“I think we are ready for essays in English”

Skellefteå is growing like crazy and everywhere you go, more and more people speak English. If we can build a sustainable society that includes everyone, new residents can participate in what happens in Skellefteå and learn how our society works. Otherwise there is a risk of alienation and many will turn away. This is a development that can be disastrous for companies and the local community. Of course, many of our new residents will eventually learn Swedish, but we as local media have to relate to existing needs and adapt as society changes.

This is the background to the launch of an English sub-site at Norran in February, norran.se/english, where we publish news and reports deemed relevant to our new, English-speaking target group. Our editor Paul Connolly has been producing guides and articles aimed at our new residents which have been much appreciated. We have a reference group with English speakers, and many tell us how important it is for a newcomer to participate in what’s going on in the community. That’s what Noran English is.

Good for Skellefteå, having people from different backgrounds here enriches our community. For us at Noran, it was a great asset to bring in a talented editor like Paul who brings fresh perspectives and angles. By getting to know new, Swedish-speaking colleagues, Paul learns more about how Skellefty and Skellefteen operate, and makes Noren even better for you, our readers.

Noran has been a strong engine in the local community for over 100 years and we want to continue to do so well into the future. We really want to make a difference. In order to accommodate more perspectives, we will introduce some new Skellefte residents from the outside in the near future. First Nicola Foleher tells what it was like when she left the UK and moved to Webomark. So that these are really his own words, we have chosen not to translate the column into Swedish, but it will be in English on norran.se and in the newspaper. I think we are ready for it.