OECD SOCIAL, EMPLOYMENT AND MIGRATION WORKING PAPERS The Integration of Immigrants into the Labour Market: the Case of Sweden

This series is designed to make available to a wider readership selected labour market, social policy and migration studies prepared for use within the OECD. Authorship is usually collective, but principal writers are named. The papers are generally available only in their original language – English or French – with a summary in the other. The opinions expressed and arguments employed here are the responsibility of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the OECD SUMMARY 1. The current situation regarding the integration of immigrants in the labour market in Sweden is the consequence of a number of factors and developments. The past fifteen years have seen a higher share of humanitarian migration in Sweden than in the past. This is a form of migration for which labour market integration appears to be slower than for other forms of migration in all countries. At the same time there has been a growing diversification of migration away from " Western " countries to those with a greater cultural distance. 2. With 1985 came the introduction of social assistance for refugees for an eighteen-month introductory period, the transfer of responsibility for integration away from the Labour Market Board and the refugee dispersal policy in which refugees were assigned to municipalities throughout Sweden to relieve the pressure on the large agglomerations, with local economic conditions not always being taken into account. The dispersal policy had a negative effect on immigrant outcomes, particularly with respect to those arriving during the economic crisis, for whom the effects seem in many cases to be persistent. 3. With the severe economic crisis of the 1990s, asylum seeking in Sweden continued and those asylum seekers that were recognised and granted a residence permit were met with a labour market situation that was highly unfavourable and where considerable numbers of native-born Swedes with domestic formal qualifications and work experience were also looking for work. At the same time, the crisis struck immigrants already present and employed disproportionately. The reintegration of immigrants into the ranks of the employed was rendered all the more difficult by the fact that some two-thirds of jobs, in the Swedish labour market appear to be filled through informal methods 4. The situation of immigrants has improved significantly since the trough of the economic downturn, especially for new arrivals. The relatively favourable impact on employment of a minimum amount of language training and of …