Thai Workers Fly to Sweden Where the Wild Berries Are

IT'S BEEN a bad year for blueberries and lingonberries in Sweden. Normally, these wild berries grow in abundance in the Swedish forests. But a long, wet summer with more rain than anyone can remember destroyed the berries before they matured. That's bad news for Thailand as well. Every year, in what has become a regular feature in today's globalised world, thousands of Thais travel to Sweden to pick berries. The life may be hard, and anyone from a tropical climate would find the weather unbearable even when it's summer in Sweden. But, under normal circumstances, Sweden's abundant wild berries bring wealth to rural Thailand and fresh berries and jams on European tables.

In 2007, Swedish immigration authorities began to authorise the country's diplomatic missions abroad to issue visas and three-month work permits for nationals of certain countries to pick wild berries in Sweden during the summer. The Swedish Embassy in Bangkok was among these, and during the first year 1,129 Thais were allowed to travel to Sweden to pick berries. In 2008, 3,582 Thais were given permits, as word spread.

The Swedish press described the Thais as "exploited slave workers", but money they sent back has been enough for some to buy a small house in Thailand's impoverished northeast, from where most of the berry-pickers come. Some have been to Sweden more than once, as such jobs are easy to find because it's work that few Swedes will do. And even if unpredictable weather makes it a gamble, it is possible, some of the workers say, to earn up to Bt200,000 a month - much more than a doctor or other well-paid professional in Thailand.

Not surprisingly, Thais are not the only foreigners picking berries in Swedish forests. There are East Europeans and others, but the Thais are considered the best. That could be because of their work ethic. Or, as someone has suggested, stooping down and picking berries from tiny sprigs may not be that different from planting and harvesting rice in a paddy back home.

This year, as many as 5,911 Thais came to Sweden to pick berries. But bad crops turned out to be a disaster. Many had borrowed thousands of dollars to pay for tickets - and for fees to (often) unscrupulous labour brokers and other middlemen. A foreign worker can only get a visa and temporary work permit if employed by a foreign labour broker who is recognised by the Swedish Forest-berries Association. They can then borrow up to Bt100,000 from the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives, a Thai state enterprise under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Finance. But, if it's a bad year for berries, where pickers might net only US$1,000 per month at most, it's inevitable that it will be difficult to repay the loans. Many workers have also borrowed from private loan sharks and paid brokers to facilitate the process.

As a result of this, many Thais this year returned destitute instead of rich. And the Thai Embassy in Stockholm even had to intervene to help some workers return home. In August, Thai labour minister Paitoon Kaewthong travelled to Sweden to see the Thai workers and for talks with representatives of the Swedish companies employing them. Berry-picking was not the only issue he discussed with Swedish employers. The two sides also discussed how to expand the Swedish job market for Thai labourers - because there are other unattractive slots in the Swedish labour markets, which now have to be filled by foreign workers despite rising unemployment among the Swedes themselves.

Today, most Swedes travelling to the northern provinces are likely to meet Thais who are not berry-pickers. There are Thai restaurants, takeaway outlets and food stalls not only in major towns but also in villages in the countryside. Over the past two decades, many Thais have settled in Sweden and the total number of Thai-born people here may now be nearly 30,000. Some are Thai women who have married Swedish men, but there are also Thai men who work in restaurants and other small businesses. On the other side of the ledger, around 300,000 Swedes visit Thailand annually.

In Utanede, east of the northern town of Ostersund, there is evidence of an even older connection - a genuine Thai pavilion, which has become a tourist attraction for Swedes and foreigners alike. Its Thai-style 28-metre spire towers over birch trees and pines, and, in winter, the entire area is under at least a metre of snow.

The pavilion, the only one of its kind outside Thailand, is built on the spot where King Chulalongkorn visited in 1897. During his European tour, he went to Sweden and found its many sawmills particularly interesting because Thailand at that time had a thriving teak industry. In remote Utanede, locals flocked to gape at the Asian king and his entourage, who at that time were seen as extremely exotic. The pavilion, to honour King Chulalongkorn, even led to a new dimension to Thai-Swedish relations. More than being just a tourist attraction, the pavilion sparked more interest in Sweden for trade and tourism between the two countries.

Elsewhere in Sweden, there are other signs of Thai influence. In the central industrial town of Borlange, with its steel mill and paper factory, the Finns are the most numerous of the town's foreign workers. But the Thais, numbering between 2,000 and 3,000, now make up the second largest immigrant group. On each of the present Thai King and Queen's birthdays, December 5 and August 12, they gather at the town's Buddhist shrine together with their spouses and neighbours.

So the Thais in Sweden are not only seasonal workers in the northern forests, who sometimes have to suffer unforeseen hardships. Many are here to stay - and they are no longer perceived as "exotic". They are established members of local communities.