Abstract: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 aspi… Show more
“…Paraphrasing Parutis (2014) description of the UK situation, most EU10 migrants in Sweden does not progress from 'any job' to a 'better job' in search of a 'dream job', they tend to progress from 'no job' to a 'good job'. This is confirmed by qualitative and quantitative studies that shows that EU10 migrants in Sweden tend to be high-skilled and have low employment rates (Apsite, Lundholm, and Stjernström 2012;Emilsson and Adolfsson 2019;Olofsson 2012), while those employed have a similar occupational structure and wages as native born (Andersson and Hammarstedt 2011;Gerdes and Wadensjö 2013). Thus, EU10 immigrants in Sweden does not function as a complement to the native work force or occupying low-skilled segments in the labour market as they tend to do in Norway (Friberg and Midtbøen 2018).…”
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.
“…Paraphrasing Parutis (2014) description of the UK situation, most EU10 migrants in Sweden does not progress from 'any job' to a 'better job' in search of a 'dream job', they tend to progress from 'no job' to a 'good job'. This is confirmed by qualitative and quantitative studies that shows that EU10 migrants in Sweden tend to be high-skilled and have low employment rates (Apsite, Lundholm, and Stjernström 2012;Emilsson and Adolfsson 2019;Olofsson 2012), while those employed have a similar occupational structure and wages as native born (Andersson and Hammarstedt 2011;Gerdes and Wadensjö 2013). Thus, EU10 immigrants in Sweden does not function as a complement to the native work force or occupying low-skilled segments in the labour market as they tend to do in Norway (Friberg and Midtbøen 2018).…”
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.
“…English proficiency is high in Sweden, so Swedes do not find communicating in English that difficult (EF EPI, 2022; see Section 3). In fact, since this is common knowledge, for many EU migrants, high societal knowledge of English and the availability of EMI education are thus often reasons why they move to Sweden (Emilsson & Adolfsson, 2019; Magnusson & Osanami Törngren, 2014). As one Latvian migrant commented: The thing is that Swedes are very good at knowing English and they're quite happy; for example, in France there's just no way I could just exist with English, but people here are a lot more open to that and that's a very good thing.…”
Section: The Domains and Functions Of English In Swedenmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…As one Latvian migrant commented: The thing is that Swedes are very good at knowing English and they're quite happy; for example, in France there's just no way I could just exist with English, but people here are a lot more open to that and that's a very good thing. (Emilsson & Adolfsson, 2019, p. 210)…”
Section: The Domains and Functions Of English In Swedenmentioning
English has for a long time had a strong position in the Swedish sociolinguistic context. English is ubiquitous in the contemporary Swedish public sphere, and good knowledge of English can be found in all sections of society. Far from only being used as a lingua franca for international communication, English is today also pervasively used in domains of business, higher education and academia, as well as in the media and for entertainment purposes. This growing presence of English in Sweden has led to language debates about the status and the role of English in Sweden and concerns of whether English is a threat to Swedish. This article discusses the status and the manifold functions of English in Sweden and describes the uses and features of English in the Swedish context. It concludes with a discussion of the current debates on the uses and the role of English in Sweden.
“…Disse variablene kan vaere både strukturelle (som for eksempel inntektsnivå og/ eller faktiske muligheter på arbeidsmarkedet) og individuelle (personlige preferanser og aspirasjoner). Det den eksisterende forskningslitteraturen kaller for life style migration (Benson & O'Reilly, 2009;Emilsson & Adolfsson, 2019) der muligheten for å leve «et bedre liv» er viktigere enn en spesifikk plassering i arbeidslivet, er et begrep som her fremstår som relevant. Denne utvidede forståelsen av migrasjonens statusparadoks fordrer like fullt at man i analysen inkluderer perspektiver og erfaringer fra både opprinnelseslandet og bosetningslandet.…”
Section: Sosial Mobilitet Migrasjonens Statusparadoks Og Posisjoneringunclassified
“…For Magdalena kan det se ut som om hennes opplevelse av sin nåvaerende arbeidssituasjon samt ambisjoner for fremtiden kan forstås i lys av det som vi har referert til som life style migration (Benson & O'Reilly, 2009;Emilsson & Adolfsson, 2019).…”
Artikkelen belyser hvilke posisjoneringsstrategier som kommer til utrykk i narrativer om tilknytning til arbeidsmarkedet blant polske migranter med høyere utdanning på det europeiske arbeidsmarkedet. Bidraget er basert på resultatene fra 10 intervjuer med polske migranter bosatt i Norge, Sverige og Storbritannia, alle med utdanning på universitetsnivå. Artikkelens empiriske utgangpunkt gir innsikt i et bredt spekter av ulike oppfatninger av plassering og strategier for posisjonering. Samtidig synligjøres noen mønstre på tvers av de individuelle narrativene og nasjonale kontekstene, som for eksempel opplevelsen av den polske identiteten som både en mulighet og en hindring med hensyn til konstruering og legitimering av egen posisjon på arbeidsmarkedet, samt ulike former for statusparadokser der intragenerasjonell nedadgående mobilitet ikke nødvendigvis oppleves som noe negativt.
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