we designed a questionnaire that was sent to 200 Dutch house purchasers. The ambition was to survey all the Dutch house purchasers in Värmland, but with the time constrains and the municipalities having problem to find complete data, we limited the survey to 200 households. To sample more information eleven interviews were made with Dutch families, brokers and local authorities.</p><p>The most important factor behind the Dutchmen moving to Värmland is the nature and the calmness. Other factors that were mentioned in the survey are the mentality of the people who live in Värmland, a good place to raise your children and house prices. The main reasons for leaving the Netherlands are lack of space, social aspects, work and economic motives.</p><p>The first big investment that is done by the Dutchmen is buying a house, the consequences of this act is higher house prices. The consuming of items on the local market is another indirect investment that is positive for the local businessmen. 60 % of the Dutchmen that moves to Värmland for permanent living starts their own business or bring their company from the Netherlands.</p><p>One of the most common problems when buying the house was the poor language skills among the local brokers. Some of the respondent requested the brokers to speak Dutch and some required that the brokers should speak better English. In the future this problem might disappear because during the last year there are some Dutchmen who has started to work together with the local brokers. The contact with Swedish authorities was considered positive in general but some of the Dutchmen had problems to get a social security number and some had problems finding information about the Swedish tax system.</p>

Abstract During the last five years there has been a considerable immigration from the Netherlands to Värmland in Sweden. INVA, Invest in Värmland, wanted to highlight this phenomenon and therefore contacted Karlstad University to make a survey about how extensive the immigration is and what consequences it brings for the business life and municipalities in Värmland. We were luckily chosen to perform this research and the main focus in this study has been the following questions: • Why do the Dutchmen choose to buy their house in Värmland? • What are the main reasons for leaving the Netherlands? • What consequences does the immigration cause for the business life in Värmland? • How do the Dutchmen experience the contact with Swedish authorities? To answer the questions we designed a questionnaire that was sent to 200 Dutch house purchasers. The ambition was to survey all the Dutch house purchasers in Värmland, but with the time constrains and the municipalities having problem to find complete data, we limited the survey to 200 households. To sample more information eleven interviews were made with Dutch families, brokers and local authorities. The most important factor behind the Dutchmen moving to Värmland is the nature and the calmness. Other factors that were mentioned in the survey are the mentality of the people who live in Värmland, a good place to raise your children and house prices. The main reasons for leaving the Netherlands are lack of space, social aspects, work and economic motives. The first big investment that is done by the Dutchmen is buying a house, the consequences of this act is higher house prices. The consuming of items on the local market is another indirect investment that is positive for the local businessmen. 60 % of the Dutchmen that moves to Värmland for permanent living starts their own business or bring their company from the Netherlands. One of the most common problems when buying the house was the poor language skills among the local brokers. Some of the respondent requested the brokers to speak Dutch and some required that the brokers should speak better English. In the future this problem might disappear because during the last year there are some Dutchmen who has started to work together with the local brokers. The contact with Swedish authorities was considered positive in general but some of the Dutchmen had problems to get a social security number and some had problems finding information about the Swedish tax system.

Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka kontinuitet och förändring i holländares identitet(er) när de flyttar till Sverige. Teorier kring identitet och förändring/förhandling appliceras på empiri som framkommer ur intervjuer med fyra holländska informanter som har emigrerat till Sverige. Resultatet visar att identitet är något som informanterna anser vara relativt konstant under livets gång vad gäller personlighet, karaktärsdrag och nationalitet. Dock är de överens om att identitetsförändringar sker beroende på ålder och nya livsroller som exempelvis när man blir företagare eller förälder. Holländare och svenskar tycks vara så lika vad gäller utseende att myndigheter tror att även sociala, ekonomiska och politiska system liknar de svenska systemen. Hos de holländska informanterna finns dock ett behov att särskilja sig från svenskarna samtidigt som de vill integrera med svenskarna. Integrationsprocessen innebär även att i vissa sammanhang identifierar de sig som holländare och i andra sammanhang identifierar de sig mer som svenskar. / The purpose of the thesis is to investigate continuity and change in Dutch peoples´ identities as they immigrate to Sweden. Identity and change/negotiation theories will be applied to empirical material gained from interviews with four Dutch participants who have immigrated to Sweden. The result shows that identity is something that the immigrants view as relatively constant through their lives what concerns personality, character and nationality. They agree that changes in identity occur when factors such as age and new roles in life as for an example when one becomes a company owner or a parent. Dutch and Swedish people seem to be the same when it comes to appearance that one thinks that even social, economic and political systems are the same as the Swedish systems. Because of this the Dutch participants seem to separate themselves from the Swedes and at the same time they want to integrate with the Swedes. The integration process contains that in some contexts the Dutch immigrant identify him-/herself as a Dutch person and in other contexts they identify more as a Swedish person.