Many foreign-born in Sweden lack work: study

This hundred percent true , its much harder to find work special if you are immigrant. Ofcourse ppl would prefer who could spk swedish and share the same culture on both sides. Even Immigrants who run restaurants etc they hire ppl from their country and swedish hire swedes.

Lower the threshold what is he smoking?

What you need is a grace period for migrants to not be allowed to bring their primary and secondary family members, until they are financially stable, and get some good work experience and on their feet, this will build an economic foundation to support them, they should submit proof that they indeed can support them as they migrate, and integrate.

We end up with tons of un-educated, old, hard to integrate, hard to employ migrants whom chump away at the allready thin bidrag pool!

These people bring their grannies, uncles, the lot and who takes care of this people? good old Swedish welfare!

What the politicians need to understand specially the red ones is that there isn't a source of unlimeted funds to give away as charity.

The bummer of it all is that politicians like Mona are too quick to tax to the point where avoiding taxes is the norm for people of means.

More and more funds end up leaving Sweden, and if the social democrats had a clue, they would understand that it would be better to tax less, so people of means would re-invest in their own country not elsewhere. Thus many of this migrant workers would have greater chances of getting jobs.

this is 100% true.I applied for more than 400 jobs in 4 months 98% tells needs swedish.These people wont care how much skilled or experienced you are.This is really sad , as I m still sittly in this dark and cold weather and still applying jobs.

But the interesting thing is for cost cutting these ppl need outsourcing to countries like India and China.

@renjithr

Sorry that you are struggling with finding job.

Over and over again I see here people complaining about demand on Swedish language. I have faced similar challenge and still facing it, but I find it natural. We are afterall in their country. It was mentioned earlier that even immigrant businessmen hire their own people. This is natural behavior from Swedes.

The fact is that there are plenty of foreigners working in Swedish firms without knowing Swedish and many are in high or line management positions. So, at the end, qualification and luck matters.

What is the main issue here? Employers only want Swedes or do they demand you also know Swedish to be considered for the job? If language is the issue I do not see the problem. Learn it.

They do not need to lower the job security threshold. It is already low enough. I have only experience in retail in Sweden, and if you work below 100% you only work on a "verbal contract". You will never see a written contract where you and your employer signs. If they want to lower that standard you will see even more people on the job market in a few years.

I can vouch for this... have been in Sweden for more than 5 years in total, having moved here in 2000 (but lived else where in between) and am a Swedish citizen. I speak fluent English, Swedish, a smattering of other languages and have a Bachelors in Economics plus an MBA from Australia and Denmark. It's still hard to get my foot in the door - all my jobs so far have come from personal contacts with the companies I have worked for, from people who have taken the time to get to know me and understand my capabilities. A resumé to a random company from Monster or Stepstone still seems to get far fewer responses than I would in another country... Having a Swedish name is always a bonus!

To get a job in ANY country the requirements are:

1. You have the qualifications for the job

2. You have the right level of experience

3. You can sell yourself better than other qualified candidates

4. You Speak the Language.

How far would a Swede with little or no English get in an interview in London if he starts by saying " I speak not English bra, give me job" ?

It is also normal for immigrants to any country who decide to start a business without knowing the local language, to employ people who's language they do speak and hopefully a fellow countryman who speaks the local language and so can act as an interface between him and the natives, until such time as his own language skills improve

I reserve the right to change my mind, but for now I still think Sweden is a club of boys and girls who share the same ethnic background. If you are an immigrant or you were born to immigrants in sweden, just forget it.

You will never have the right name, look or swedish accent to ever be accepted.

Get your free education and move to a more friendly country for work. You may end up paying less tax and living a happier life.

Cheers.

I've been here since April of 2009 and also finding it very difficult to find a job as well. I find it very frustrating with the Swedish language and it is so true that Swedes look to hire Swedes first. I get the local language idea in countries where they don't speak English, but here in Sweden, people speak English quite well and can easily communicate in English no problem. I going to try with SFI and see if that helps. I'm hoping if possible employers see that I am making an honest effort to adapt and fit into the Swedish culture, they will respect that and take me seriously.

I met a person who had defended PhD thesis on racism in Sweden. He claims that Sweden is like the US in the 1960s. I argued with him that blacks in the US were openly repressed, segregated. His answer was that the Swedish racist are not as crude as their counterparts in Sweden in 1960s.

Adopted children, who speak Swedish fluently, have difficulties to find jobs if they happen to be colored, Asian, Latin or African.

Racism or Euro-centrism is rampant in Europe. It is in Sweden that the idea of white supremacy was invented. The Nazis developed the idea further. It takes long time to get rid of backward culture. The US in 2009 is better than in the US in 1960s. This is after 200 years of oppression. Sweden can be better place if those who suffered racism stand up to fight instead of going into their shells, e.g., drugs and alcohol. This can be done by putting twice as much effort in education and twice as much in the work place. Study hard core science and mathematics, where the measurement scale is more objective. Also raise the issue of discriminatory behavior in public forums.

It all takes time and patience

Learn the language or you will be at the back of the queue. OR get a relevant qualification in say IT, which tends to be English in the Nordics. Of course, experience helps, but you have to start somewhere.....even offer to work for free to get the experience. How do you expect to progress in your career if you don't learn the language? Maybe if you're a CEO etc, then language doesn't become such a barrier, but why would you want to come to Sweden to be a CEO when you can earn much more elsewhere.

You can moan forever, but it won't change the situation until you change your strategy. No-one is obliged to give you a job, especially when you have several Swedes out of work who can do the same job as you. What makes you stand out from the crowd? Life is unfair and those who succeed are those who have worked hard and had the determination to see it through. Combine that with some luck and hey presto, life is good. If you knock on a few doors or only register your CV online etc and sit at home waiting for the phone to ring, you are misguided. If you make a real effort, think outside the box, speak the language etc and still don't get a job, then you have 2 choices. Stay in Sweden and moan or move to another country.

I heard a story of a man who moved to Sweden in the 60's and despite his efforts and great skills, he couldn't get a job. He walked into a large company's offices and sat at a desk one day and started working for nothing. After a while people noticed him work and was eventually offered a job. Of course, that is unlikely to happen these days, but had he not done that...where would he be now. So, sometimes, you have to take a risk.....get outside of your comfort zone and try something new......even start up your own business.

Here is the part I do not completely understand and I need help from someone living in Sweden.

I read that one of the reasons Sweden has such liberal immigration policy is that there will not be enough workers in the future because of Sweden's low birth rate. This situation is not unique to Sweden, but is evident in many western European countries.

Yet, the immigrants have a difficult time finding jobs and, from my point of view in the USA, a new more violent underclass is forming in Sweden that consists primarily of unemployable immigrants.

It is apparent to me that there is a mismatch between the number of immigrants seeking jobs and the number of jobs that are available. It is apparent to me that the basic premise that there are an insufficient number of workers in Sweden is incorrect. And, the simple solution is to restrict the number of immigrants until there is a better match between workers and available jobs.

@krrodman

It's not so strange, you're just getting hit with conflicting messages, and it has little to do with the immigrants themselves and more to do with parallell information flows.

To illustrate, let's look at age instead of ethnicity.

There is a lot of talk and suugestions to raise the pension age so people can work longer.

At the same time, very few companies see someone around 50 as an attractive employee to hire.

Even more strange still, they say people might need to work longer, and yet the unemployment rate among people 18-28 is significantly higher than for those above 30.

Ergo, it's not like there aren't any people left to hire when the large crop of people born in the 40's retire, yet they still want the to work longer, yet refuse to hire the both the younger and older people.

Immigrants are often in the same type of dilemma. Many are available for workand the companies often claim they want more immigrants in their workforce, yet fe are hired.

In yet another similar situation; women in male dominated areas (construction, truck driver), or men in female dominated areas (childcare, nurse).

It' is a strange paradox that people are available, and yet don't get hired.

The issue in Sweden is not lack of language skills but rather something deeper in its social institution. Many Swedish companies don't tend to hire individuals with foreign sounding names; even if these people are Swedish born. A dear friend has a publicly traded telecom company in Kista and 90% the people employed there are well educated, talented, hard-working and well spoken Swedish born of Middle Eastern origins. A few of them have degrees from Handels, KTH and Lund. Yet they will never get hired by a Swedish firm. How come I know this? Hmmm.. BTW, my friend who owns the company is French so by definition he is far more open-minded than a Swede in his same position.

THROW THEM OUT!

but we're in sweden and here everything has to be so bloody perfect and it makes me sick.

@SunTiger

I agree and I understand. I am old enough to have lived through the Civil Rights movement and riots of the 1960s in the USA. Sweden, with its relatively homogeneous population, claimed that bigotry and racism was a uniquely American problem.

Fast forward to the present day and I see many similarities between the USA in the 1960s and Sweden today. There is a large class of people who are legal residents of Sweden and who may even be Swedish citizens, who are treated as second-class residents - just as African-Americans were treated in the USA. I am intrigued at the idea of "Sweden for Swedes." I ask you this: Is not every citizen of Sweden, Swedish? Legally, the answer is obvious: Every Swedish citizen enjoys equal rights under the law. The law does not distinguish between "white" Swedes and "other" Swedes. Yet, culturally there is a huge divide between different groups of "Swedes."

I have always felt that modern Sweden is in the middle of a huge social experiment. They have allowed/invited a huge influx of people who are culturally very different from the core population. Many are "victims" of repressive regimes in their native land and are considered "victims" in Sweden. This is critical because a "victim" is someone who is entitled to care and protection. In fact Sweden demands very little of political refugees. In particular, they do not demand that they integrate into Swedish society which I think is a terrible mistake. It only serves to highlight the huge cultural divide between the core population and the "new" Swedes. I have no idea how this experiment will end.

@dahaviland

"I get the local language idea in countries where they don't speak English, but here in Sweden, people speak English quite well and can easily communicate in English no problem"

Wrong: Not everybody can communicate in English well and even those who can do, would prefer to speak Swedish. You fall into the usual English speakers trap of thinking that just because someone will answer your question in English that they are happy to keep on doing it. Apart from the working/social environment there is the question of the bureaucracy which surprise surprise is in Swedish.

The situation in Sweden today is a far cry from when I first came here 30 years ago. In those days Sweden had overfull employment and because of the taxation system which tended to equalise take-home pay, there was little incentive to change job for a higher pay. This meant Swedish companies had to look elsewhere for employees in order to expand. I came to Sweden, having been head hunted, knowing not a word of Swedish except for skål. When I look back at those days I cringe at the way my English speaking Swedish colleagues had to lead me by the hand through the maze of the Swedish bureaucracy which was time consuming and must have been boring for them.

Just because a lot of Swedes CAN speak English it does not mean that they MUST to accommodate any immigrant.

Basic rule when moving to any country that does not have the same dominant language as your own. Do not move without a job offer or the ability to support yourself for a couple of years. Nobody owes it to you to give you a job.

and we have discussed this many times and some swedes here call us swede haters and trolls...there is no point again just tell your people at home to treat swedes badly when aborad...its thats simple

Its quite hard to get a job as it is, yes it helps to speak the language, thats very important, however it is still possible to get certain jobs without knowing perfect swedish although these sort of jobs are few and far between.

I have been in Sweden for 3 years and was headhunted from the UK for an IT role, as soon as my contract finised, i was recommended for another IT role, i have been in this new position for 4 months now, i have started taking Swedish classes though as it will help to socialise with work colleagues and friends,my lack of Swedish has not hindered my career in sweden

Like someone mentioned, Sweden job market is for those in employment, i can agree with this, funny enough, once you are in gainful employment, it is far more easier to move on to another job than a first timer, networking is very important, sites like Linkedin, jobserve, monster are a good source for new roles that have not been advertised in the mainstream job recruitment agencies, i work with ERP systems, SAP, there are a few SAP roles in Sweden and with English as the corporate languge, there are other IT roles in there as well, I suggest prospective jobseekers need to build a profile in the aformentioned webites and sell your skills

Obviously the bottom line for most is not being able to speak fluent Swedish. There are very few jobs where you wouldn't have to be able to speak the native language in any country. The question I ask is why would anybody, unless they already have a job to go to, move to Sweden thinking they'll be able to find a decent job when they don't speak the language? Honestly, if i had a Swedish sambo, she'd have to move to Canada since there's no way I'd be willing to be unemployed in Sweden for an extended length of time.

I speak English, and Spanish, and a little Swedish. I live in Florida and have a sommar stuga i Sverige. I live and work in a culturally diverse Florida, and I do not consider myself xenophobic.

Yet, when I go to Miami and enter a bank that posts a sign that says:

"English Spoken Here" as if it is a special perk to speak the native language, I have this odd sensation that there is something very wrong.

I do not think it is asking too much that immigrants learn the native language. Language is not just a method of communication, but it is the gateway to integration into a society.

Djmarko, you have a real skill that transcends your ability to speak Swedish. But, what happens to the immigrant who has no real job skill AND can not speak Swedish? He has no chance.

@krrodman

There is indeed a difference between the legal and cultural definition.

I also see what you mean with the similarities with the civil rights movement in the US in the 60's.

Being closer to the source I also see a lot of differencies, but the result is qutie similar, as you say, people get treated as second class citzens.

However, I don't think it is a social experiment. Expermient implies something deliberate and I don't think the social change in sweden is deliberately engineered. Rather it seems to me the result of well-intentioned policies, the consequences of which people were unprepared for.

In part because swedes are unused to consider different viewpoints on an equal basis. Swedes are good at looking at different viewpoints, but has a flaw in that they, consciously or unconsciously consider their own superior.

However, immigrants are by now such a large part of society that I strongly doubt Sweden could go back to how it was in the 50's because adjustment and assimilation is never onesided even when it tries to be. And frankly, even if Sweden could go back to that I don't think it should.

As usual with different cultures as well as different individuals and viewpoints, the process of change is far from smooth and it will likely go on for a long time before the "new" sweden has reached something of an equilibrium.

Birth is often painful after all. ;)

@SunTiger

I believe that every country by virtue of its unique set of social policies is, in a manner of speaking, a "social experiment." The policies are "well intentioned", but the real consequences of the policies will not be known for a generation.

You make a brilliant point that I have encountered when talking to Swedes. You note that Swedes consider their own viewpoint "superior." Last summer I was having a very interesting conversation with my wife's cousin, a psychologist in Sweden. We were talking about the integration of immigrants into Swedish society. My sense is that Sweden makes few demands on immigrants to integrate, in particular they make very few demands on "political" immigrants. I asked her what is the incentive for an immigrant, and family, to integrate into Swedish society when they are given housing and food and an education and a stipend. In effect, the government gives everything but asks for nothing in return. Her answer to me was simply that the immigrant will come to recognize that Swedish society is wonderful and will want to become a part of it.

Frankly, I was shocked by the arrogance of her answer. I believe that many Swedes will be shocked to find that large groups of immigrants who should give thanks to Sweden will, in fact, reject Swedish social and political culture.

Indeed, it is an interesting social experiment.

@franny66

"and we have discussed this many times and some swedes here call us swede haters and trolls...there is no point again just tell your people at home to treat swedes badly when aborad...its thats simple "

You ARE just a STUPID Troll that is incapable of making any meaningful contribution on any subject.

Every other post on this thread has had some merit. Then you pop up with a load of codswalop

Why don't you give us all a break and go drown yourself

I think the article is totally right.

@rugla

I get your point and I agree with you 100%, though you are generalizing the concept of immigrant. I didn't bring any family here, and I am not even planning to. Have no bidrag, Italian citizen married to a Swede, Licenciat in Public Relations, a master in psychology, speaking english, spanish, swedish and portuguese, been a lecturer at University in Buenos Aires and worked in my field as a PR for almost 10 years. I didn't get ONE job interview from the hundreds of applications I ave sent.

The only job I got in Sweden was as a waitress for one year in a Spanish restaurant.

I guess that is the point.

About the language, c'mon people, you are in Sweden learn Swedish, period. What do you expect? Arguments like that won't help us win the fight.

"The labor market in Sweden is designed for those who already have jobs." I can't exactly get it!

I mean nobody is employed from the birthday! It starts a day; so, what it means that "already have a job"? Probably the deputy means that, they who have experience get job.

Now, how you get the experience, by job of course!

SO, YOU DON'T GET JOB BECAUSE YOU DON'T HAVE EXPERIENCE, AND YOU DON'T GET EXPERIENCE BECAUSE YOU DON'T HAVE JOB.

Or deputy means that; it's not the experience, but whatever job you get help you to find another job; however, you start with a job and then you find another one and so on! If you are a University educated immigrant, studied and lived in Sweden for 20 years, can start with cleaning and just continue to restaurant job and then driving taxi and ……..to get experience

For immigrant more than 20 years in Sweden, roughly 7 of 10 has a form of employment, what form is not clear? It's a typically Swedish way of analyzing!

@ Rick Methvan

"Basic rule when moving to any country that does not have the same dominant language as your own. Do not move without a job offer or the ability to support yourself for a couple of years. Nobody owes it to you to give you a job."

Maybe in a perfect world, but life and other issues come into play. I moved here with my wife who is Swedish and has every right to be here to start a family. It was important to us that our children have this strong connection to Sweden as well as the support from her family. We could have stayed in the US, but this was important to her and I was willing to oblige because that's what couples do for each other. I do not feel that anyone owes it to me to give me anything, but it's just an observation that I have made while trying to get a job. I think it's hard for Swedes to accept that the world is getting smaller and that Sweden too, is becoming a melting pot. Swedish people definitely have a hard time with change and maybe that's what I find hard to adjust to coming from a country that embraces it.

The lesson here... you should humble yourself a little instead of being preachy about "What people should do" and consider that just maybe life can be a little complicated and one's decisions are not always so simple.

@dahaviland

I too moved back here 7 years ago after living in France and back in my native UK, because My wife could see more of her Swedish family and our son would have a better life than in the UK where he spent the first 18 years of his life.

Having been very close to Sweden for such a long time, I knew that it would not be easy as the job market had changed quite a lot. What I was being preachy about is the idea that Swedes should speak English in Sweden just because they can. Yes English is widely spoken around the world, but language is a big part of culture, Change the language and you change the culture. There is already a growing backlash in Sweden to the use of Swinglish just as there is in France from Franglais. watering down the language changes the culture. There is enough generally bad American TV programs here already.

Unless you learn to speak the language you will never feel at home and will not be able to integrate into the society. You will always be on the outside looking in. I have that experience from Living in Holland, France, Romania as well as Sweden. Until you learn the language you are always an outsider.

Maybe Swedes do have a hard time with change, but its their country and why should they change because it is better for you?

@ Rick Methven

You bring up some really good points. You couldn't be more right about being an outsider looking in. I feel it a lot in social situations as well as in the job market. I never imagined that it would be this hard to get a job. Immigrants to the US definitely do not have it this tough. Sweden is an awesome country in a lot of ways and is definitely worth the the effort to try to fit in. We'll see. Maybe one day I'll be posting your same argument to someone else who has just moved here and is having a hard fitting in.

Also, just another thought, you really have to live in a different country for a while to learn their language and during that time I guess you just have to accept that you are going to be unemployed.

A country may have a liberal immigration policy, but if the general people and companies are racists, what can you do.?

If the people are that bad, then immigrants should choose another country where, their skill and talent will be better appreciated.

And ifSweden, goes down as a country because of low birthrate, declining population and just plain degradation of manpower due to bigotry, then that is their problem.

@efm

Actually, what you suggest about emigration to another country is a good idea.

Some lucky people do, mostly qualified high-educated immigrants with experience. The problem is time, many immigrants who move to Sweden are adults over 18 years old, a great number have to go through a process of learning Sweden, which take almost four years, and if they have the ambitious to start at University or just complete their education after learning the language take something more than 4 years, then after gradation they should get some experience if they want to emigrate and this part is the most killing part of the process, to get the experience and not just experience but suitable experience. So, you can be ready to leave Sweden when you are almost at the age of leaving this world to your grave!!

I still consider it somewhat ludicrous that some people's comment here, tend to make things very 'simplistic'..'just learn the language u will be fine'..it all seem like the immigrant is the one that has bedevilled himself (or herself) with this woes of joblessness…'they should simply learn Swedish '..end of story! My own personal experience negates such assertions…I lived in another Scandinavian country prior to my moving to Sweden,..(an act I greatly wish I never did, but was compelled by marital circumstance), I speak Norwegian, perfectly,,..i used to consider myself as a 'black viking', but regrettably ..my own Viking, despite having a darker hue, doesn't boast of a set of blue or green eyes, and sometimes wish my hair never come out kinky each time I pay a visit to the salon.

Being a conscious 'brother', I quickly met with an agency upon my moving to Sweden that I wanted to take Swedish classes, they felt I was mad.. 'come on! They said u are a norwegian'..u don't need to learn Swedish…and I ended up inventing my own language since then…NOR-SWED, I had to improvise a lot of my 'Norsk' so Swedes could pick what I say with my funny accent…today,I now 'speak' Swedish Pari passu. I tried a number of job agencies with hundreds of applications, but never got an interview..once , until sometime last year when I had to get ingenuous…guess what I did? I culled an article from The Local..the story was about the statistics as well as probabilities of getting a job as an immigrant, and the ranking was done in percentages, while North American countries were ranked with higher percentages, Asians and Africans were at the bottom of the table circa zeo percentage. I then culled this article, and sent it in as an application to one of the job postings that I was always getting by email from some of the agencies I registered with…Guess what? I got a call within 3o mins, first by the recruiter trying to absolve himself of discrimination tendencies, he then proceeded to grant me a phone interview before I was subsequently called for a face-to-face interview, albeit never got the Job. I eventually started studying Swedish at KTH, and after obtaining 2 masters degree in nanotechnology and project management..from the same school..yet my fortune hasn't really changed… I only get possibilities for odd job openings..and don't bother asking me what such jobs entail…but they are not too distant from 'cleaning the pooh from the stairway for a supposed government figure on a Sunday'

@chartiz

PM me. If we are anywhere near each other I want to buy you a beer and discuss a few things over a matpakke med brunost og vitost. ;-)

@dahavaland

"Also, just another thought, you really have to live in a different country for a while to learn their language and during that time I guess you just have to accept that you are going to be unemployed. "

That is true, It does not matter how much you have studied a language before moving to a country. You may think that you are fluent until you start living there and you find the different nuances that you never get from books or a language teacher. If possible it is better to have a job before you move. If not then expect some time being unemployed. In my youth I made leaps of faith, Nowadays, I try to avoid uncertainty

i agree 100% ,iv had this same problem,no one was willing to hire me,im a bartender,taught at 2 different bartender schools and worked at some of the best clubs in the world over my 8 years ,NO ONE WOULD HIRE ME..first thing they ask is do you speak swedish,i do the best i can and they say no,not enough,i speak enough to ask what people want,general conversation...i understand more..but i can't sit and have a 30min conversation with someone in swedish ... i applied at easily a 100+ bars in gothenburg and got nowhere ,finally after about 6months , a bar with a younger manager who spoke perfect english hired me,after i volunteered to work a few days for free to prove i could handle it he hired me,but its far from full time and what i want,2 days a week pays my bills and that's about it...iv never once had a problem finding a job throughout my 7 years of living in 6 different countries in Europe,i can't remember being out of work more then 1 week living outside Sweden with or without papers...i actually have papers to work now for the 1st time in Europe(shhhhh) and it took me almost 6 months to find a job. everyone speaks english here,it should not be a problem,but it obviously is.just another note,it makes me sick when i go to the bar my gf works at,the owner wont hire me for the same reason,he speaks little too no english..and accept for my gf(she was a student at one of the bar schools i taught lol) all of there bartenders are COMPLETELY USELESS..i mean they dont know even the basic drinks..it angers me soo much,i almost feel discriminated against..thanks for letting me rant,good luck to all of you in the same boat

''Christer Ågren, deputy head of the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise, believes that the labour market in Sweden is designed for those who already have jobs. ''

and are they OK with this................. that might be the stupidest ''design'' ive ever heard!!!

The market is definitely designed for people already with jobs, once you have Swedish work experience on your CV, the rest comes far easier than imagined, i can agree how can you get experience if yu not giving an opportunity??

For those with good qualifications, why not outside Sweden?? experiment, work Abroad in the EC for say 6-12 months, come back to re-apply for jobs in Sweden, you might be shocked on the response you might receive!!! no one likes to take chances with the unemployed it seems, once you are in the system, you stay there

Contrary to the experiences of many immigrants, I did not have any problems finding a job in Sweden - despite the fact that when I moved here my Swedish was pretty poor. Having said that, I also work in an industry (IT) where the use of English as the "lingua franca" of the industry. In addition, I was employed by a multi-national where English is the official language, and I would not be required to have a significant amount of interaction with native Swedes.

On the other hand, I do wonder if things would have been substantially more difficult for me if any of the following had been been true:

a) I had a surname that sounded non-European

b) I had a darker complexion

c) My home language was not English

d) I did not have a passport from an EU country

I suspect it would have taken longer!

On the issue of Swedish versus English in the workplace, clearly a common-sense approach should be taken. If a job requires a lot of interaction with native Swedes who represent a demographic that does not speak good English (e.g. older people in rural areas), then it makes sense to require decent Swedish. On the other hand, if Sweden wants to increase their role as a player in the global marketplace, then companies will have to accept that the use of English in the workplace will increase. You don't find ambitious Chinese moaning about having to learn to speak English - because they realise that, for good or for bad, English is the de-facto language of the international; business community.

Common sense dictates that it is better to have more people employed than living off social benefit. If one of the factors that promotes an increased uptake in employment is greater use of English in the workplace, then we consider it. I know that die-hard culture defendants complain about "lose the language, lose the culture", but my experiences in South Africa (with 11 official languages, but English as the "common" language) indicate that this is simply not the case.

I would suggest doing volunteer work if you can find it. Its a great way to get your foot in the door. The people around you will see what you have to offer and will usually take a liking to you which can give you an in for a real paying gig.

@farnoxo - Precisely

I can't tell you the amount of times I've read threads like this on this site and wondered what would be possible with all the untapped potential in this country going to waste.

But I'm no different - having once ran my own IT services company I cant get a job, cant start with no funds.....if you have an IT related qualification ie designer, programmer etc pm me