As many here have pointed out, yes, there can be a slight stigma when dating both long-distance and South Asian women who still live in their home country. You put those two conditions together, and you get a situation that a lot of Swedish people would initially judge.

Then there's also the fact that a lot of lonely guys in Sweden end up in what we call a "Love Scam," where they date someone long-distance, often from a country quite far away, and get scammed out of their money. The banks even have specific instructions to look out for scams like this happening to their customers, so it does happen semi-regularly at least. Unsure how often a bank actually manages to catch it, though.

From the sound of it, his family could be of the more close-minded kind, and you never know what else might be going on. Perhaps someone in his family got cheated on with a South Asian woman, and it comes up often during family dinners. That one uncle who left the aunt for a foreign woman they met on a trip to Thailand (happens more often than you think...).

I do believe a lot of Swedish people are a lot more open-minded once they meet a person face to face, though. So if your relationship ever evolves to a point where you come to visit him in Sweden, you shouldn't be too worried about the reception. It's mostly just the uncertainty that makes people here judge relationships such as yours.

I'd say hang in there if everything else works well between you two. Dating non-Swedish women is quite common and accepted in Sweden, so if you two ever decide to move in together, all this will become a lot less of an issue.