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PublicationWorking paper

Working Paper. No 307: Integration after 2015. What can Sweden learn from Germany?

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Abstract

In 2015 and 2016 almost 2.7 million asylum seekers travelled to Europe in search of protection. More than half of them, 1.4 million people, sought refuge in Germany or Sweden. Germany received the most people by far but Sweden took in more as a share of its population. The big influx of refugees induced major changes in migration and integration in both countries. This paper compares the policies on labour market integration in both countries focusing on what Sweden can learn from Germany to improve integration.

Joyce, P. (2018). Integration after 2015. What can Sweden learn from Germany?. Ratio Working Paper No. 349. Stockholm: Ratio.


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Ratio Working Paper No. 392: Shortening the path — from the host organisation’s side: A demand-side study of internship matching for foreign-born academics

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Publication year

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Published in

Ratio Working Paper Series.

Abstract

Many high-income labour markets combine persistent skills shortages with the underemployment of foreign-born academics, whose qualifications and experience tend to yield a lower return after migration. Work-based internships are a common policy response, expected to help migrants rebuild context-specific human capital, improve host-country language, and access the informal networks through which much hiring occurs. Yet the evidence base is almost entirely supply-side: it examines what internships do for interns, while the organisations that must agree to host them remain largely unstudied. What makes a placement work from the employer’s point of view is therefore poorly understood. Drawing on human capital theory, we address this gap through semi-structured interviews with managers and supervisors at 24 Swedish organisations that had hosted one or more foreign-born academic interns through the national programme Korta vägen (“the academic fast track”). Using inductive thematic analysis, we identify factors operating at three levels — individual, organisational, and institutional — that shape how well an intern’s human capital can be put to use. Education quality is less salient to hosts than the literature would predict; language matters chiefly as a vehicle for social integration; cultural friction is workable when expectations are made explicit; and institutional rules around credentials and licensing constrain placement quality in regulated professions. Hosts also report substantial, sometimes unanticipated, organisational gains. We argue that demand-side evidence requires human capital theory to be broadened to incorporate language, culture, and social capital if it is to explain matching.

Working paper

Ratio Working Paper No. 350: A quickly transforming labour market

Uddén Sonnegård, E.
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Publication year

2021

Published in

Ratio Working Paper

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic has made it clear that the labour market situation can change
extremely rapidly when there is an unexpected exogenous shock to the economy. Even
though the transformation of the labour market as a result of the development of ICT
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Ratio Working Paper No. 341: Recruitment of scarce competences to rural regions: Policies to promote recruitment

Nyström, K.
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Publication year

2020

Published in

Ratio Working Paper

Abstract

This paper studies the perceived difficulty of recruiting scarce competences to rural regions. Furthermore, the role of policy in facilitating and enhancing recruitment to and better skills matching in rural regions is discussed. Based on a survey targeted to the business sections in Swedish municipalities, the results show that recruitment is perceived to be difficult in both rural and non-rural regions. However, recruitment problems in the public sector are more pronounced in rural municipalities. Nevertheless, recruitment to the public and business sectors are perceived to be equally difficult in rural regions. Both rural municipalities and non-rural municipalities state that the difficulty of recruiting the right skills results in a lack of skills matching and constitutes an obstacle to growth. Which policies can help remedy recruitment problems in rural regions? The pecuniary incentive of writing off student debt is perceived to be the most promising policy, but respondents also believe that non-pecuniary support such as relocation support for accompanying persons and tandem recruitment should be implemented to a greater extent. Finally, the need for flexibility and policies that can be adapted to the regional demand for labour are stressed. This regards for example the adaption of education programmes to local needs and rules and regulations.

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Details

Author
Joyce, P
Publication year
2018
Published in

Ratio Working Paper