Swedes living here believe their experience offers Ireland lessons on how to handle immigration, writes Kate Holmquist

About 1,500 Swedish people now live in Ireland and they love it here because, they say, the people are friendlier, they laugh more and, believe it or not, the weather is better. In a global market, educated young Swedes can work anywhere, but they like Dublin because it is vibrant, increasingly multicultural and a manageable size, even if housing and food are outrageously expensive compared with Swedish prices.

The Irish and the Swedes have more in common than ever. The State is experiencing the kind of changes in population in the past five years that took place in Sweden in the 1960s and the Swedish government is keen to share its experience with the Irish.

Fifty years ago Sweden was a homogenous, white-bread place where exotic vegetables were unknown and the restaurants and bars closed early and all day on Sundays. Today, one in five of the population of nine million has at least one foreign-born parent. The official view in Sweden is that cultural and social life has benefited greatly from migration and foreign influence. Sweden has become more open since 1997, when the Swedish parliament introduced its first integration policy - 40 years after refugees, economic migrants and asylum seekers began to arrive.

But despite spending millions attempting to integrate newcomers, Sweden admits it still hasn't got it completely right. There seems to be a gap between the politically correct view that integration should be welcomed, and privately held racist beliefs.

So says Jesper Ohrn, who works for the Swedish Trade Council in Dublin. He and his Cuban wife, Iris Ohrn-Barra and daughter Alicia, moved to Dublin from Madrid last year. Their second child, Sonia, was born in Dublin last week.

"Dublin is the perfect mixture between northern and southern Europe. It has the social, lively atmosphere of Madrid, yet it has the best qualities of a northern European city. One thing we like about it is that it is very social, in business as well, where it's important to have an individual relationship with customers," he says.

"My impression is that immigration is being quite well handled in Ireland. Immigration is always criticised in every country, but I think that in day-to-day life the Irish are interested and positive concerning people from other countries. I think that the fact that the Irish are so very social and positive towards new people has been an important part in Ireland's social development."

Swedes tend not to say exactly what they think and keep their true thoughts "under the surface", he says. Even when people feel racism exists, they dare not speak of it. In Ireland, immigrants who stop to ask for directions are always treated well and sometimes even escorted to their destinations, while in Sweden, people are more likely to think that "foreigners are bombers", Ohrn says.

His one word of advice to the Irish is to speak openly about how they truly feel about immigration and the rapid changes in Irish society. Hiding negative feelings in the interest of appearing politically correct is counterproductive, he says.

"My wife used to get comments in Spain about her background because the Spanish say exactly what they think. I would advise the Irish to be more like the Spanish than the Swedes and be very open about their feelings," he says.

The Irish need to face the fact that about 50 per cent of recent immigrants will want to stay here, says Anna Envale, who has a master's degree in international migration and ethnic relations. She has enjoyed living in Dublin for the past two years with her husband, Henning, who works in the Swedish embassy, and their two young children. She has just spent three months working with the Reception Integration Agency in the Department of Justice in Dublin. The agency works with asylum seekers.

"Ireland is aware of the issues but there is still a need to speed up the pace of change. Ireland can learn from other countries," she says.

In an economic downturn, she warns, Irish workers could find themselves competing with economic migrants for jobs, which is when people's true attitudes to integration will emerge. Everything needs to be done to help asylum seekers to pursue education, find jobs and good housing as quickly as possible so that they can play a useful role in society, she believes.

In Sweden, there is still a high unemployment rate among the foreign-born.

"We have poured millions into the immigration system. . . one lesson that Ireland can learn from us is to take better care of the whole situation for asylum seekers, such as housing. All the stake-holders need to be involved in a clear distribution of housing to avoid the ghettoisation that happened in Sweden," Envale advises. "The Irish Government needs to believe that they can make it work. Idealism is required."

After 18 years working in an unemployment office in Sweden, Ninni Svantesson Frisk, chairman of NGO, the Swedish Women's Educational Association, came to Dublin a year ago with her husband, who works in a Swedish insurance company in the IFSC. She loves living here.

She was delighted to get a part-time job in a Swedish children's clothing store, POP, at House of Frasier in the Dundrum Town Centre. In Sweden, it would be impossible for a woman of her age - she's in her 50s - to find such a job because retail work would go to younger women, she says.

"The Irish are very, very friendly. It's easy to come into contact with the Irish and to talk with them," she adds. "The Swedes are not as polite or easy to talk to."

• The Swedish government declared 2006 the Year of Cultural Diversity, and as part of its programme its embassy in Ireland and Culture Ireland will host a debate tomorrow at 3pm in the Erin Room, Dublin Castle. It will focus on cultural diversity and cultural inclusion. Anastasia Crickley, chairwoman of National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism, will chair the debate, with Irish and Swedish panelists Micheál Ó Súilleabháin, Kate Holmquist Yvonne Rock, Leif Magnusson, and Zanyar Adami.It will be followed at 6pm with the launch of a Swedish video installation by artist Esther Shalev-Gerz