Passing the Buck: <i>The case of failing multilevel governance and vulnerable EU migrants in Sweden</i>

Abstract

Sweden represents an intriguing paradox regarding EU migrant integration. Its welfare state institutions are highly developed; its integration policies have a solid record. Still, a substantial proportion of EU migrants are facing poor working conditions, unemployment and homelessness. This article highlights the ongoing difficulties, both for EU migrants to Sweden, as well as for a broad range of Swedish public actors seeking to devise governance solutions in a frequently ad hoc manner. We argue that while EU migrant integration is a policy challenge reflecting a multilevel setting, there is little evidence that multilevel governance has emerged thus. Rather, actors at all levels seek instead to shift the responsibilities associated with EU migrant integration to other levels, maintaining that EU migrant integration is beyond their competencies and resource levels. The analysis draws upon public documents and interviews with the key national and local stakeholders.

Talking about Integration: The Voices of Syrian Refugees Taking Part in Introduction Programmes for Integration into Swedish Society

“…In much recent research exploring migrant labour market integration, scholars have emphasized the broad importance of governance for making sense of the policies, programmes and administrative measures associated with this process (e.g. Myrberg, ; Emilsson, ; Scholten, ; Spehar, Hinnfors, and Bucken‐Knapp, ). Yet a more common thread running through this literature is the predominant empirical focus on policy design in order to make sense of remaining integration challenges.…”

An Analysis of Working Conditions of Filipinos in Malta

“…While one may argue that in general, Malta has adequate laws meant to prevent such abuse, the gap between laws and practice in the EU is well documented (e.g. Islam et al, 2016;Spehar et al, 2017). Insufficient enforcement of employment laws is one contributor to this unhealthy status quo.…”

Free to Move Along: On the Urbanisation of Cross-border Mobility Controls - A Case of Roma 'EU migrants' in Malmö, Sweden

“…Coming at the same questions but from a somewhat different perspective, political scientists Spehar, Hinnfors, and Bucken-Knapp (2017) analyse the lack of an effective policy response to the situation of 'vulnerable EU citizens' as a failure of multi-level governance. Based on interviews with policy practitioners, they show that actors at all levels of government (local, regional, national, and EU) attempt to shift responsibility for integrating 'vulnerable EU citizens' onto other levels.…”

“…According to Spehar et al (2017), the national-level government has tended to take a relatively passive approach towards the question of 'vulnerable EU citizens'. Until 2015, the government left it entirely up to the municipal (and, to a lesser extent, regional) governments to 'deal with' immediate issues like rough sleeping to their best abilities.…”

“…Instead, the municipality (in this case, the City of Malmö) is almost as if by default designated as that level of government that should be responsible for addressing the acute needs of 'vulnerable EU citizens', along with the ostensibly 'local problems' associated with the group in question (cf. argument in Spehar et al, 2017). It bears noting that this scalar differentiation involves an implicit -but, I would argue, consequential -splitting of the core questions of inequality and racism from the domain of municipal policy-making and administration.…”