Shorter parental leave for immigrants: minister
Published: 18 Jun 11 12:51 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/34436/20110618/
Immigrant parents with young children should have a shorter parental leave when the family moves to Sweden Centre Party's leader and minister for enterprise and energy Maud Olofsson said in an interview with Sveriges Radio (SR).
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"I think it is a problem when people are unable to become a part of Swedish society," Olofsson said to SR, calling parental leave a "trap" for women.
Olofsson refers to a report published this week by the Expert Group for Public Finances, which showed that parental leave can lead to immigrant women, without connection to the labour market, remaining unemployed.
Statistics have shown that women born outside of Sweden are the group who have most trouble establishing themselves on the Swedish labour market.
Today, anyone who arrives in Sweden are entitled to 16 months of parental benefit (föräldrapenning) for their child, even if the child is four or five when he or she arrives in Sweden. The basic level of parental leave is 5,400 kronor ($857) tax-free per child per month.
The authors of the report also want to scrap the childcare allowance (vårdnadsbidraget), a benefit strongly promoted by the Christian Democrats, which provides parents with up to 3,000 kronor tax-free per child per month.
In effect since July 1st, 2008, the childcare allowance is available to parents of children aged one to three years old who forego the option of sending their children to a publicly financed preschool.
Not only do parental leave and the childcare allowance constitute obstacles for women to enter the workforce, but they also hamper older children who could have begun pre-school and started learning Swedish immediately, the authors claim.
Instead they promote the idea of linking the amount of parental leave allotted when a foreign-born child arrives in Sweden with its age on arrival. That way the older the child is, the shorter the amount of time off would be.
Equality minister Nyamko Sabuni of the Liberal Party put forward a similar suggestion last year, which was heavily criticised, and the Liberal Party's head Jan Björklund quickly renounced all discrimination of non-Swedish parents.
Integration minister Erik Ullenhag said this week that he wants to take a closer look at the suggestions made in the report before making any comments.
What do you think? Leave your comment below.
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2:- this is reward for a women who is giving a new Swedish worker , or may be it is time to decide that Jews will have different rights then Egyptians under new faro
3:- whole Europe need manpower , skilled worker crises is on its way and they need less babies.
4:- this is only plan which government have to helping immigrant women to quickly get a foothold on the job market. but what other plans for immigrant man they also have no good foothold infect many in sweden have bad foot hold right now .. out masters should tell us our new rights when they are agree on capitalist agendas
Most of the users are so worried about blaming immigrants for everything that they do not realize they are immigrants.
Please point out the racial comments.
I don't see them.
"If you haven't paid into the system, you shouldn't get the same benefits of those already in the system. "
Answer: you don't - you get a lower level of benefit
And they should get none.
Increase payments to the people who've worked for it instead.
Or improve daycare.
You are correct. I misstated that. However, even at a lower percentage, as a Swede, you are okay with them getting a retroactive payment of parental leave? You do realize that if you pay them, you are taking money away from someone who actually deserves it, right?
if you do not need immigrant babies then you gona need more immigrants you better know which suits better , a swedish baby or an immigrant .
it is not benifit of parents but it is for future genration and child care , because as a person it does not effect me if i dont have a baby but if i have one and not getting my parental rights then it is going to effect Child more then me.
and if govt will decide to give not equal benefits then immigrants should have to pay less tax , they will have a valid reason for not being participative. and whole industry in sweden if filled with skilled immigrants and they say they need more.
in globalization era such idiot thinking is suicide to kill your first born or swedish fero wana kill first born of jews because they are afraid of The deliverer
Unfortunately some parasites can last many years without food and air. Their head is surrounded by concrete so no new information can get into their heads. So they only want uset he same information already inside their head and to live one way, one race, one language, one...and eveything else is wrong!
You *do*understand that this is a cheap option for the state?? That giving them 5K per month and refusing access to dagis saves around 80K per year?
Yeah - I'm sure that you would really be living the high life on 180kr per day before tax (snort)
I thought parental leave was based on salary? Once we've worked for a few months we can then draw on the parental leave at more than 180kr/day. I could be wrong ..
well i think now in sweden any immigrants will have much problem.
swedish law is different for swede and different for immigrants.
what does EU means. swedish government should think about the future jobs.
Immigrants and swede both pay same taxes.than why only immigrant.
get out the immigrants than sweden will have no problem.but dont buy food and other stuff from other countries specially OIL.
the LAW must be same for everyone.dont take more taxes from immigrants.one more thing swede never give jobs to immigrants for very sure.they will give you that jobs which they cannt do that job.in sweden if someone waste time than stay.if not than leave sweden.if immigrants stay in sweden they cannt be successful,because they give no good jobs in sweden even thoug your much qualified doesnt matter. good luck sweden
If swedish govt. thinks that it has right to tax us this much than it should at least provide child care when we need. It may help we immigrant women who need to establish our career alongside childbearing and raising.
We pay more tax. We work more than 40 hours and with more dedication. If you are taking about shorter parental leave how about less tax??
a pity that you see no value in taking time to be at home with you babies as "taking 180 crowns a day doesn't make much sense" - even though I am more highly educated than you I don't regret the time I spent with my babies
Of course you can get childcare before the age of 10-12 months but you have to pay the full cost yourself. If you cannot afford to stay homefor 180kr per day how would you afford the 15,000+kr per month that dagis for tiny babies would cost? - or are you expecting an even bigger subsidy from the state?
Personally I'd hate to see Sweden going down the route of putting tiny babies in dagis at a few weeksold
One on my friends is a double graduate from the best university in the Ukraine, who just happens to have been driving a taxi at Arlanda for the last 20 years. He's one of the most educated men ou're likely to meet, but he can't get a job as a doctor in Sweden because the majority of Swedes are just slightly racist and prefer doctors with names like Svensson and Johansson who can speak "proper Swedish" = fact.
His is one of dozens of cases I've come across.
Add to that the fact that the majority of political (and economic) refugees are the educated middle classes.
As for myself I've lived and worked in Sweden (and paid copious taxes) for the past 20 years, never claimed social benefits, yet I will, of course, receive a much smaller pension than native Swedes. Why should I be discriminated with parental benefits as well?