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Study: Sweden 'fails' at job market integration
Sweden is the second worst country in Europe when it comes to labour market integration, according to a new study from Stockholm University.
Published: 19 Nov 2012 17:06 CET
“There is a lower rate of employment and higher unemployment among those who have been here for up to ten years compared to many other European countries," sociologist Ryszard Szulkin from Stockholm University told national broadcaster Sveriges Radio (SR).
In the study, Sweden’s unemployment statistics were compared to those of fifteen other European countries, including Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Norway and Denmark.
27 percent of immigrant women are unemployed during the first ten years in Sweden, and 23 percent of immigrant men, putting the country almost at the bottom of the list when it comes to unemployment for new arrivals.
Only Spain has a higher unemployment rate for immigrant men and France for immigrant women.
According to Szulkin, it simply takes too long to break into the Swedish job market.
However, the study also indicated that something happens after ten years at which point Sweden fares better in comparison with the other countries.
The unemployment rate then drops to 11 percent for both women and men.
One explanation for the lengthy integration period in Sweden could be that the country accepts more refugees than the other countries included in the country.
These in turn, accept a larger number of labour immigrants.
According to Szulkin, it does take longer for refugees to establish themselves in the labour market if they don’t have jobs waiting for them when they arrive.
However, despite this, the study shows that Sweden is not entirely successful in its integration policy.
“That they don’t have job after five to six years in the country is of course a failure,” Szulkin told SR.
When reached by The Local for comment on the report, a spokesperson from the Ministry of Integration said officials at the ministry had not yet had a chance to review Szulkin's findings.
Earlier this month, a government report found that Somali immigrants in Sweden have a harder time finding jobs compared to Somalis in the United States and Canada.
The report cited Sweden's rigid labour market, language, and a lack of involvement by community-based organizations in the integration process.
TT/The Local/rm
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The whole country is like a refugee camp with or without a job. To live near the North Pole is like to live in exile in Siberia! Six months dark like the hell! At least there is sun in Spain, if not a job, and some normal human kind!
There are simply far more unskilled people looking for work than there are available jobs to accomodate them all. In 2013 Sweden will welcome 50 000 more unskilled people seeking work. But the number of available jobs in Sweden's knowledge based economy will be even less than there are today. Short of paying people to dig holes and then fill them in again, there is absolutely nothing for them to do. Believe it or not, there are people in Sweden who actually want to implement a hole filling policy to keep them busy.
Sadly, it is not only Sweden's labour market that is overwhelmed. Those that live here know that housing, health, the benefits system, and in the major cities, the police and courts are similarly disfunctional.
The only politically acceptable solutions are for Sweden to either carry on the best it can, or raise what are already the world's highest taxes to pay for it all. Under the present government, Sweden will carry on the best it can. Under the next Social Democrat government the taxes will be increased.
It's funny that the media here was so concered about 20,000 SAS employees possibly losing their jobs, yet they don't seem bothered that more than twice that number (50,000) unskilled and uneducated "new Swedes" will be jobless for a decade (or perhaps the rest of their lives).
"Everybody reads the first paragraph of The Wealth of Nations where he talks about how wonderful the division of labor is. But not many people get to the point hundreds of pages later, where he says that division of labor will destroy human beings and turn people into creatures as stupid and ignorant as it is possible for a human being to be. And therefore in any civilized society the government is going to have to take some measures to prevent division of labor from proceeding to its limits". However, governments are not civilized, they want to maintain control and they do that by dividing its citizens as many times as it can and ensure its citizens are dependent upon the state.
even I did not have time to look for job , I left my 7 years social life and all friends and networks I created here. For me it is fine because I got a good job somewhere else in Europe , but It is big failure in Swedish migration policy. How do you expect a new refugee with no skill to be integrated in job market ? it doesn't work like this