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Housing shortage sinks immigrant jobs efforts

Of the 4,000 people who’ve arrived in Sweden since December 2010, the Swedish Employment Service (Arbetsförmedlingen) has only been able to find work for ten.

Published: 23 August 2011 15:15 CEST

No more than 50 new arrivals are currently working within an establishment plan, to integrate them into Swedish society, according to a new report.

The report, presented by the Swedish Employment Service on Tuesday, shows that a lack of housing in many areas often becomes a major hurdle for newly arrived immigrants as they try to settle in and find employment in Sweden as quickly as possible.

To make matters worse, the report shows that housing is hardest to find in the areas where jobs are available.

The Swedish Employment Service’s assignment is to direct new arrivals to the counties where there is work. But this has proved tricky in practice.

“We’re governed by housing availability far too much,” said the Employment Service’s Marie Linell-Persson to news agency TT.

The Employment Service also pointed out that many are forced to wait a long time to gain access to Swedish language classes, SFI.

A further complicating factor for immigrants’ establishment in Sweden is the long wait for child care.

Parents, who must wait a long time for a kindergarten spot, have difficulties participating in the Employment Services’ programmes.

The Swedish Employment Service has been responsible for the integration of new arrivals since last winter.

”It’s an important reform, because it signals that the new arrivals are an important resource for us,” said director-general Angeles Bermudez Svankvist.

The Employment Service’s tasks include giving newly arrived immigrants preparation for work in Sweden, charting education and skills, validating foreign university degrees and securing internships as well as Swedish language classes.

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Over one in ten children live in low-income households in Norway

Photo: Annie Spratt on Unsplash

The report found that there a total of 115,000 children belong to households in low-income groups. This is around 11 percent of all children in Norway.

“Studies show that people born into low-income families have in increased risk of being left behind in several areas of living, among other things, growing up in low-income shows a connection with negative health outcomes. It has been shown that young people’s mental health is affected by belonging to a low-income family,” the report states.

In its article on the data, Statistics Norway defines “persistent low income” households as having “under 60 percent of [national] median average [income] over three years”.

Children with an immigrant background have accounted for more than half the children from persistent low-income groups since 2013. This is despite only accounting for 18 percent of all children. Nearly 40 percent of children with immigrant backgrounds belong to low-income households, according to the Statistics Norway figures.

“This has a clear connection with the fact that households with a weak connection to the labour market are exposed to low income,” the report said.

Families with a Syrian background had the highest proportion of low-income households with almost nine-out-of-ten children coming from low-income families. Meanwhile, the largest group of children in number are those with a Somali background with over 11,000 of these children living in low-income households. Children with an Eritrean background saw the largest jump.

READ ALSO: Immigrants in Norway more likely to be affected by loneliness

The report indicated that the reason behind these groups having large numbers of children belonging to low-income households was because the average number of people in the household with an occupation was less than one between 2017 and 2019.

Those with Lithuanian and Polish backgrounds saw decreases of children in low-income households. Children from these countries, as well as Sri Lanka, India and Bosnia-Herzegovina averaged 1.5 people employed in the household in the same period.

Single parents are much more likely to be found in low-income groups, as are families with three or more children.

The areas with the largest municipalities were most exposed to low income. Sarpsborg, in southern Norway, overtook Drammen as the municipality with the largest proportion of low-income children with 19.1 percent.

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