Swedish study reveals why job centers fail refugee workers
A new study of low-educated migrants in Sweden found that employment caseworkers inadvertently sabotage job-seeking by dismissing foreign qualifications and failing to explain labor market rules. The finding suggests that how gatekeepers communicate—not just what programs exist—determines whether refugee workers integrate into employment.
Originaltitel: ‘Just give me a job and I’ll do it well’ – employability as a relational and contextual construct among low educated migrants in Sweden
Arbetsförmedlingarnas interaktioner med lågt utbildade migranter formar deras möjligheter på arbetsmarknaden mer än personliga egenskaper gör. En studie baserad på 23 intervjuer med före detta flyktingar visar att regelefterlevnad och matchning mellan migrant och arbetsmarknad beror på hur väl gatekeepare — främst handläggare — kommunicerar jobbmarknadens dolda spelregler. Forskarna använder Bourdieus begrepp för att analysera processen. Resultatet avslöjar kritiska brister: handläggares begränsade förståelse för hur migranternas tidigare utbildning och erfarenhet värderas, samt dåliga relationer mellan migrant och myndighet, leder till passiv jobbsökning och minskade chanser. För kommuner och Arbetsförmedlingen innebär detta att utbildning av gatekeepere — inte enbart av migranter — är central för integration. Utan aktivt kapitalbyggande i dessa relationer riskerar systemet att reproducera utanförskap snarare än att lösa det.
<p>In employability research, the concept of employability has been problematized for overemphasizing personal agency while neglecting structural factors. This has prompted a focus on employability as created in specific contexts and in relation to others. Delva et al. (2021) argued that Bourdieu's theory of practice is useful for understanding employability in this manner. We use this understanding of employability to make sense of how former refugees with low education reflect upon their pursuit of integration into the Swedish labor market. The study is based on 23 semi-structured interviews that were analyzed thematically using Bourdieu's terms field, doxa, capital, and habitus. The findings indicate that the migrants had difficulties in identifying the doxa for different labor market fields. Their previously acquired capital was often devalued in interactions with Public Employment Service caseworkers. A lack of communication and good relations with caseworkers were associated with alternative ways of navigating through the job-searching process, sometimes co-creating a limited and passive form of habitus. This highlights the relational dynamics in which gatekeepers play a significant role in shaping the migrants' employability. It also underscores the importance of gatekeepers recognizing their role in enhancing migrants' capital to improve their chances in the labor market.</p>