Alla ska snabbt lära sig svenska: Språk, migration och arbetsmarknadsintegration i Sverige - Ratio

Liknande innehåll

Artikel (med peer review)

The role of social and social-psychological factors in L2 writing and speaking: the case of immigrants in the Netherlands

Bril, M., Pauw, J., & Forsberg Lundell, F.

Publiceringsår

2025

Publicerat i

International Journal of Applied Linguistics

Sammanfattning

It is well-known that adults vary to an important extent with regard to L2 learning outcomes. One apparent reason is the degree of exposure to the target language. Furthermore, it has been suggested that adult learning is more affected by social and psychological variables than in younger learners. This could be expected to be more salient in a context of migration, where individuals are highly affected by individual driving forces, opportunities, and social circumstances. Some recent studies have indeed shown that such factors can explain the variation in certain linguistic subcomponents of adult L2 learning, but studies on general measures of specific L2 competences are still quite scarce. The present study investigated the impact of social and social-psychological variables on a general measure of L2 writing in the Netherlands. Participants (n = 44) were intermediate, educated learners of Dutch with mainly a non-European background. They completed a writing task designed for the Dutch national civic integration exam, as well as a questionnaire targeting social and social-psychological factors. A multiple regression analysis of the writing task showed that social and social-psychological background is not associated with overall writing proficiency in L2 Dutch. Instead, the results seem to suggest that these factors are indirectly associated with L2 exposure. The degree of L2 use was found to be affected by cultural identification and social networks. We highlighted a need for measures related to subcomponents of L2 writing, rather than using a general proficiency measure, to further investigate the impact of social and social-psychological factors.

När språket brister

Fanny Forsberg Lundell

Publiceringsår

2025

Publicerat i

Tankesmedjan Synaps

Sammanfattning

Kapitlet När språket brister diskuterar de språkliga utmaningar som uppstår när en växande och demografiskt pressad äldreomsorg i hög grad rekryterar personal som saknar tillräckliga kunskaper i svenska. Forsberg Lundell visar att god kommunikation är grundläggande för trygg och säker omsorg, eftersom missförstånd kan få allvarliga konsekvenser och påverka både omsorgens kvalitet och äldres upplevelse av värdighet. Samtidigt är det många utrikes födda som har svårt att snabbt nå de språknivåer som politiken förespråkar, särskilt när deras modersmål ligger långt från svenskan eller när skolbakgrunden är begränsad. Språkutvecklande insatser och språkombud används redan, men forskningen visar att de ofta har begränsad effekt på faktisk språkfärdighet, även om de kan förbättra arbetsmiljön. Forsberg Lundell framhåller därför att hårda språkkrav riskerar att förvärra bemanningsproblemen och föreslår istället en mer realistisk modell där arbetsuppgifter differentieras efter språkliga krav. Genom att låta nyanställda med svagare svenska börja med enklare uppgifter och successivt bygga språkkompetens kan verksamheterna både hantera rekryteringsbehoven och säkerställa en trygg omsorg. Kapitlet lyfter därmed behovet av att balansera kvalitetskrav, språkliga förutsättningar och arbetsmarknadens realiteter.

Artikel (med peer review)

Language and civic education requirementsas gatekeepers or tools for economicintegration: a question of gender?

Rehnberg, P. and Forsberg Lundell, F.

Publiceringsår

2025

Publicerat i

Sociolinguistica 2025; aop

Sammanfattning

Over the 21st century, European governments have introduced language and civic knowledge-tests as requirements for integration stages such as permanent residency and citizenship. Such requirements have been justified as a tool to incentivize host-language acquisition among immigrants and improve integration. By applying the newly developed Language Policy Index for Migrants to recent rounds of the European Social Survey, we explore whether these desired effects exist. We focus on the economic integration of non-EU migrants, for whom these requirements mainly apply. In a logistic multilevel model with ESS-data from 18 countries, no support is found that stricter requirements improve employment for non-EU migrants in general. However, there is no pattern suggesting that chances of employment are higher in lenient settings either. When incorporating a gender dimension, results suggest that strict requirements may have excluding effects on the employment of male non-EU migrants, while they could benefit that of female non-EU migrants. We relate this to gender-based differences in labor market attachment, occupational choice, and the importance of language proficiency in working tasks. This study joins a rather limited literature evaluating civic integration requirements and makes a contribution regarding the gender aspect, further underscoring the complexity of the effects of these policies.