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Study: Sweden 'fails' at job market integration

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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19:04 November 19, 2012 by skatty
As a mater of fact, the life of refugees in Sweden is similar to a permanent settlement in a refugee camp from beginning to the end; no matter what process refugees are going through.

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!
19:21 November 19, 2012 by RobinHood
The market for unskilled labour in Sweden is overwhelmed.

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.
22:48 November 19, 2012 by Spuds MacKenzie
All these statistics that prove what a disaster Sweden's massive refugee importation program is, yet the government only increases the number of those coming here each year.

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).
00:42 November 20, 2012 by bolababu
As an immigrant in Sweden, you owe it to yourself to make yourself attractive to the labour market. No one's going to do it for you, use the tools made available by the government like SFI, Instegsjobb, Nystartsjobb through arbetsformedlingen and develop yourself. If you are not lazy, if you are not overwhelmed by the meagre handout you recieve from the social services, if you have but a little bit of ambition, you will find a job. I am an immigrant, i have lived here for 4 years, learned Swedish through SFI in 6 months, i have been between jobs a number of times but i have never been without a job. You owe it to yourself!
00:58 November 20, 2012 by rabbemos
Immigration and high unemployment are key objectives by this Swedish government or the next one for that matter as it aids in deconstructing the social welfare state...sorry but you, meaning most of Europe, is too close to communism for this capitalist world.If Sweden had low unemployment the people could easily ask for more and governments are not interested in empowering people they want to enslave them.

"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.
08:43 November 23, 2012 by neda
After seven years doing master and PhD and a year working as a researcher in university , publishing many papers and dedicating so much to Swedish industries my time was finished ! You have to leave the Sweden because you were here for study. Of course I has sign a paper to leave the Sweden after study and I did .

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
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