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09 May 2022

Scandinavian integration policies for refugees

Nordic Council of Minsters

The report, commissioned by the Nordic Council of Ministers, is a follow-up study of the ‘Nordic integration and settlement policies for refugees – A comparative analysis of labour market integration outcomes’ report. The study covers adult refugees settled in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden who were aged 20–55 when they arrived, and who started their introduction programme between 2008 and 2019. Altogether, 280 000 adult refugees are included in the study.

The previous NORDIC-INTRO report included data up to 2016. In this updated study, new analyses of integration measures and results for refugees who arrived between 2008 and 2019 are presented, including those who came during the 2015 refugee crisis. As more time has passed, it has become possible to analyse labour-market integration outcomes in the longer run – up to 11 years after settlement in the new country - for older cohorts.

The aim of this new report is to explore and test findings from the first NORDIC INTRO-report through updated and extended analyses, including:

  1. analyses of long-term labour-market integration outcomes;
  2. comparing and testing of various measurements for labour-market integration outcomes, including earning levels;
  3. analyses of changes in the usage of programme measures across countries and for refugees arriving before and after 2015;
  4. assessment of the long-term outcomes of selected integration measures: ordinary education, subsidised employment, and unpaid job-training.

Report highlights

  • How labour-market integration is measured is found to affect results substantially: when a low threshold is used for measuring employment among refugees, approximately 60% of the men and 40–50% of the women are found to be employed after several years in their new country. However, only about 35–40% of the men and 15–20% of the women reach earning levels just below the median income (among the general work force) after over 10 years in their new country.
  • The comparative analysis shows that Sweden and Norway have similar refugee labour-market integration outcomes, while Denmark has substantially lower employment and earning levels – both in the shorter and the longer term.
  • All three Scandinavian countries have substantial earnings and employment gaps between men and women, but these gaps narrow somewhat after a refugee has several years of residence.
  • The three countries differ in the integration measures they offer to newly arrived refugees: Denmark places greater focus on employment measures, particularly unpaid job training; Norway has increased its focus on ordinary education in recent years, mainly at lower levels; Sweden has a substantially greater proportion of new arrivals enrolled in education at at least the high school level, and a higher share receiving subsidised employment, compared with the other two countries.
  • The analysis indicates that Sweden may have better practices for the validation and development of previous education early in the integration process.
  • Subsidised employment as an integration measure shows a strong positive correlation with refugee employment in the short-term, but this correlation decreases over time. Enrolling in education during a person's initial years after arrival – particularly at secondary level or higher – is found to correlate with higher employment and earning levels in the longer term.

Overall, the study indicates that investment in upskilling and (supplementary) education for new arrivals may ensure a more stable labour-market establishment for refugees in the long term.

Scandinavian integration policies for refugees report 2022
English
(1.19 MB - PDF)
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Details

Authors
Vilde Hernes, Iben Bolvig and Linus Liljeberg
Geographic area
Denmark
Contributor type
Academics and experts
National governmental actor
Original source
Posted by
Michala Clante Bendixen
Country Coordinator

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