By sharing housing, seniors and migrants in Sweden build bridges
It was when his older Swedish neighbors threw him a high school graduation party that Afghan native Zia Sarwary finally felt a sense of belonging in this picturesque seaside city.
“It meant everything to me,” says Mr. Sarwary, who at the age of 13 arrived alone in Sweden during the 2015 refugee crisis. “That was the beginning of feeling at home.”
Mr. Sarwary is one of dozens of tenants living in Sällbo, a shared-living project mixing elder Swedes and young adults, some of them from Sweden, others – like him – from the Middle East or Afghanistan. The six-story building with 51 apartments helps counter both the loneliness of advanced-age Swedes and the integration difficulties facing migrants who arrived as unaccompanied minors.
Tenants of Sällbo have
