Post‐industrial division of labour as a systemic barrier for immigrants in the swedish labour market

Abstract

Differences in labour force participation and unemployment rates between indigenous populations and immigrants are common throughout Europe, but the gap seems to be particularly wide in Sweden. Based on studies of workplaces that traditionally employed large numbers of immigrants, but where they are now declining, it is argued that a driving force behind this process of exclusion is to be found in technological and organisational changes. These changes seem to be more pervasive in the Swedish labour market than in other economies in Europe. What is sometimes called the ‘Swedish model of working life’ has turned into the systemic exclusion of immigrant labour.

Customizing Technology Transfer: Lessons to be Learned from Comparative Cross Cultural Studies

“…The number of supervisors at the shop floor diminished and as a result an increasing number of planning duties and administrative work tasks, as well as technical maintenance and process development, became part of workers' responsibilities. This development tended sometimes to dissolve the demarca tion line between white and bluecollar work (Bäcklund, 1986(Bäcklund, , 1994(Bäcklund, , 2002Berggren, 1992;Nilsson, 1997a, 1997b). 3 This development in Sweden coincides with industrial sociologists reporting similar or even more far reaching changes in German industry.…”

Recruitment procedures in the construction of labour market relations the ethnic divide in sweden

“…In terms of the latter, there has been a proliferation of studies concerning the marginalization of ethnic groups in the labour market in Sweden (e.g. Höglund, 1999;Knocke, 2000;Ekberg and Hammarstedt, 2002;Bäcklund, 2003;Integrationsverket, 2004). Bäcklund (2003) synthesizes the debate concerning possible explanations for the marginalization of immigrants in the Swedish labour market into three different factors.…”

“…Höglund, 1999;Knocke, 2000;Ekberg and Hammarstedt, 2002;Bäcklund, 2003;Integrationsverket, 2004). Bäcklund (2003) synthesizes the debate concerning possible explanations for the marginalization of immigrants in the Swedish labour market into three different factors. These are (1) a lack of human capital among immigrants, (2) a negative at-titude towards immigrants among the majority of Swedes, and (3) changing job structures and recruitment procedures.…”