Via the Local:
Sweden's bakers and confectioners make up the profession with the highest proportion of workers born outside of the EU and the Nordic countries, new statistics show.
In 2009, a total of 36.6 percent of Sweden's bakers, confectioners, and pastry chefs were born outside of Europe, Statistics Sweden (SCB) reported on Friday.
(...)
Handren Mevan and his brother are originally from Kurdistan and opened Mormors Bageri in Lund 1996, a bakery that later turned into a chain.
Today they own five bakeries and employ 77 people.
"I wasn’t actually working as a baker back in Iraq," Mevan told The Local.
"But I was drawn to this profession. It’s creative, exciting and interesting. Besides, it’s in my culture. You’ll find bakeries everywhere in countries like Iran and Iraq, it’s an important thing in our lives to get fresh bread every day."
Mevan, who studied computer science at university in Sweden and "could have gone in another direction", added that the popularity of the bakery profession might also be due to a perceived lack of choice among non-European workers in Sweden.
"There are people who come here and feel like they have no choice but to become bus drivers or to open a restaurant," he explained.
"Working within bakery is another option and probably the best one when it comes to working hours, which is important when you have a family."
(source)
