Jokkmokk Municipality is to begin a 2 year project to encourage people looking for a lifestyle change to move to Jokkmokk and live in northern Sweden.
The project will involve many different governmental departments and agencies together with private businesses and individuals in the region. Included in the project will be recruitment agencies, job centres and social service departments, local new business support and new business start up support agencies, governmental immigration services, local primary and secondary schools, adult learning centres, local government housing associations, and many other organizations, businesses and individuals connected with Jokkmokk.
The aim of the project is to increase the population to the year 2000 figures. A small but consistent annual decline in Jokkmokk’s population over the last decade or two, has been attributed mostly to young people leaving to go to universities and the elderly passing away.
David Carpenter, who will be heading up the international part of the project, moved to Jokkmokk with his wife nearly 10 years ago and said today “Jokkmokk is a huge county, nearly the size of Wales and certainly as big as Northern Ireland. The population is now at around 5,000 and needs to increase. Northern Sweden has a need for teachers, nurses, doctors and workers in many other professions. Property is also surprisingly well priced and a family home with land can often be bought for less than £50,000.”
Many people from various countries have moved to Jokkmokk over the past few decades. The area is very popular with Dutch and German people and recently a number of people from the UK have begun emigrating to the region.
The Future Jokmokk project will run from now until the end of 2014. After this period, if the project is successful, Jokkmokks Municipality will develop a permanent department to continue the work in the future.
Jokkmokks Municipality is located just above the Arctic Circle in northern Sweden. It is the second largest county in Sweden and boasts the Sarek National Park, one of UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites, amongst what is often referred to as Europe’s last true wilderness.
Visit the Future Jokkmokk website at http://www.futurejokkmokk.com for more information.
