The study sets out to provide a better understanding of the emerging challenges in policy targeting the labour-market integration of refugees. What are the strategies and practices implemented in different EU Member States to facilitate access into employment? What do we know about their effectiveness? What are good practices and lessons learned in different countries? The study is based on nine detailed country case studies of the following EU Member States: Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

This thematic paper deals with integration policies concerning persons who aregranted international protection in EU Member States. It acknowledges that there are two general trends in integration policies - a civic turn and a local turn. The civic turn implies more integration requirements for migrants, decided upon by the state, that have an impact on the legal status of migrant newcomers. On the other hand, the local turn implies less national involvement with cities instead handling more of the integration policies, including funding and policy measures.

The paper then describes four different models for the integration of beneficiaries of international protection: a national government-led model, a project based/multilevel governance model, a laissez-faire model, and a NGO-led model.

This article investigates labour market segmentation of EU-13 workers in Sweden. Labour market segmentation is a driver of income differences between natives, EU-15 migrants and EU-13 migrants in many EU member states. There are, however, indications that labour market inequalities as a result of segmentation among EU-13 migrants is less pronounced in Sweden. Previous research, both quantitative and qualitative, has shown surprisingly low levels of labour market segmentation among the employed. The structural differences on the labour market has, instead, been between the employed and unemployed, with a large employment gap between natives and all migrant groups including EU-13 migrants. We address the functional integration in the labour market from a longitudinal perspective, using several quantitative indicators to measure the degree of labour market segmentation. Natives and other migrant groups (EU-15 and refugees) are used as reference groups. Our results shows a low but increasing labour market segmentation among the employed born in EU-13 countries. The dissimilarity between employed natives and EU-13 workers is increasing, especially among men. Men from EU-13 countries is the only category where the occupational position has deteriorated. From having a similar occupational position as EU-15 migrants in 2007, their position in the labour market in 2015 is more similar to the refugee group. This development is driven by a large increase of Polish construction workers on the Swedishlabour market.

This study examines three theses on local integration policies by a qualitative comparative case study of integration policies in three cities in three different countries (Berlin, Malmö, and Rotterdam). We found little evidence of a congruent local dimension of integration policies. Local policies resemble their national policy frameworks fairly well in terms of policy approaches and domains. Our multi-level perspective shows that this is not the result of top-down hierarchical governance, but rather of a multilevel dynamic of two-way interaction. Local policy legacies and local politics matter and national policies are also influenced by local approaches of integration.

In 2008, Sweden changed its labour-migration policy to facilitate more labour migration from countries outside the EU. Most state ambitions to shape labour migration, including practices such as the use of labour-market tests and the assessment of migrants' human capital, were abandoned and the responsibility to select migrants was transferred to employers. We use Swedish register data and adopt a difference-in-differences approach to assess the effects of the policy change on labour migrants' labour income, in comparison to non-EU migrants who moved to Sweden for reasons other than work. The effects of the policy change are substantial. Labour migration from outside the EU increased and its composition changed after the reform, resulting in a significant decrease in mean income. We conclude that changes in their occupational composition were the main drivers of the income drop for labour migrants. In sum, the new non-selective labour-migration policy lowered labour migrants' mean income by opening the door to unskilled labour.

There is a growing interest in the research community in the local governance of migration and integration. Studies indicate a local turn in integration policies, with local governments becoming important integration policy actors. Unlike most research, this study of recent developments in the policies for migrant newcomers in Denmark and Sweden observes a national turn in local integration policy. Despite their different integration policies, the central governments of both countries have increased their control and influence at the local level and thereby made it more difficult for local governments to formulate their own integration policies. This study highlights the need to complement earlier research based on frame analysis with an analytical framework that takes central government steering and the uneven power relationship between the levels of government into account.

According to the policy-making literature, external shocks are one of the most important pre-requisites for major policy changes. This article investigates how the refugee crisis affected Swedish political parties’ asylum and family migration policy preferences. The results indicate that the refugee crisis contributed to the breaking up of a long-established policy paradigm of openness and equal rights previously shared by most parties in parliament. A more fragmented party system has emerged where a new paradigm of controlling numbers has also found strong support outside the anti-immigration party the Sweden Democrats.

In the midst of the ongoing financial crisis in 2008, the Swedish government decided to liberalize the labour migration policy from third countries. After several decades of having a restrictive system, the country now has one of the most open labour migration systems in the world. In this paper I review the outcome of the policy and offer some tentative explanations about why we have seen this specific outcome in the Swedish case. The result is an increase of labour migration, but it is to a large part due to immigration to sectors with a surplus of workers. The labour migrants can roughly be divided into three major categories: those moving to skilled jobs, low skilled jobs and seasonal workers in the berry picking industry. The demand driven system has produced a specific labour migration pattern which is better explained by employer’s access to transnational networks than actual demand for labour. Many sectors with a large surplus of native workers have experienced major inflows while employers in other sectors with labour shortages don´t recruit from third countries. The policy outcome also highlights the need to analyse and explain different categories of labour migration separately as they are a result of different driving forces.

This dissertation collects four peer-reviewed articles that are published in academic journals. Two of the articles are about the multi-level governance of integration polices, and two study the effects of labour migration policies. The two topics are tied together by an introduction where a common theme of the articles is discussed – the role of the state. Based on the results of my four articles, I argue that the relevance of the state as a unit of analysis is still strong and impossible to ignore if one wants to understand the patterns of migration and the conditions which migrant newcomers face in their countries of residence. When the Swedish labour migration policy was changed, and the veto of the unions and the state (the Employment Service) was abolished, it enabled social networks and market forces to play out more freely, which led to an increase in labour migration. The Swedish 2008 labour migration policy was designed to solve labour shortages. However, the effect of the new law was mainly the creation of new opportunities for migrants to get work permits and visas to Sweden in order to apply for asylum or work in low-skilled jobs in sectors without labour shortages. Thus, state policies do matter, even if not always in the way in which policymakers intend them to. The state has also tightened its grip on local integration policies in both Denmark and Sweden, despite very different overall policies. Where Denmark´s civic integration policies have formed a tighter relationship between the state and the individual, the Swedish way has been to centralise and standardise integration services and reduce local policy autonomy.

This article studies the outcomes of the 2008 labour-migration policy change in Sweden, when most state control was abolished and an employer-led selection was introduced. The main goal was to increase labour migration from third countries to occupational sectors experiencing labour shortages. The article compares the volume, composition and labour-market status of labour migrants who arrived before the change in the law with those who arrived after. Labour migrants from EU countries are used as a control group to assess any eventual influence from non-migration policy determinants. The main outcome of the policy change is that non-EU labour migration increased – an effect entirely due to the rise in labour migration to surplus occupations. Changes in the composition of the labour migrants explains why those who came after the law change have, on average, a worse labour market position.

Based on 41 semi-structured interviews with young Latvians and Romanians in Malmö, Sweden, this article explores why Europeans from new European Union (EU) member states want to move to, and stay in, Sweden despite economic difficulties and underemployment. Six main factors for explaining mobility patterns are highlighted: free university education, romantic relationships, cosmopolitan lifestyle, presence of English language, idealisation of Sweden and work–life balance. We read these factors as ideas and aspirations of well-being in the ‘imagined space’ of Sweden. The findings illustrate that many young migrants do not chose to move to Sweden for short-term economic opportunities, but rather to experience a different lifestyle. In most cases, these expectations are met, although over time.

Access to language training is often a challenge for persons granted international protection in EU-countries. This article investigates language provision for refugees from a policy and governance perspective. The goal is to explain the local differences in language training provisions in EU countries. We use a most different cases approach including Cosenza in Italy, Glasgow in Scotland, Malmö in Sweden and Nicosia in Cyprus. We find that the combination of state policies and governance do explain differences in local access to language training. The results also strongly indicate that local governments are dependent on support from higher levels of government to secure training opportunities. The state is still the main actor, and its choices of policies and governance instruments are central for understanding differences in language provision for refugees in EU member states. 

In 2008, Sweden introduced a non-selective labour migration policy without labour market tests and human capital considerations. This article studies the effects of the policy change on the size, composition and labour market outcomes. Using longitudinal register data, we find that the 2008 liberalizations of the Swedish labour migration policy increased the number of labour migrants from non-EU countries. Post-reform labour migrant cohorts have on average lower level of human capital, and the lower level of human capital translates into worse labour market outcomes. One year after migration, post-reform cohorts have a higher skills-mismatch and about 30 percent lower income. Migration controls against abuse introduced in 2011 and 2012 improved the labour market outcomes somewhat.

Frågan om högkvalificerad arbetskraftsinvandring är intressant av flera anledningar. För det första är allt fler överens om att den internationella konkurrensen för att locka till sig begåvningar tilltar, vad som brukar benämnas the global race for talents (Kuvik 2013). Till skillnad från andra kategorier av invandrare brukar högkvalificerade invandrare både ses som önskade och välkomna (Triadafilopoulos & Smith 2013). Med ökade möjligheter till mobilitet följer en ökad konkurrens om arbetskraften mellan EU:s medlemsländer, med traditionella invandringsländer som Kanada och USA och med nya konkurrenter som Kina och Indien. Den mest efterfrågade arbetskraften är just högkvalificerade personer, där det inte bara handlar om att locka till sig önskad arbetskraft utan också om att behålla den. Mycket tyder på att europeiska länder är mindre framgångsrika i detta avseende och de flesta OECD-länder är nettosändare av högutbildade personer. Vinnarna är engelskspråkiga länder som USA, Kanada och Australien. Även inom Europa finns det ett fåtal vinnare, bland dem Luxemburg, Sverige och Schweiz (Brücker, et al. 2012, s. 65).1 För det andra har dagens invandringspolitik i de flesta länder allt mer kommit att handla om att styra invandringen bort från en generell invandring till ett noggrant och hårt kontrollerat urval av invandrare. Dagens politik för arbetskraftsinvandring är inte som på 1960-talet utformad för att bemöta en generell arbetskraftsbrist utan för att bemöta specifika rekryteringsbehov och/eller för att stimulera ekonomisk tillväxt mer generellt (Menz & Caviedes 2010). För det tredje är de flesta yrken där det finns brist på arbetskraft högkvalificerade yrken, vilket inte minst är fallet i Sverige. Arbetsförmedlingens prognos för 2014-2016 visar till exempel att den största bristen på arbetskraft finns inom yrken som kräver högre utbildning: i offentlig sektor inom yrken som lärare och inom hälso- och sjukvård och i privat sektor yrken inom teknik och data (Arbetsförmedlingen 2014). Därutöver är bristen allt större för kvalificerade yrken inom bygg och anläggning. Det finns därför goda skäl att studera just den högkvalificerade arbetskraftsinvandringen också i den svenska kontexten.

This article analyses the relationship between human capital and career outcomes using the case of highly skilled young Latvians and Romanians in Sweden. As a non-English-speaking country with regulated labour markets, the Swedish case provides a contrast to previous studies on EU10 to EU15 mobility that usually focus on English-speaking receiving countries with less regulated labour markets. Thirty-eight semi-structured interviews are analysed from a life-course perspective to map the education and career trajectories before and after their mobility. Three career trajectories are found: match, re-skilling, and de-skilling. Most young migrants tend to prioritize general, rather than country specific, human capital investments, which negatively affects their career outcomes. The results highlight the importance of individual human capital investment choices as well as structural opportunities in receiving countries for understanding the relationship between human capital and career outcomes for young EU-migrants.

In this article, we investigate local level reactions to the top-down state steering for the housing of refugees in Sweden. We especially reflect on events after the increased refugee reception in Sweden in 2015 and the introduction of a Settlement Act in 2016 which made it mandatory for municipalities to receive a specific number of refugees and organise accommodation. This has resulted in a wide array of housing situations for refugees concerning standard, costs and temporary solutions. A multi-level governance framework from on central government steering perspective is applied. We argue that the modified legislation can be understood as a change in governance throughout the years - from persuasion to economic incentives and, finally, to coercive methods. Sweden is a country that has distinguished itself as one refraining from particularity and continuing to work towards equality between newcomers and citizens. In relation to recent legal and political developments, we identify a change - a paradoxical change, as governance for the more-equal reception of refugees in Sweden seems to lead to increased inequalities for refugees on the local level.

Despite having a celebrated labor market integration policy, the immigrant–native employment gap in Sweden is one of the largest in the OECD. From a cross-country perspective, a key explanation might be migrant admission group composition. In this study we use high-quality detailed Swedish register data to estimate male employment gaps between non-EU/EES labour, family reunification and humanitarian migrants and natives. Moreover, we test if differences in human capital are able to explain rising employment integration heterogeneity. Our results indicate that employment integration is highly correlated with admission category. Interestingly, differences in human capital, demographic and contextual factors seem to explain only a small share of this correlation. Evidence from auxiliary regressions suggests that low transferability of human capital among humanitarian and family migrants might be part of the story. The article highlights the need to understand and account for migrant admission categories when studying employment integration.

Despite having one of the most celebrated labor market integration policies, the native immigrant employment gap in Sweden is one of the largest among the OECD countries. In this study, we use unique Swedish register data to try to explain the employment gap between male immigrants and natives. The results show that the traditional human capital theory only explains a small share of the immigrant-native gap. After controlling for human capital, demographic and contextual factors, large unexplained employment gaps still persists between immigrants and natives and between migrant categories. Our analysis indicates that admission category is an important determinant of employment integration, and that humanitarian and family migrants suffer from low transferability of their country specific human capital. The article highlights the need to consider migrant categories in integration research, and take into account international human capital transferability when explaining employment outcomes for immigrants.

Human capital has been long an exceedingly important concept in migration research. Over time there have been attempts to provide more nuanced, and less economistic interpretations of human capital. Based on outputs from the EU Horizon 2020 project YMOBILITY (2015–2018) and two additional papers, this Special Issue seeks to advance this agenda further by addressing the complexities of the mobility of human capital. Migration problematises human capital assumptions due to challenges in transferring human capital across national borders. In this introductory paper we propose rethinking the human capital of migrants in a three-fold way. Firstly, we question the interpretation of skills and competences beyond the conventional divide of ‘higher-skilled’ and ‘lower-skilled’ through the concept of a ‘knowledgeable migrant’. Secondly, we probe deeper into an understanding of the transferability of skills in relation to ‘location’, exploring the possibilities and constraints to the transfer of human capital in different spatial contexts. Thirdly, we theorise human capital in terms of new temporalities of migration and the role these play in skill acquisition. We illustrate our novel theoretical thinking with selected empirical data, both quantitative and qualitative, on youth mobility in Europe.

This article will explore the extent to which a focus on the ‘local’ can tell us something meaningful about recent developments in the governance of displaced migrants and refugees. Taking a multi-sited approach spanning cases in the south and north of Europe, we consider how the challenge of housing and accommodation in particular, a core sector of migrant reception and integration, can shed light on the ways local and city level approaches may negotiate, and sometimes diverge from, national level policy and rhetoric. While it can be said that despite variation, local authorities are by definition ultimately ‘always subordinate’ (Emilsson, Comparative Migration Studies, 3: 1-17, 2015: 4), they can also show evidence of ‘decoupling’ across geographies of policy delivery (Pope and Meyer, European Journal of Cultural and Political Sociology, 3: 280–305, 2016: 290). This article traces how possible local variations in different European cases are patterned by ground-level politics, local strategic networks, and pre-existing economic resources in a manner that is empirically detailed through the study of housing.

Detta är den första svenska nationella rapporten inom det Europeiska projektet „National Integration Evaluation Mechanism (NIEM)”.

In this paper, we investigate whether integration policy improves refugees' economic performance, specifically examining the effects on refugees' income of Sweden's 2010 reform of the introduction programme (or IP). We also evaluate how the reform effects vary depending on refugees' gender and educational attainment. Our key finding shows a strong positive effect of the reform on refugees' income, immediately after the completion of the IP. More importantly, this positive effect intensifies over time, with no signs of diminishing, which implies a longer-term effect of the reform. Furthermore, the effects of the reform do not significantly vary between men and women or between the highly educated and the less-educated, suggesting that the new Swedish IP benefits refugees to the same extent, regardless of their gender and educational attainment.