“Kastrup ID kontroll infrastrukturminister Anna Johansson” by News Oresund Licensed under CC BY 2.0 via Flickr.

If you’ve been paying attention to the news in Europe and in Sweden anytime over the last couple of years, and especially recently, you’ve probably heard about the refugee crisis. There’s been a lot going on in Sweden with regards to migration policies. Borders are being tightened, residence permits are tough to come by, and nearly every day you’ll see articles in the newspapers about what’s going on.

As you’re reading through the Swedish newspapers to practice your Swedish, it can be difficult to keep up. With that in mind, we’ve put together a short vocabulary list with XX number of nouns that are meant to help you understand a few of the key terms with regards to the current situation. This is, obviously, not a complete list and there are plenty more nouns (not to mention verbs and adjectives) that you’ll need to keep up-to-speed, but hopefully this is a good place to start.

You’ll notice that for many of these, once you’ve got a few of the words down, you’ll be able to build other compound words. And, of course, the opposite is true. By breaking those words into smaller pieces, you’ll be able to figure out what you’re reading.

Good luck!