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Shivaani Mehrra

"Despite all good things about the country it was very tough for me to leave my identity behind and trying to settle down here until I came to the International Citizen Hub Lund in a drop-in session. I found a lot of support and I decided to volunteer for their events. I really feel good because I can meet more and more people and can keep myself busy."

I am born and brought-up in small town of Amritsar in India. I came to Sweden with my husband in June 2016, as he was recruited for an IT project. These three plus years we have stayed in four cities of Sweden. Having struggled a lot in finding a house to finding a job for myself, I have felt depressed many a times.

Sweden is a beautiful country with amazing values and honest and trustworthy people. I have stayed in four cities Osby, Älmhult, Gothenburg, and Lund but Älmhult and Lund are my favourites. I have stayed in Älmhult for two years and have made a lot of very good friends and I still meet them whenever it is possible.

I now live in Lund and I love this city for almost everything. It has charm of a city with the calmness of a small town. It is the central place to many happening destinations with a lot of Internationals in it. The best of all things is the International Citizen Hub Lund: My second home.

I faced a lot of struggles in settling down here in Sweden. Every time we changed our city, I had to start my life with new people all over again. I even enrolled myself in SFI every time I changed my city. It became very difficult to start life after every short period of time.

I am a very outgoing and social person. I love to communicate, interact, travel and explore new places but at the same time I value old relationships. I had a very interesting profile in India and I had been working for almost 10 years, there. Despite all good things about the country it was very tough for me to leave my identity behind and trying to settle down here until I came to the International Citizen Hub Lund in a drop-in session. I found a lot of support and I decided to volunteer for their events. I really feel good because I can meet more and more people and can keep myself busy. I now substitute also in International schools of Lund.

I also participated in the Kick-Start Program which really changed my life. It was really insightful about job market, system and culture in Sweden. It helped me to explore many of my soft skills and reminded me of my strengths that I almost forgot in these three years.

Through the program, I also came to know about many other such organisations that help Internationals to settle down here in Sweden and thankfully all of them are free of cost.

I have regained my confidence and now network more than ever. I have made a lot of new friends and many more new acquaintances. I have much more clarity about many important things in the country and have gained a lot of knowledge about ways to find jobs.

I now feel closer to my goal and would suggest all the internationals living in Lund or Malmo to surely visit the hub. It can guide you in all the ways to work in the right direction.

/ Shivaani Mehrra

To the Linkedin profile of Shivaani Mehrra

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