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EMPLOYMENT

‘Not utilizing the skills of immigrants is a huge waste of resources’

Almost six out of ten of those registered at Arbetsförmedlingen employment service were born outside of Sweden – and one in two people in this group still did not have a job after eight years, write trade union representatives in this opinion piece.

Published: 27 February 2019 12:46 CET
'Not utilizing the skills of immigrants is a huge waste of resources'
More than half of unemployed people in Sweden are foreign-born. Photo: Johan Nilsson/TT

There were fewer unemployed in Sweden in 2018 compared to 2017, according to figures from Arbetsförmedlingen employment service last year. Among all Swedes born in and outside of Sweden in the age range 16-64, unemployment stood at 7.2 percent in March 2018, a decrease of 0.5 percentage points. It had also fallen among those born outside of Sweden, from 21.4 percent in March 2017 to 20.7 percent in March 2018 – a decrease of 0.7 percentage points.

At the same time, there is a sizeable gap between those born in Sweden and those born abroad. In March 2018, 58 percent of jobseekers registered were born outside of Sweden, despite the fact that the group's proportion of the population is only 23 percent.

Unionen is Sweden's biggest trade union on the private labour market and the biggest white-collar trade union in the world. We have 660,000 members, of which 30,000 are elected representatives, in over 60,000 companies and organizations. Unionen has members in all kinds of private companies, from major international groups to small family firms. Our vision is to ensure security, success and satisfaction in working life.

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As representatives of white-collar workers, we have both the interest and the responsibility to ensure that the labour market establishment of newly arrived immigrants with a university education is as successful as possible.

In 2018, Unionen in Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö launched a book and report that analyzed the percentage of university-educated immigrants working in the “right” field (performing work equivalent to their level of education).

The results have been the subject of debate in Sweden and particularly in Stockholm, where establishment was less successful than in Malmö and Gothenburg, with no logical explanation. We have therefore worked together with innovative, knowledge-based companies such as We Link Sweden to investigate whether Stockholm's failure in this area is a result of a lack of contact with the labour market.

The major cities in Sweden – Malmö, Stockholm and Gothenburg – are the cities with the highest number of jobs on offer, including for immigrants. Our report shows that immigrants move to these areas as soon as they get their residence permits.

What is interesting is that the immigrants who move to the larger cities are also employed to a greater extent than immigrants living in the rest of the country. As early as two years after receiving their residence permit, 60 percent of immigrants living in the larger cities are employed. After 10 years, this figure increases to 90 percent. This is noteworthy and very positive.

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However, it is troublesome that many of these immigrants with a university education work in fields that do not correspond to their level of education. In our opinion, this is a waste of skills and resources. After 15 years in Sweden, 35-50 percent have jobs equivalent to their level of education in Sweden.

Unionen wants to contribute to the debate and emphasize the underutilization of skills: this huge waste of resources affects both the individual and society, and as a consequence, people with a university education have jobs that could be taken by people at a lower educational level.

Unions and employer organizations have come to an agreement that is supported by the Swedish government. The model has been constructed to be as simple as possible. Employers can employ people who are experiencing great difficulties in entering the labour market at a lower cost, and the individual will receive a grant that enables them to have a reasonable income. The state provides training and deals with the administration. The unions are given influence so that the systems are not abused. This proposal aims to simplify and facilitate the establishment in the labour market of both immigrants who have recently arrived in Sweden and the long-term unemployed.

What Unionen wants:

  • In Sweden there should be accelerated opportunities for academics born abroad to have their qualifications assessed. The waiting period at the Swedish Council for Higher Education is four to eight months. For professions requiring a licence, such as pharmacist, it takes even longer for the person's knowledge to be assessed and a Swedish licence issued.

  • Improved surveys and matching. A well-functioning and professional survey of previous education and professional experience is a basic requirement for being able to match an individual with the right job and one job only.

  • A greater number of supplementary and relevant educational programmes and courses at university colleges, vocational colleges and municipal adult education, while courses need to have more flexible start times so that jobseekers do not have to wait too long.

  • Language training at SFI (Swedish for Immigrants) needs to be initiated at an earlier stage and be possible to adapt to the person's educational and professional background. The language is often the key to the door to the Swedish labour market.

  • The Arbetsförmedlingen employment service needs to be governed regionally, and labour market policy needs to link employers, employees, municipalities and the education sector more closely with the governance of labour market policy measures.

Exclusion and a lack of establishment on the labour market may not have been a conscious choice. However, inclusion is a conscious choice in terms of trade unions, private sector companies, social innovators and the government working together to create an inclusive society and labour market.

This opinion piece was written for The Local by Peter Hellberg, vice president, Unionen; Maria Nilsson, president, Unionen Stockholm; and Anders Holger, president, Unionen Gothenburg.

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READER INSIGHTS

How to find a job in Sweden: Five tips from those who’ve been there, done that

The Swedish job market poses unique challenges for newcomers. The Local's readers share their best tips for cracking the career code.

Published: 10 April 2024 11:32 CEST
Updated: 13 April 2024 15:50 CEST
How to find a job in Sweden: Five tips from those who've been there, done that

Network, network, network!

A statistic that often gets tossed around is that seven out of ten jobs in Sweden are obtained through personal connections, and there’s no doubt that a good network is crucial to your job hunt, making the labour market extra challenging for newcomers to the country.

In fact, networking was the main tip mentioned by The Local’s readers.

“The job market is quite hot in Sweden, and talent is in short supply. People hiring do not have a lot of time to find the right talent, and tips from friends, colleagues and former colleagues are the way to first, find out organisations are hiring, and secondly, get your CV on the short list,” said Kyle, a Canadian reader who works in innovation management in Gothenburg.

“If you are going for a major employer like Volvo, network gets you in the door, as HR does not have much to do with hiring… the hiring managers do all of it and have no time, due to the insane number of consensus meetings. If you are looking for smaller organisations, they have even less time to find people, and networking is their primary way to find talent,” he added.

NETWORKING IN SWEDEN:

Some of the networking tips readers mentioned were going to job fairs, getting an internship to help you establish connections in your preferred field, joining clubs (this could be anything from your local gardening association to meetups for coders, but focus on clubs that may be popular among people working in your chosen field), and drawing on your organic network of friends, neighbours and others.

Don’t neglect the groundwork

The saying “dress for the job you want, not the job you have” is getting worn out (and people may look at you funny if you turn up to interviews in a Batman suit), but there’s truth to the notion of making sure you know what you want – and preparing for it.

In other words, don’t wait for a job ad to appear before you start to customise your CV and figure out what skill set you need. Create your CV now so that you’re ready to tweak it to your dream job – you could even have a general look at job ads in your field to see what requirements are needed. And don’t forget to spruce up your LinkedIn profile so that it fits with your career goals.

“I believe that several factors contribute to successfully landing a desirable job in Sweden. It’s essential to prepare to meet the requirements beyond just having a university degree. Many individuals realise these requirements only after completing their studies when they start searching for a job, which can be too late,” said Adnan Aslam from Pakistan, who works as a food inspector.

“I recommend identifying the job advertisements for positions you aspire to hold in the future and then preparing for those requirements during your studies. For me, acquiring a basic level of proficiency in the Swedish language and obtaining a Swedish driving licence were crucial. I pursued these goals during my studies and was able to secure a desirable job before graduating,” he added.

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Felipe Cabral even has a GPT assistant trained on his own CVs and old cover letters, and said the set-up only takes ten minutes if you already have your documents. “With that in place, you can give instructions like: Read this job description and create a tailored version of my CV and letter for it. (…) Remember to always review and ask it not to create data aside from your documents.”

Be flexible and ready to adapt

Moving to a new place inevitably means having to learn not just the practicalities such as how to write a CV or which websites to use to look for job openings, but also learning how to navigate a new culture with all its unspoken expectations.

Swedish workplaces are generally less hierarchical than many other countries, but that doesn’t mean you can say whatever you want whenever you want without anyone raising an eyebrow. Swedes are usually direct, but be careful of being too abrasive or boastful: raising your voice, even during a spirited argument, or banging your own drum to show off your skills may not go down well.

“Talk, deliberate, complain like a Swede and you’ll come across like you know what the job entails, so your trustworthiness increases,” said an Indian data analyst who preferred to remain anonymous.

“Office politics are just as strong in Sweden as anywhere else. The flat hierarchy is deceiving as social hierarchy is enforced quite a bit in that lack of formal hierarchy. Take your time in learning these dynamics wherever you work before revealing your talent and capabilities. Expect those internal politics to happen, and they won’t hurt so much when they do,” said Kyle, the Canadian reader in Gothenburg.

This article about Swedish office politics may be useful.

Stay true to yourself

Adapting to your surroundings is one thing. Completely changing who you are is another.

For one thing, your happiness is as important as your career progression, and for another, your foreignness need not be an impediment: it’s also a skill that sets you apart from the rest. It means you have unique experience, and also, in the right setting, provides an opportunity to sometimes violate those social rules we mentioned above, because people assume you will, anyway.

“Trust is key. Build trust in your network, work with integrity. It’s OK to violate jantelagen if you are maintaining integrity. Sometimes your outsider and more honest/open opinion will burn bridges, especially those that may feel threatened by talent. But it will build trust with other colleagues who see it as brave and more trustworthy to work with,” said Kyle from Canada.

Hunker down for the long haul

We don’t want to scare you, because there are plenty of examples of people who quickly find their dream job in Sweden and settle into their new workplace, enjoying perks such as long summer holidays, generous parental leave and the famous work-life balance.

But if you do find it tougher than you expected: know that you’re not alone.

Several readers who responded to the survey said they were still trying to find a job in Sweden.

“I found jobs all over Europe but not here. They say they have a lack of experienced senior engineers but the don’t seem to be doing much to solve this,” said a Brazilian in Gothenburg.

A reader from Bangladesh said she was “at a loss” as to how to make a career change from her current AI role in Stockholm, despite many years of experience as an IT project manager.

“Over the past 18 months, I’ve submitted over 600 applications to various organisations. Unfortunately, despite being overqualified for some positions, I’ve faced rejections at every turn, from both large and small companies. The job market here, especially for foreign-born women, feels overwhelmingly challenging,” she said, adding that the struggle had impacted her mental health.

The Local has on several occasions reported on foreign residents’ struggle to get a foot on the Swedish job ladder, with many facing hurdles such as employers’ unfamiliarity with international degrees, discrimination, or a lack of network that can provide paths into a company.

So during the job hunt, don’t forget to care for yourself. Share your concerns with fellow job-seekers, ask for help and join networking groups – this is good not just for creating new contacts, but also in terms of your social well-being and meeting people who are in a similar situation.

And finally, as one British reader in Stockholm advised, keep looking: “Be open-minded with the opportunities that present themselves. It isn’t an easy market to enter and doesn’t feel inclusive.” But he added, “don’t give up”.

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