Are you saying that xenophobia is a rampant problem in Sweden and that this chance encounter with an obviously mentally unstable individual somehow proves it? Tied with the Netherlands, I doubt there are any countries in the EU where it's easier to be an American than Sweden.
These SV of X articles always talk about the technology infrastructure, the venture capital, the universities, the mega-corps, the number of start-ups, etc. but I have yet to see one that mentions any sort of ethnic diversity as a key ingredient. Stockholm might be the Silicon Valley of Sweden, but unless it is attracting (and keeping!) global talent, it will never punch above its weight and compete with the actual Silicon Valley.
> I have yet to see one that mentions any sort of ethnic diversity as a key ingredient
English is the #1 language in most tech companies because there are people from all over. Ethnically there is perhaps not much diversity in tech, however. There are lots of americans, canadians, australians, french, german etc.
I have started ordering drinks in bars in english by default in Stockholm, because seeing a Swedish speaking bartender is so rare now. They are surprisingly often Irish for some reason.
Your basis for the conclusion that Stockholm is not "attracting and keeping global talent" is that some random person once was very rude to you? Or is this a general experience you've heard from other people?
Why stop there? What about Dave and Bill's shed in '38? Or maybe it was Leland opening the university in 1891? Surely that was the start of Silicon Valley?
Actually, it was probably Rock and the Traitorous Eight in '57 as the genesis of Silicon Valley. And you might be familiar with some of these US immigrants, none of whom were H1b's: Jerry (yahoo), Sergei (google), Pierre (ebay), Elon (paypal).
