Nejat’s dream – to stay on in Sweden and start his own business

Nejat has a lot of activities on his agenda. At the same time he wishes he could a residence permit so that he can start to build up a secure future for himself.

As a newcomer to Sweden, he started with sport.

– I want to help people by teaching them to play football and floorball, he says.

He is a football trainer in Yngsjö for 6-7-year-olds, and he trains a group of girls at Vilan as part of the project ”Everyone can play floorball’”.

– Floorball is exciting. It’s fast, and it it requires a lot of technique.

Before he came to Sweden he had never heard of floorball. Less than a year later he started to play. And now he’s both a trainer and referee.

He is also a volunteer at Östermalm church.

– I look after the children while their parents are having language café. The people in the Church are open and friendly, and there is a good atmosphere, he says.

He is longing to get a positive decision on his residence permit. He thinks about it a lot. Even so, he puts a lot of energy into his studies at Söderport school, where he has just completed his first year on the commercial course.

– I work hard and study a lot, but I can’t help thinking about my application to the Migration Board.

At an early stage his application was turned down four times, but he hasn’t given up, and is still putting up a fight to remain in Sweden.

He thinks the Migration Board has acted incorrectly a few times.The problem is that his native language is Uzbek, but they booked an interpreter who spoke Dari, which Nejat does not speak.

– Studying is difficult. I can’t write in my native language. Here I could start to study for the first time in my life, and I had to do it in Swedish. But I can manage, he says.

When he turned 18 he had to leave the home where the Migration Board had placed him. So he tried to find a family he could live with.

– Through a language café in Åhus I got to know a family. I live with them now, and they teach me a lot, they help me. They are my family here, he says.

Thanks to the a Swedish friend, he got a trainee place at Åhus Golfkrog. He enjoys working there. His boss at the restaurant, Mattias Olsson, thinks Nejat is a capable and reliable person.

– Nejat knows his job from A to Z, he knows exactly what to do. Of course there’s a job waiting for him here when he comes back with good news from the Migration Board.

Mattias Olsson thinks the community ought to take its responsibility and provide some help.

– People ought to get help to integrate into the community. They obviously have the ability, but they need a helping hand to get started.

What are your dreams, Nejat?

– My dream is to get a residence permit and live an ordinary life in Sweden. I dream of opening starting a firm of my own. I would like to help people with difficulties finding a job.