From Russia With Love

Abstract: This thesis studies love migration from Russia to Sweden. It delves into the Swedish perception of this phenomenon, as well as the underlying reasons therefor. It compiles and recontextualizes relevant prior research and compliments the work of others with an original interview with a Russian woman who moved to Sweden for marriage around a decade years ago. The study finds that while Russians and Swedes perceive love in itself in similar manners, they ascribe different value to love as the sole motivation for marriage, with Swedes prioritizing it more than Russians. This, as well as differing views on family life, as well as a still reflected-upon historical animosity between Sweden and Russia, cements a cultural divide, one expression of which is the suspicion with which Swedes regard Russian love migrants. Swedes see Russians mainly from the exclusivist perspective as outlined by Osanami Törngren, and the study finds that phenomena such as previously researched Russian migration behaviour in Turkey has ingrained itself unnecessarily in the Swedish expectations of Russian motivations for coming to Sweden.