A help or hindrance? Highly educated refugees’ perceptions of the role of civic integration programmes in accessing the labour market in Oslo, Malmö and Munich

Abstract

Research often focuses on individual-level factors shaping refugee labour market participation. Less research has been conducted on the implications of the roles of employers, integration programmes, migrant support organisations and similar. This article contributes to the literature by seeking to understand highly educated refugees’ perceptions of how civic integration programmes shape opportunity structures for their labour market participation. It is particularly concerned with how the programmes’ characteristics of malleability and comprehensiveness inform integration processes. Accordingly, the article analyses identification contestations that transpire within civic integration programmes, as perceived by the participants, and compares how these unfold in three different contexts. A total of 41 semi-structured interviews with highly educated refugees in Oslo, Malmö, and Munich were analysed. The findings suggest that the civic integration programmes were thought to either foster or hinder the participants’ employment pathways depending on whether the participants were perceived as highly educated individuals or reduced to the general category of ‘refugee’. The differences were traced back to each civic integration programme’s capacity to provide malleable integration support, calling attention to the importance of the programmes’ acknowledgment of refugees’ heterogeneous needs and the pitfalls associated with undifferentiated refugee categorisation.

Unpacking “the system”: Multi‐level governance gaps in the labour market integration of highly skilled refugees

“…The employment officer can arrange for diplomas and transcripts to be translated into Swedish, inform about the recognition process for foreign qualifications, and explain the application process for recognition of specialist qualifications. The information that the job seeker receives, however, depends on the employment officer's engagement and knowledge of available initiatives (Mozetič, 2022a).…”

“…The Swedish government funds a 2‐year introduction programme for refugees that aims to provide an introduction to Swedish society and help prepare refugees for the labour market. The introduction programme has been studied in terms of policy development and implementation (Andersson Joona et al., 2017; Emilsson, 2014; Valenta & Bunar, 2010), its economic outcomes (Andersson Joona, 2019; Irastorza & Bevelander, 2017; Qi et al., 2021; Swedish National Audit Office, 2015), and refugees' experiences with the programme (Bucken‐Knapp, Fakih, & Spehar, 2019; Mozetič, 2022a; Spehar, 2021). The literature is, however, inconclusive regarding highly skilled refugees' experiences in the introduction programme and other labour market integration initiatives.…”

Facing the challenge of hospitality: Ukrainian refugees and local policy in a less developed region

“…Comparative studies between countries are also undertaken, e.g., Austria, Germany, and Sweden (Konle-Seidl, 2018), Sweden, and Denmark (Andersson Joona & Datta Gupta, 2023). To a lesser extent, knowledge of immigration to large cities is developed (Mozetič, 2022). However, it is worth mentioning that the practical handling of refugees is primarily up to local au-thorities, local communities, and local NGOs, as refugees are new residents in local communities.…”