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State Assisted Integration: Refugee Integration Policies in Scandinavian Welfare States: the Swedish and Norwegian Experience
Abstract
This paper sets out to provide an analysis of refugee integration policies in Sweden and Norway, by means of comparative analysis. There is a particular focus on the ideological foundations of the Swedish and Norwegian refugee integration policies, and the main programmes drawn on by the countries' authorities in order to integrate refugees. Further, the focus is widened to identify and analyse the changes, disparities and ambiguities in the Swedish and Norwegian refugee integration policies. The paper also seeks to examine how their experience can help in understanding the limitations of extensive state assisted integration measures. It is maintained here that these Scandinavian countries have developed extensive state sponsored integration programmes of a magnitude which is unique in a European context and elsewhere, and that housing and employment assistance are the two major pillars in both Swedish and Norwegian refugee integration policies. The findings suggest that Sweden and Norway have undergone similar experiences in respect of the challenges and long term outcomes of refugee integration policy-making. Although based on the principle of a strong welfare state, which provides extensive resettlement and integration assistance to refugees, refugee integration policies in Sweden and Norway have not succeeded in equalizing the initial inequalities between refugees and the rest of the population. © The Author 2010. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.
... Given the unexpectedly urgent situation at that time with large flows of Kosovar refugees between June and December 1999, the Norwegian government made a quick policy response by granting asylum seekers a temporary collective protection status enabling them to quickly settle their new life in Norway (Valenta and Bunar 2010). In August 1999, the government unexpectedly delivered a new policy that imposed a ban on Kosovar refugees' work access for the first 12 months being applied to those who arrived on and after September 1, 1999 (Landsverk 2003). ...
... Norway was among the first countries to swiftly decide to host a portion of Kosovar asylum seekers by implementing a temporary asylum protection program (Valenta and Bunar 2010). By April 1999, the Norwegian government had committed to receiving nearly 8,000 Kosovar refugees (UDI 1999), approximately 6,000 of whom were evacuated from Macedonia under the Humanitarian Evacuation Program (Landsverk 2002). ...
... However, this ban was lifted in August 2000 (Landsverk 2003). Kosovar refugees regardless of exposure to the ban received similar integration support from the Norwegian government as well as from the municipalities where they settled (Valenta and Bunar 2010). Both groups also had equal access to repatriation schemes (Valenta and Berg 2003). ...
This paper exploits a Norwegian policy targeting Kosovar refugees arriving in 1999 to examine the long-term effects of an initial employment prohibition on refugee health. Employing a Regression Discontinuity Design for estimation, the findings suggest that exposure to the prohibition leads to a reduction of 29-45% in cumulative health problems related to musculoskeletal, digestive, and dermatological conditions over the 14 years since the prohibition was lifted. An analysis of potential mechanisms indicates that reduced exposure to occupational hazards is likely a primary driver of these health effects, with a corresponding 17% reduction in the time refugees spend at work. While exposure to the prohibition results in a decrease in labor market earnings by approximately 16%, this income loss is potentially offset by a 48-73% increase in welfare receipt for social assistance and housing allowance.
... Given the unexpectedly urgent situation at that time with large flows of Kosovar refugees between June and December 1999, the Norwegian government made a quick policy response by granting asylum seekers a temporary collective protection status enabling them to quickly settle their new life in Norway (Valenta and Bunar 2010). In August 1999, the government unexpectedly delivered a new policy that imposed a ban on Kosovar refugees' work access for the first 12 months being applied to those who arrived on and after September 1, 1999 (Landsverk 2003). ...
... Norway was among the first countries to swiftly decide to host a portion of Kosovar asylum seekers by implementing a temporary asylum protection program (Valenta and Bunar 2010). By April 1999, the Norwegian government had committed to receiving nearly 8,000 Kosovar refugees (UDI 1999), approximately 6,000 of whom were evacuated from Macedonia under the Humanitarian Evacuation Program (Landsverk 2002). ...
... However, this ban was lifted in August 2000 (Landsverk 2003). Kosovar refugees regardless of exposure to the ban received similar integration support from the Norwegian government as well as from the municipalities where they settled (Valenta and Bunar 2010). Both groups also had equal access to repatriation schemes (Valenta and Berg 2003). ...
... The theory that has proven to be relevant, and which has been referred to by many researchers in the past few years (cf. Pittaway et al. 2009;Valenta and Bunar 2010;Kirkwood et al. 2014;Smith 2015), is the so-called framework that has, pursuant to literature and the implementation of qualitative research on the example of refugees in Great Britain, been derived by Ager and Strang (2004). Their theoretical framework comprises ten areas that have been identified as crucial for the integration of refugees. ...
... "An individual or group is integrated within a society when they: achieve public outcomes within employment, housing, education, health etc. […]; are socially connected with members of a […] community with which they identify, with members of other communities and with relevant services and functions of the state; and have sufficient linguistic competence and cultural knowledge, and a sufficient sense of security and stability, to confidently engage in that society in a manner consistent with shared notions of nationhood and citizenship." (ibid.: 5) European empirical research on the integration of refugees encompasses works on integration policies (Valenta and Bunar 2010), particular segments of integration (Mestheneos and Ioannidi 2002;Stewart and Mulvey 2014;Pajnik 2012;De Vroome and Van Tubergen 2010), the entrepreneurship of refugees (Wauters and Lambrecht 2008) or on certain national contexts: Belgium (ibid.), Norway and Sweden (Valenta and Bunar 2010), the Netherlands and other countries of the European Union (Mestheneos and Ioannidi 2002). ...
... (ibid.: 5) European empirical research on the integration of refugees encompasses works on integration policies (Valenta and Bunar 2010), particular segments of integration (Mestheneos and Ioannidi 2002;Stewart and Mulvey 2014;Pajnik 2012;De Vroome and Van Tubergen 2010), the entrepreneurship of refugees (Wauters and Lambrecht 2008) or on certain national contexts: Belgium (ibid.), Norway and Sweden (Valenta and Bunar 2010), the Netherlands and other countries of the European Union (Mestheneos and Ioannidi 2002). The global refugee problem, which also has an impact on the situation in Croatia, has increasingly started drawing the interest of Croatian authors in the last ten or so years (Benčić et al. 2006), whether in the context of the protection of the rights of refugees at the level of the European Union (Baričević 2014(Baričević , 2015, the tenth anniversary of the development of the asylum system in Croatia (Župarić-Iljić 2013), media depictions of asylum seekers and refugees and Croatian citizens' attitudes towards them (Župarić-Iljić and Gregurović 2013;Gregurović et al. 2016), the security systems of facilities that accommodate them and the surveillance of asylum seekers , foreign unaccompanied minors (Župarić-Iljić and Mlinarić 2015), biopolitics and refugees , or integration of asylees . ...
... Drawing on spatial dispersal policies, European countries such as Austria, Germany, Great Britain, Netherlands and the Nordic states accommodate asylum seekers during their asylum procedures both mandatorily and voluntarily in rural areas (e.g. Boswell 2003;Valenta and Bunar 2010;Rosenberger and König 2011;Bakker, Cheung, and Phillimore 2016). Political arguments for spatial dispersal imply "burden sharing" on the one hand: costs for the accommodation of asylum seekers are spread between many regions and municipalities, urban housing and labour markets are relieved, or parallel societies in cities are prevented (Boswell 2003;Valenta and Bunar 2010;Stewart 2011). ...
... Boswell 2003;Valenta and Bunar 2010;Rosenberger and König 2011;Bakker, Cheung, and Phillimore 2016). Political arguments for spatial dispersal imply "burden sharing" on the one hand: costs for the accommodation of asylum seekers are spread between many regions and municipalities, urban housing and labour markets are relieved, or parallel societies in cities are prevented (Boswell 2003;Valenta and Bunar 2010;Stewart 2011). On the other hand, aspects of spatial planning or the regional development of rural areas are reported. ...
... Against the backdrop of age-selective out-migration and labour shortages, asylum seekers are seen as an opportunity to prevent vacancies, decelerate the thinning of infrastructures such as schools, or as contributors to the economic, social and cultural revitalization of rural areas, making use of their various resources (Stewart 2011;Böttcher 2016; see also Schech 2014 for Australia). Thus, spatial proximity to infrastructures and supportive actors is seen as an opportunity to speed up integration (Valenta and Bunar 2010;SVR 2016;see also McDonald et al. 2008 for Australia). ...
In the last couple of years, a rising number of asylum seekers arrived in Europe, who were increasingly accommodated in rural areas according to national dispersal policies. This form of international migration to rural areas hasn’t receive much scientific attention yet. However, various stakeholders address immigration of refugees as a tool for regional development of lagging areas in the light of out-migration, declining birth-rates or labour shortages. By now, it seems ambiguous, how persis- tent these immigration processes to rural areas are and the fol- lowing question arises: Will asylum seekers stay in rural areas (staying put) or move on to the cities (onward migration) once they receive their refugee status, when they can freely decide where to live? Taking the example of two rural districts (Land- kreise) in the Bavarian forest (Germany), we discuss the resi- dential mobility of recognised refugees. It is assumed that they negotiate residential choices against the backdrop of individual residential location desires and structural factors, such as lo- cal housing market and labour market, social connection and legal issues. Drawing on the integration framework by Ager and Strang, the structural peculiarities of rural areas regarding the decision to stay or move are highlighted. Based on expert inter- views with local actors, empirical data show rural-to-urban-mi- gration, re-migration to rural areas, in-migration to rural areas and rural staying. However, individual elements of uncertainty emphasize the temporality of residential mobility of recognised refugees. With regard to the search for housing and the local integration of refugees, support provided by local actors plays an important role, as it is directly or indirectly connected with residential mobility. Differences on a local and regional level highlight the heterogeneity of rural areas.
... It has been used in refugee contexts across several states in the Global North (e.g. Valenta and Bunar 2010). While this framework takes the multidimensionality of integration into account, it focuses on normative integration outcomes and takes little interest in the societal context, which the newcomers face. ...
... Penninx and Garce´s-Mascareñas (2016) stress the need to study in more detail the concrete implementation practices of integration policies and to use a comparative lens to understand differences in outcomes. The variations in policy implementation have only scarcely been investigated in the field of migration or refugee policies and focussed on countries of the Global North (Valenta and Bunar 2010;Boucher and Gest 2018). Generally, more inclusive integration policies are associated with more positive attitudes towards the newcomers (Callens and Meuleman 2017). ...
The ever-increasing protracted refugee situations globally have put local integration of refugees into hosting societies high on the international agenda. While recent international frameworks have called for a deeper integration of refugees through the mainstreaming of refugee service provision into national service provision systems, little attention has been paid to the structures and arrangements—the so-called opportunity structures—specifically to how these can either promote or impede integration into host countries. We focus on the mode of social service provision to refugees and how this shapes the context of refugee integration in Ghana and Ethiopia taking into account the implications for structural and relational integration of refugees. We hold the view that mainstreaming service provision to refugees in camps into national systems does not necessarily lead to better refugee integration outcomes. Differences in the quality-of-service provision between humanitarian actors and hosting countries have the potential to determine integration outcomes.
... International organizations, including states and NGOs' staff, serve beyond the district city Cox's Bazar to the divisional city Chittagong and even the capital city Dhaka. It leads to predominantly housing demand in Cox's Bazar city rather than the local area near camps, similar to the case of Syrian refugees in Turkey and other European countries (Adam et al., 2019;Akar and Erdogdu, 2019;Fábos and Kibreab, 2007;Valenta and Bunar, 2010). However, it impacts daily household items and transportation locally (Section 4.2; Ansar, Md. ...
... It has become more complicated by the shifting governmental system in Myanmar from democracy to military rule in February 2021. It could be helpful for both refugees and the Bangladesh economy if Bangladesh trains the refugees in garments, handicrafts, and other industrial sectors, similar to some practices in Europe and the USA (Adam et al., 2019;Bevelander and Luik, 2020;Bucken-Knapp et al., 2019;Valenta and Bunar, 2010). In contrast, the capacity of Bangladesh on this issue is minimal and may not be comparable with European and USA cases. ...
Urbanization needs to conceptualize land use policy beyond the city boundaries. It might be explained by exploring complex and interconnected interdependencies in regional key driving factors that can have tele-coupling effects during sudden shocks. Over one million Rohingya have settled in the rural/forest area in Cox's Bazar for locational proximity and comparatively easy escape from Myanmar after domestic conflicts. This study aims to explore the spatial dimension of urbanization in a regional transition context focusing on the newly built refugee settlements in the southeastern coastal area of Bangladesh. Additional, we also identify further research scopes and gaps in the context of the case study. Analysis of openly available global data products from historical built-up expansion from 1975 to 2021 suggests that refugee settlements impact spatial development intensity (annual rate ⁓2.55 ha/year) and population density (annual rate ⁓9431 person/year) dimensions, which have a transition (rural-to-urban) of a greater regional scale than local urbanization. Our results from the expert-based key informant interviews have a broad agreement with the quantitative findings; however, the environmental: deforestation, economic: increasing business and employment opportunities and daily living expenses; and socio-cultural impacts: increasing conflict between host and refugee communities due to prosti-tution, drug dealing, and insecurity, are more local than findings from the geospatial analysis. Therefore, the local development policies need an urgent adjustment to comply with the local and regional balances in the above factors, along with that international development actors may also need attentive measures in the policy formulation. Further investigations in scenario-based urbanization dynamics are required to avoid an urban desert initiated in the absence or relocation of refugee settlement. Similar kinds of studies may also be replicated even in prosperous global North countries in order to conceptualize the spatial transformative process of rapid migration influx on urbanization with innovative open data in the absence of up-to-date official datasets and adoptions of mixed methods approaches with related actors including policymakers.
... However, contrary to Norway and Finland, some of the largest immigrant groups in Sweden are from outside of Europe, with Iraqis, Iranians and Syrians being among the largest immigrant groups in the country. Since the early 1990s, Sweden has had a comparatively more generous admission and settlement policy towards refugees and asylum-seekers than any other Nordic country (Valenta and Bunar, 2010;Valenta and Thorshaug, 2013;Garvik and Valenta, 2021). This may explain why Sweden has a larger number of immigrants coming from countries outside of Europe than Norway and Finland (Ahlén and Palme, 2020). ...
... Swedes have been known to be supportive of immigration of refugees and of the generous stateassisted integration programmes (Valenta and Bunar, 2010). They were among the largest receivers of Syrian refugees during the European refugee crisis of 2015 (Valenta M and Jakobsen J, 2020). ...
This study analyses welfare chauvinist attitudes in the generous welfare states of Sweden, Norway and Finland. We find that strict forms of exclusionary welfare chauvinism are near non-existent. However, Finland, Norway and Sweden are in the top tier in Europe when it comes to beliefs that immigrants need to obtain citizenship before being given equal rights to social benefits. This may indicate a future turn in social policy when it comes to inclusion of non-citizens, with significant implications for social workers. We further analyse welfare chauvinism by exploring socio-economic factors, satisfaction with the country, and attitudes towards both benefits and immigrants.
... The empirical case serves the given research inquiry in several ways. Labour market participation of refugees is steered by institutional and organisational structures to a larger degree than that of other migrant groups (Valenta and Bunar, 2010). This holds especially true for highly educated refugees, whose employment re-entry is shaped through not only the asylum regime and civic integration programmes but also processes of foreign qualification recognition (FQR), such as the licensure. ...
... Explorations of institutional and organisational efforts to support refugee labour market integration commonly examine the logic and design of the policies and programmes at hand (e.g. Valenta and Bunar, 2010). This article complements these efforts by including the perceptions of refugees themselves, aiming to offer a more nuanced understanding of the involved actors and the ways the ...
Scholarship on refugee labour market participation regularly alludes to the temporal dimension of the process, yet explicit engagement with it remains limited. I argue that researching the temporalities of refugee employment re-entry is valuable as it discerns the recursive interrelation between social structure and individual agency that advances or curbs the labour market trajectories of refugees. Namely, refugees’ perceptions of time inform their integration pathways. In this article, I interrogate how highly educated refugees perceive the temporalities imposed upon them by the integration framework, their efforts of temporal re-appropriation and the ways in which institutional factors inform these re-appropriation efforts and, thus, individuals’ sense of integration. To this end, I discuss and compare 11 refugee healthcare professionals’ perceptions of licensure procedures in Oslo and Malmö based on material from semi-structured interviews. The refugee professionals reported that the licensure appropriated their time through, for instance, prolonged suspension from work and abundance of pointless waiting time. Seeing time as a precious commodity, they deemed the imposed temporalities as problematic, employing different attempts of temporal agency to speed up the licensure process. When comparing the attempts of temporal re-appropriation between the licensure procedures in Oslo and Malmö, I find that the perceived clarity of the licensure requirements and process, accessibility of support structures and existence of tailored qualification programmes lend licensure a quality of institutional plasticity. This fosters individuals’ attempts to accelerate their licensure endeavours, thereby promoting their re-entry into the labour market. However, rather than disrupting the underlying power relations determining the relative value of foreign healthcare qualifications, temporal re-appropriation maintained the established institutional rationale.
... International organizations, including states and NGOs' staff, serve beyond the district city Cox's Bazar to divisional city Chittagong and even capital city Dhaka. It leads to predominantly housing demand in Cox's Bazar city than the local area near camps, similar to the case of Syrian refugees in Turkey and other European countries (Adam/Föbker/Imani et al. 2021;Akar/Erdoğdu, 2019;Valenta/Bunar 2010;Fábos/Kibreab, 2007). However, it impacts daily household items and transportation locally (section 4.2; Ansar & Md. ...
... It has become more complicated by the shifting governmental system in Myanmar from democracy to military rule in February 2021. It could be helpful for both refugees and Bangladesh economy if Bangladesh trains the refugees for garments, handicraft, and other industrial sectors similar to Europe and the USA (Adam/Föbker/Imani et al. 2021;Bevelander & Luik, 2020;Bucken-Knapp et al., 2019;Valenta/Bunar 2010). In contrast, the capacity of Bangladesh on this issue is minimal and may not be comparable with European and USA cases. ...
New human settlement has a robust inter-linkage to the spatial dynamics in local and regional contexts. This study aims to explore the spatial dimension of urbanization in a regional transition context focusing on the newly built refugee camp in the south-eastern coastal area of Bangladesh. For locational proximity and comparatively easy escape from Myanmar, over one million Rohingya have settled in the rural/forest area in Cox’s Bazar. However, ⁓80% of refugees live in ⁓745 hectares. Many organizations’ employees work for refugee crises, live near the camps area. Analysis openly available data sources from historical built-up expansion from 1975 to 2021 suggests that refugee settlements impact spatial development and population dimensions, which have a transition (rural-to-urban) of a greater regional scale than local urbanization. Results from an expert-based key informant study have broad agreement with the quantitative findings. However, environmental, socio-economic, and cultural impacts are more local than GIS findings. Therefore, local development policies need an urgent adjustment to comply with the local and regional balances in the above factors. Further investigations in scenario-based urbanization dynamics are required to avoid an urban-desert initiated in the absence or relocation of refugee settlement, one of the priorities policies of the Bangladesh’s Government.
... However, the evidence whether their impact is facilitating or hindering is mixed. Valenta and Bunar (2010) show that CIPs in Scandinavia improve the employability of participating refugees yet do not eliminate the employment inequality between the general population and refugees. Having analysed refugee women's encounters with the Swedish establishment programme, Spehar (2021) found that, in contrast, the refugee women did not find the assistance to be sufficiently quick or responsive to their needs. ...
... Here, the refugees' occupational aspirations and understandings are the measure against which the integration progress and support are assessed. As such, the article departs from the more prevalent approach in research on the role of institutional and organisational factors for refugee employment that examines the effects of policy designs (see, e.g., Valenta & Bunar, 2010). Moreover, it foregrounds the understanding of integration not as an outcome but rather as a process encompassing different challenges for the involved parties. ...
Research often focuses on individual-level factors shaping refugee labour market participation. Less research has been conducted on the implications of the roles of employers, integration programmes, migrant support organisations and similar. This article contributes to the literature by seeking to understand highly educated refugees’ perceptions of how civic integration programmes shape opportunity structures for their labour market participation. It is particularly concerned with how the programmes’ characteristics of malleability and comprehensiveness inform integration processes. Accordingly, the article analyses identification contestations that transpire within civic integration programmes, as perceived by the participants, and compares how these unfold in three different contexts. A total of 41 semi-structured interviews with highly educated refugees in Oslo, Malmö, and Munich were analysed. The findings suggest that the civic integration programmes were thought to either foster or hinder the participants’ employment pathways depending on whether the participants were perceived as highly educated individuals or reduced to the general category of ‘refugee’. The differences were traced back to each civic integration programme’s capacity to provide malleable integration support, calling attention to the importance of the programmes’ acknowledgment of refugees’ heterogeneous needs and the pitfalls associated with undifferentiated refugee categorisation.
... Az észak-európai államok közül azonban a European Social Survey felmérése alapján Svédországban a legalacsonyabb a bizalom szintje (Andreasson, 2017). A skandináv országokban számos tényező mérsékelheti a diverzitás negatív szerepét, beleértve az alacsony vagyoni egyenlőtlenséget, az északiak nagyfokú bizalmát a politikai intézményekben, a jóléti államokat és azok multikulturalizmust támogató szakpolitikai intézkedéseit (Charron & Rothstein, 2014;Valenta & Bunar, 2010). Továbbá aktív a civil szféra, sok az önkéntes szervezet, amiben a lakosok aktívan részt is vesznek 18 . ...
... Tehát diverz környékeken kialakult negatív helyi tapasztalatokból származó "helyi jelzések", amiket az egyének használnak az emberek általánosított megbízhatóságának megítéléséhez (Dinesen & Sønderskov 2015) az általánosított bizalomra nem hatnak. Az észak-európai országokra jellemző intézményi és kulturális faktorok sikeresen csökkentik a diverzitás ezirányú negatív hatását (Charron & Rothstein, 2014;Valenta & Bunar, 2010). ...
... Az etnikai sokszínűségnek a társadalmi kohézióra gyakorolt hatását már számos tanulmány vizsgálta világszerte, ám metaelemzések (Schaeffer 2014, van der Meer-Tolsma 2014) alapján a negatív hatás nem egyértelmű, nem minden esetben figyelhető meg. A skandináv országokban például számos tényező mérsékelheti a sokszínűség negatív szerepét, beleértve az alacsony vagyoni egyenlőtlenséget (ami azonban az elmúlt években egyre növekedett), az északiak nagyfokú bizalmát a politikai intézményekben, illetve a jóléti államokat és azok multikulturalizmust támogató szakpolitikai intézkedéseit (Valenta-Bunar 2010, Charron-Rothstein 2014. Más vélemények szerint a szolidaritásra és a kölcsönösségre épülő északi jóléti modell intézményrendszere azonban kevésbé alkalmazkodóképes és sérülékenyebb lehet az etnikai heterogenitásra, mint más modellek (Kumlin et al. 2014). ...
... Azonban az etnikailag vegyes környékek negatív helyi tapasztalataiból származó "helyi jelzések", amiket az egyének az emberek általánosított megbízhatóságának megítéléséhez használnak (Dinesen-Sønderskov 2015), az általánosított bizalomra nem hatnak. Az észak-európai országokra jellemző intézményi és kulturális tényezők sikeresen csökkenthetik a sokszínűség ez irányú negatív hatását (Valenta-Bunar 2010, Charron-Rothstein 2014. ...
This study investigated the impact of ethnocultural diversity on changes in social cohesion in Västra Götaland County, Sweden, where the number of immigrants
increased rapidly between 2014 and 2018. To investigate diversity, the authors used a
diversity index weighted by cultural parameters in addition to the proportion of immigrants and the classical fragmentation index, while social cohesion was analysed using generalised and localised trust, respectively, with questionnaire surveys. The multilevel modelling used in the research has shown the role of individual variables and the impact of the diversity of the municipalities and city districts studied. The generalised
trust was not affected by diversity in the multilevel models and correlation results,
regardless of the measurement method (minority proportion, unweighted and weighted
fragmentation index), but the individual variables provided a good indication of the
level of trust of the individual. However, localised trust is already negatively affected
by ethnic diversity, as residents in ethnically mixed municipalities or districts have lower
localised trust, which confirms the constrict theory, that living in ethnically mixed areas
leads to lower trust in general. There is no difference in model fit between the use of
diversity indices and immigrant shares.
... The recruited participants came from East and Central Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Eurasia. The term 'refugee' is often linked to racialized minority groups facing discrediting stigma due to factors such as race, ethnicity, religion, or culture (Valenta & Bunar 2010). Participants ranged in age from 27 to 55 years, with children between 1 and 5 years old. ...
... For a long time, Sweden has prided itself on its liberal asylum policies (Valenta and Bunar, 2010). However, after 2015/16, when the country registered some of the largest numbers of asylum seekers (per capita) in Europe (Kleres, 2018), its approach shifted. ...
... Authorities in Sweden and Norway have noted that "these facilitators of integration are deployed in order to empower asylum seekers and prepare them for life outside the reception facilities, whether that might be in the host country, their home country or somewhere else". 86 Th e approach the Irish authorities take is in direct contrast to this and concepts such as questioned about the low rates of recognition or asylum claims in Ireland, that the Government "was determined to address the high level of abuse of the asylum process by people seeking to gain entry to the State for purposes other than protection". 87 Th e presumptions in offi cial discourse emanating from the Department of Justice in relation to the asylum system include: (i) Th e asylum system is open to abuse and must be protected from such abuse at all costs; (ii) in order to do so, it is necessary to make life diffi cult for asylum seekers here in order to remove incentives for asylum shopping or creating pull factors 88 ; and (iii) allowing asylum seekers to work, train or instigating other such "integration facilitators" would detract from the purpose of the asylum system and there is little point in making such investments when the large majority of asylum seekers will ultimately be deported or asked to leave the state. ...
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... Recognising forced migrants as a special category of migrants due to the forced nature of their migration (Echterhoff et al., 2020), specific attention has been paid to refugee integration processes. Ager and Strang's (2008) integration indicators framework has been widely utilised across Europe (Valenta and Bunar, 2010) to measure integration outcomes. Updating the Ager and Strang framework in 2019, the UK Government outlined Indicators of Integration to help design policy, assess interventions' success and measure integration outcomes (Ndofor-Tah et al., 2019) (see Figure 1). ...
Globally, resettlement is considered one of the most durable solutions for refugees. The UK has introduced a Community Sponsorship Scheme that enables communities to resettle refugee families providing them with enhanced integration support aided by volunteers. This paper investigates the nature of integration support that sponsored refugees receive utilising the analytical framework of UK’s Indicators of Integration (IoI). Data was collected from interviews with refugee adults resettled in diverse and less diverse areas. Our findings illustrate the importance of support given by volunteer groups to enable access to resources and connections. We establish that there is much potential for sponsorship programmes to add value to refugee support suggesting that the current expansion of sponsorship from its Canadian roots may help facilitate refugee integration. However, further research is needed to uncover the long-term experiences of sponsored refugees and to compare their outcomes to those of forced migrants arriving via different mechanisms.
... Similar in kind, these programs include language courses and introductory courses to life in the host society and focus on quick labor market integration to relieve the welfare state (Konle-Seidl 2018; Valenta/Bunar 2010). Research has found that these programs positively influence the employment rate of refugees (Bevelander/Pendakur 2014;Valenta/Bunar 2010). Nevertheless, they are often criticized for being restrictive and for focusing almost exclusively on fast labor market integration (e.g., Arendt 2020; Hinger/Schweitzer 2020; Konle-Seidl 2018), thus limiting refugees to precarious work, which often leads to long-term dependency on the welfare state (Arendt 2020). ...
This article explores the tensions arising from implementing integration policy in Switzerland. Relying mainly on the experiences and perceptions of 23 street-level bu-reaucrats (SLB) and 29 refugees in the Canton of Vaud in Switzerland, it identifies the dynamics at work during the process of integration, in particular how the focus on quick labor market integration of refugees, shapes both refugees’ integration tra-jectories and SLBs understanding of their role and function. The article closely exam-ines the tensions experienced on both sides; among others, these spring from expecting “fast” integration. It finds that SLBs strive to ensure “fast and sustainable integration” by promoting rapid access to vocational training and employment. This approach of-ten causes friction between SLBs, who recognize the shortcomings of this approach without seriously challenging it, and refugees, who either adapt to the expectations of “fast and sustainable integration” or rely on their own resources to gain support for their more ambitious projects.
... Entrepreneurs' unique situations and the host societies' various social and institutional structures play a vital role in economic integration through entrepreneurship. With the interrelation of socio-economic aspects, a business web can be created, which assists in developing a new social network [31,32]. ...
Pakistan hosts over 1.4 million Afghan refugees and is facing extreme challenges in accomplishing the UN’s refugee pacts and 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The inflow and longer stay of refugees in the host country may affect the local population’s socio-economic conditions. However, not all refugees are a “burden” to the host economy. Some refugees can contribute positively to the local economy given the opportunity. This study investigates the leading hurdles to establishing businesses for refugees to provide a different perspective to policymakers and scholars in achieving refugee integration. Through a thematic analysis of interviews conducted with Afghan entrepreneurial refugees, this study identifies ten hurdles and five opportunities they face while conducting business in Pakistan. Fuzzy Step-wise Weight Assessment Ratio Analysis (FSWARA) prioritizes the central theme, i.e., a lack of policies, among other hurdles, by allocating weights. Hypotheses on hurdles and opportunities are built and tested through multiple regression analysis (MRA). All the hypotheses on hurdles and three on opportunities are accepted. This study highlights the importance of a comprehensive framework for entrepreneurial refugees for their smooth integration into Pakistani society. This study helps policymakers and scholars identify the main barriers for refugee entrepreneurs in Pakistan.
... For instance, immigrants from Eastern Europe (mainly labour immigrants) do not have the same access to the extensive integration programmes and settlement assistance available to refugees. Moreover, immigrant workers from Eastern Europe do not have access to free Norwegian language courses and other forms of integration assistance (Valenta and Bunar, 2010;Valenta and Strabac, 2011). On the other hand, regarding the social context, it can be argued that immigrant workers from Eastern Europe face fewer prejudices and less discrimination than refugees from developing countries outside Europe. ...
In this study, we analyse changes in the composition of the immigrant population in Norway and the educational achievements of various groups of immigrants. Our analyses use quantitative indicators to distinguish between the various sub-categories of the immigrant population, both with regard to reasons for immigration (such as labour, refugees, and family), as well as in relation to the immigrants’ geographical origins. We also analyse the educational achievements of the descendants of immigrants, utilising a theoretical approach that is often used as a framework of interpretation in analyses of social mobility, as well as integrational and educational outcomes for various categories of descendants. Our empirical analyses show that the descendants achieve greater success within the Norwegian educational system than might be expected based on USA-developed theoretical frameworks. The paper discusses possible reasons for these better-than-expected achievements within the Norwegian context.
... Thus, contributing to creating a stable foundation for them to form new educational and occupational aspirations (e.g. Bevelander and Pendakur 2014;Valenta and Bunar 2010). However, these programmes have been criticised for their restrictive and mandatory nature, in addition to their tendency to follow the same logic of 'promoting and demanding' quick labour market integration (e.g. ...
This article explores the role of policy in influencing refugee educational and occupational aspirations and how this translates into promoting or hindering certain integration paths. 29 refugees in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland were interviewed and asked about their educational and occupational aspirations. Three policies were identified as having an important influence on their aspirations formation namely, asylum policy, integration policy in addition to university access and degree recognition policy. Findings show that the three policies combined contribute to creating what I refer to as ‘Low Ambition Equilibrium’. This means that on one hand these policies promote the quickest and most accessible integration paths to reduce refugees’ dependence on the welfare state. On the other hand, the experience of forced migration combined with a ‘policy-dense’ environment create a lot of uncertainty in the life of refugees and the urgency to find a lost ‘normality’ at the expense of their aspirations.
... More work is needed to provide an analysis of the way various domains overlap, interlink, or compete with others (Phillimore, 2012). As such, most studies employing Ager and Strang's framework rely on a "siloed" application of the ideas by focusing on a single domain at a time (Andersson et al., 2019;Hart, 2014;Luik, et al., 2018;Valenta & Bunar, 2010). A comprehensive literature review of integration (Feinstein et al., 2022) counts only three studies (Beversluis et al., 2016;Phillimore & Goodson, 2008;Puma et al., 2018) that simultaneously examine integration across multiple domains (Donato & Ferris, 2020). ...
... The 1990s were marked by the 'imperative character of integration' (Hagelund 2002, 407), when it was formulated in terms of obligations to participate in the political and policy context. In 2022 the political focus is on integration's functional aspects such as employment and language training (Gullikstad 2009;Valenta and Bunar 2010). ...
... While many studies have compared welfare states with different levels of generosity (Valenta andBunar 2010, Goodman andWright 2015, Kevins and Kersbergen 2019, Anonymous reference 1), several scholars have acknowledged that there is lack of causal evidence about the effectiveness of specific policies (Ersanilli andKoopmans 2011, Goodman andWright 2015). ...
This study examines how welfare benefit generosity impacts refugees’ integration into their new country. The effects of welfare benefit generosity are identified from a policy reform that reduced welfare benefits, first for newly arrived refugees, and second for those who had been in the country for at least 10 months. The results suggest that refugees respond quickly to the benefit reduction, but men and women react on different margins. Male refugees enter employment faster when they experience a benefit reduction, whereas no effect on the labor market is found for female refugees. Even though some men succeed in finding a job, both men and women experience a drop in disposable income of 20 percent. This seems to adversely affect women as they seek more health care, are more often hospitalized, and are more often charged with property crimes. No such unintended effects are found for men.
... Introductory programmes perform the added function of mitigating the risks of refugees becoming endlessly unemployed and, thus, long-term recipients of welfare assistance (see e.g. Valenta and Bunar, 2010;Brochmann and Hagelund, 2012;Schmidt, 2013;Myrberg, 2017). The shift to TRPs, as discussed above, is a clear reflection of the risk that refugees may become permanent inhabitants depending on social welfare in a context where many citizens experience their welfare state as threatened due to constant budget cuts, privatisation, and lowered taxes. ...
Summer 2015. While the beaches of Greek islands received boat after boat
of refugees, a large part of the space of the central station in Copenhagen
was occupied by young Danish volunteers who distributed sandwiches,
drinks, blankets, and second-hand clothes to crowds of people on the
move, most fleeing wars in Syria and Afghanistan. Locals bought train
and bus tickets so the travellers could continue their journey onwards to
Sweden and beyond. Across the strait forming the Swedish–Danish border,
the Sound (hereafter Öresund), in Malmö, Swedish volunteers were doing
the same as their Danish counterparts. Only a few weeks later did Malmö
municipality and the local branch of the Swedish Migration Agency send
some of their employees to meet those who were on the move. The asylum
seekers were slowly registered and accommodated by different authorities.
After their encounters with police and border patrol agents, they met case-
workers from the Migration Agency, healthcare professionals for medical
check-ups, employees and managers from refugee camps, schoolteachers
for their children, and many more representatives of the welfare state.
Those encounters were to shape and form their experiences from that point
onwards.
... The legal and organizational dimensions of integration define the legal status of refugees and point to the structural grounds for access to the labor market, housing, healthcare and education (Valenta & Bunar 2010). This dimension, by highlighting the migration and integration policy framework of the nation (Köser-Akçapar and Şimşek 2019; Lacroix 2013), identifies the rights and responsibilities of access to employment, housing, public services and resource allocation (Hynie 2018). ...
Turkey, hosting the largest Syrian refugee population in the world, has experienced a sharp increase in Syrian refugees preferring to live in cities rather than camps. Therefore, Turkish cities and their local residents have become a natural part of the process whereby Syrians are emplaced. This tendency necessitates examination of Syrian refugee integration at urban level from both the local resident and Syrian refugee points of view, given that they share the same living environment. It is not only the everyday life experiences and encounters of the two societies that shape the process, but also their perceptions, feelings and reactions. Based on the bilateral and subjective nature of this process, this paper investigates the multidimensionality of Syrian refugee integration at urban level, in which different dimensions entangle and different actors, places and processes impact the situation. Within this framework, this investigation, employing a field study in the Altındağ District of Ankara, Turkey, uncovered the everyday life experiences and perceptions of both the Syrians and Turkish residents of the area under study through semi-structured in-depth interviews. Inductive thematic analysis helped explore the different and intertwined themes of integration. The findings of the study displayed the multidimensional, context-dependent, subjective and perceptual characteristics of the process and revealed legal and organizational, socio-economic and socio-cultural integration as the three primary dimensions of integration. Adequacies and deficiencies in the organizational and legal framework, the economic structure, the housing and labor markets, social relations and communication tools have had a significant impact on the integration of Syrian refugees in the area. The experiences and perceptions of each society, the central, local, institutional and non-institutional actors and their interactions, encounters, tensions and struggles have contributed both positively and negatively to the process.
... From the 1970s and onwards, Finnish migrants came to Sweden for labor purposes (Hedberg, 2004). In the 1990s, ethnic cleansing took place in the Balkans, forcing millions of Bosnians to flee; Sweden was the third largest recipient of Bosnian refugees in the European Union (Valenta & Bunar, 2010). In 2015, during the 'refugee crisis', Europe experienced an influx of refugees primarily from Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq. ...
Research Question: The war in Ukraine has forced approximately eight million people into neighboring European countries. As part of sports clubs' societal commitment, many have received Ukrainian refugees. However, compared to previous so-called 'refugee waves', forced migration from Ukraine is different in terms of demographics, culture, and (sports) traditions. This paper aimed to assess these 'new' nuances and their implications for the European sports movement. Research Methods: Data were gathered through 17 semi-structured interviews with Swedish sports club representatives, analyzed with a critical realist-inspired thematic analysis, and interpreted with Bronfenbrenner's process-person-context-time framework. Results and Findings: The representatives expressed that Ukrainian refugees are more in-tune with organized sports compared to other refugee populations; however, there are also culturally discrepant ideas about sports. Specifically, there seems to be an influx of skilled (youth) refugees, who approach sports in ways incompatible with Swedish conventions about youth sports. While the sporting capital often enables easier inclusion, it also presents challenges in extreme cases. Implications: The findings show that the European sports movement must be attentive to new challenges and opportunities associated with the current humanitarian crisis. Sports representatives need to balance culturally sensitive approaches with ethical considerations regarding youth sports. ARTICLE HISTORY
... Although the interest of management and organisational scholars is increasing to explore the particular challenges of internships and mentoring activities, organised in the context of state-sponsored integration support for refugees (see e.g., Valenta and Bunar, 2010), we still know little about how such activities are organised in practice and the consequences-intended and unintended-such organisational practices may entail for highly skilled refugees. This article aims to contribute to filling this lacuna. ...
Labour market integration of refugees is seen as a major challenge in many countries. This article draws on a qualitative study focused on highly skilled refugees participating in two internship programmes at two large private companies in Sweden. We draw on the concepts of organisational socialisation and liminality to suggest that such programmes, when organised in collaboration between private companies and public organisations as part of the labour market integration support offered by the welfare state, further entrench the liminal position of refugees. The refugee interns find themselves in a liminal space, aspiring to secure not only a future professional role at the workplace but also the role of an integrated member of the Swedish labour market—a role that is ambiguously defined and constantly shifting as ideas of what it means to be employable shift too. This is a position that is not without its problems, ambiguities and uncertainties and requires a new perspective on organising labour market integration of refugees.
... For instance, in Scandinavian countries, they are meant to reduce the formation of ethnic enclaves in larger cities and foster social integration into the host society, whereas in the UK, they are intended to relieve London and South East England from housing and social-economic pressures (Larsen, 2011;Stewart, 2012). Although claimed to have these aims, dispersal policies can actually reproduce or exacerbate inequalities between refugees and the rest of the population (Valenta and Bunar, 2010;Zetter et al., 2005). Refugees may find themselves living in deprived or remote areas with limited options to seek employment, build social capital and develop a sense of belonging (Darling, 2016(Darling, , 2022Phillimore and Goodson, 2006), Therefore, to address the underlying causes of refugee mental health problems might need social rather than medical solutions in the first instance. ...
Post-migration factors significantly influence refugee mental health. This scoping review looks at the role of place in refugee mental health. We included 34 studies in Global North high-income countries that elaborated on the place characteristics of facilities, neighbourhoods, urban and rural areas, and countries. While the role of place remains under-theorised, all studies reveal common characteristics that support a strong relationship between place of residence, refugee mental health and wellbeing outcomes in post-migration context. Given that refugees often have little or no choice of where they ultimately live, we suggest future research should focus on how characteristics of place co-constitute post-migration refugee mental health risks, protections, and outcomes.
... Of course, this is a difficult question, but based on the literature on refugee integration policy, we can expect similar results to be obtained elsewhere. Research on integration programmes in western European countries shows that these tend to be short term and to focus on quick labour market integration (Arendt, 2022;Konle-Seidl, 2018;Valenta & Bunar, 2010). Most of these programmes aim at allowing refugees to develop competencies related to job search techniques, basic IT skills, short term internships combined with strengthening host country language skills. ...
The integration of refugees is a serious social policy problem in many advanced countries, and current trends suggest that this issue is unlikely to disappear soon. At the same time, these countries are also experiencing skill shortages in expanding sectors. These twin pressures create an opportunity to use education as a tool to pursue refugee integration. We investigate how refugees are trained in a country, Switzerland, where employers play an important role in vocational training. We discuss the national strategy for refugee integration and then focus on the implementation in one French speaking Canton (Vaud) on the basis of a qualitative vignette survey among case workers in charge of supporting refugee integration. At implementation, we do not find much evidence of a generalised upskilling strategy being applied in Switzerland. On the contrary, the main emphasis is on quick access to employment, supported by vocational training mostly in the low-skill segment. We conclude that the lack of an upskilling strategy is due to lack of coordination among policy areas and limited interest by employers.
... This approach also pertains to employment. However, Valenta and Bunar (2010) show that refugee integration policies in Norway, and Sweden, have failed in terms of levelling out initial inequalities between refugees and the rest of the population. One aim of the Introduction Programme is for 70 per cent of the participants to be either working or in education one year after finishing the programme (Guribye and Espegren 2019; SSB 2021e), yet in 2020 the rate was at 61 per cent (SSB 2021f). ...
Integration has become a buzzword in debates and discussions on immigration which also reflects upon Norwegian policymaking. In this article, we do a policy analysis of twenty-nine Norwegian governmental documents published between 1973 and 2021 and ask how the understanding of integration has changed during that time. We further ask how integration has been problematized in these documents. Our study is inspired by Bacchi’s approach “What’s the problem represented to be” which provides new insights on policymaking and its effects on the population. We find that integration has increasingly been put on a par with employment yet that in recent years policymakers have acknowledged that a focus on employment is too short-sighted. To cover more aspects of integration, the concept everyday life integration has been introduced where the voluntary sector is to play a central role both in terms of social integration and its ability to facilitate finding employment.
... Research in resettlement countries has consistently shown that a lack of proficiency in the host society language limits integration and the potential for livelihood (Hynie, 2018;Okyay, 2017;Valenta & Bunar, 2010). However, the socio-political context in which refugees settle generates the policies, institutions, and social environments that can create social and structural barriers to integration. ...
Resettlement country language literacy facilitates integration and counteracts social and economic marginalization. Thus, access to language learning is a social justice issue. Resettled refugees in Canada are eligible for free English/French language training. Between 2015-2017, Canada resettled 47,735 Syrian refugees. We explored predictors of language class participation for Syrian refugees, examining data from 1915 adult Syrian refugees in government-funded language classes in British Columbia, Ontario, and Quebec. Findings suggest access to language programs are shaped by provincial policies. Factors hindering participation varied by province and included gender, physical/mental health, education, English/French literacy, and employment. Practice and policy recommendations are discussed.
... Swedish integration policies are often positively evaluated especially within international comparisons. The state plays an important role in the integration of refugees in Sweden (and in the Nordic countries in general) and provides state-assisted integration programmes that include language training, and employment and housing assistance (Sigurjónsdóttir et al., 2018;Valenta & Bunar, 2010). The Public Employment Services (arbetsförmedlingen) is in charge of labour market integration and is tasked with organising the integration programme (etablering). ...
This paper highlights the ways Syrian refugees in Sweden utilise the different forms of capital available to them in order to find jobs and rebuild their careers. Relying on 25 in-depth interviews with Syrians who sought asylum in Sweden between 2012 and 2015, we discuss their use of social and cultural capital in order to access the Swedish labour market. While all our respondents are aware of the need to acquire capital in Sweden in order to find opportunities for work, their homeland cultural capital informs their decisions, outlooks and the kinds of options they utilise to navigate the institutional requirements in their new environment. As a result, the majority end up replicating their social positions that they had in Syria. Our analysis indicates that institutional programs aimed at labour market integration need to account for the role of social and cultural capital in realizing their goals.
... Studying at macro-levels of governance in relation to migration-and at micro levels in relation to everyday life encounters-many scholars have explored the role of social activities and institutions such as schools in fostering multiculturalism and social cohesion (cf. Valenta & Bunar, 2010;Maxwell et al., 2013;Bilecen, 2017;Bulmer & Solomos, 2017). The role played by sports and arts in society is an area of interest for academics in the fields as diverse as anthropology, sociology, psychology and public health-that have been examining these themes in contexts such as migration, refugee settlement, community development, identity politics and globalization (Broerse & Spaaij, 2019;Dieterich-Hartwell & Koch, 2017;Fox & Paradies, 2020). ...
This paper discusses the meanings and practices of multiculturalism among young people from refugee and migrant backgrounds in one of Australia's most multicultural cities. It is based on a three-year ethnographic study exploring refugee and migrant youth engaged in sports and arts in the suburbs of Melbourne known as "migrant", "ethnic" and "multicultural" areas. The result of the study indicates that multiculturalism from below can happen differently from the "place making" strategy or "ethnic enclave" idea in which ethnic minorities are viewed as creating their own ethnic colonies in isolation from the mainstream society.
... 4 The requirements of the Swedish labour market have influenced both rhetoric about refugees and the different introductory programmes that have been in place since the 1980s (Graham, 2003;Eastmond, 2011). Employment is not only an economic issue but is seen as both producing and proving integration (Valenta and Bunar, 2010;Larsson, 2015). Employment rates among refugees used to be high until the 1980s (Schierup et al., 2006, p. 207). ...
The chapter interrogates the Swedish introductory programme that is expected to aid in integrating refugees. The analysis illustrates experiences of frustration, loss and dependence, which often thwart the hopes and dreams of mobile youth who arrive in Sweden. Despite policy-makers’ attempts to individualise the programme and to offer extensive support, institutional requirements and the disciplining of refugees have immobilising effects, not least when it comes to social mobility and higher education.
... Sweden has, in comparative perspective, a labour market that is relatively open to immigrants, and comprehensive support systems and integration programs (Solano & Huddleston, 2020;Valenta & Bunar, 2010). This reception context is connected to the Swedish policy path focusing on immigrants' socio-economic integration (Borevi, 2014;Larsson, 2015). ...
... Though some integration assessments examine country level outcomes (MIPEX, 2015), most examine an array of factors among individual refugees, including economic, educational, health, and social experiences (Capps & Newland, 2015;Harder et al., 2018;Puma et al., 2018;UNHCR, 2016). Many such assessments prioritize employment and language (European Commission, 2020;ORR, 2018;Perchinig et al., 2012;Refugee Council USA & Center for Migration Studies [RCU & CMS], 2020;UNHCR, 2013;Valenta & Bunar, 2010). Partly due to the lack of agreement and consistency in how the integration concept is used, the focus on economic outcomes as indicative of integration is common in practice and research (Taccolini & Gonzalez-Benson, 2019). ...
Though goals for integration drive resettlement policy and practice, the concept of integration from the perspectives of refugees is not sufficiently understood. This study examined meanings of integration among 88 refugee participants who lived in the U.S. for an average of eleven years. Thematic analysis generated themes reflective of the meaning participants made of integration as a concept as well as a lived experience: (1) voicing uncertainty, (2) social engagement, (3) expressions of welcome, (4) choosing “here,” and (5) maintaining cultural identities. Findings emphasize the social aspects of integration, which can be further incorporated within policy and practice.
... While research on domains of integration is on the rise, studies tend to focus on domains through a siloed lens, often focusing on one domain of integration at a time. Some studies focused on the policies and means that facilitate refugees' inclusion in a specific domain (Ward et al., 2020;Valenta & Bunar, 2010) or the experiences of refugees in a specific domain (Ager, 2014;Hart, 2014;Sigona, 2014;). Other studies have focused on specific markers and means domains, such as housing (Bakker et al., 2016), economic integration (Bevelander, 2016), or employment (Andersson et al., 2018;Cheung & Phillimore, 2014;Luik et al., 2018). ...
The Syrian civil war led to mass migration and Europe becoming a potential site of refuge. How have Syrians experienced refuge in Europe? Drawing on 58 interviews with Syrian refugees in Germany, France, and Switzerland, we find that refugees continue to experience exclusion in all integration domains including those found as markers and means, social connections, facilitators, and foundations of integration . While our cases demonstrate that Syrian refugees in Europe experience discrimination across all domains, not all conditions are equal. Using narrative analysis, differences were observed within three integration domains. Accessing language programs was more challenging in France, finding housing was more challenging in Germany, and F type residence permits limited refugees’ rights in Switzerland more than in other countries. Discrimination across domains is deepening the socio-cultural-economic divide between autochthonous communities and Syrian refugees, but not all domains are equally divisive across countries. The findings outline that where these states outsourced refugee services, refugees experienced increased barriers to integration.
THE PRESS AND SWEDISH MEDIA TOWARDS THE EMIGRATION CRISIS IN EUROPE In the face of the emigration crisis in Europe, Swedish media focused on a wide range of topics, covering both the humanitarian dimension of the problem and the challenges related to the reception and integration of refugees. The press coverage was dominated by a humanitarian narrative, presenting dramatic stories of refugees who sought refuge from war, persecution and poverty.
International migration, although interrupted slightly by the travel restrictions due to Covid-19, is still quite common and influential resulting in cultural, ethnic, and religious diversity within countries. Designing educational settings that meet the needs of a diverse population is crucial in promoting integration of migrant newcomers. By promoting integration through specific policies, countries may eliminate inequality, poverty, and injustice. National documents can provide information that represents these policies. Thus, the aim of this study was to examine the early childhood education curriculum of the top five countries ranked in the educational integration domain of the Migrant Integration Policy Index (MIPEX). Document analysis method was used to determine the reflections of integration policy. It was concluded that integration is promoted through target curricula by specific focus on democratic and humanitarian values and rights. Also, flexibility of the curricula allowed practitioners to adapt their practices based on local needs. Thus, according to these results, several implications were provided for future research and practice.
This article examines critically the support systems necessary for economic integration of refugees by analysing the economic, social and policy context of refugee entrepreneurship in Germany and the UK. Current economic integration policies in both countries focus primarily on assisting refugees to find employment while appearing to neglect the value of refugee entrepreneurship as a viable option for integrating refugees into the destination country’s economy. Assuming economic integration of refugees is a fundamental socio-economic goal in both countries, our aim was to examine the challenges that could be addressed with regard to future policies for targeting refugee entrepreneurship and augmenting both entrepreneurship development and entrepreneurial policy formulation in host societies. We introduce a theoretical framework building on Wauters and Lambrecht (2008 , Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 34(6), 895–915) and use inductive thematic analysis ( Guest et al., 2013 , Collecting qualitative data: A field manual for applied research) to examine which variables impact refugees. We identify how regulations, measures and policies in different environments affect those variables. We also examine the concept of mixed embeddedness ( Kloosterman et al., 1999 , International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 23(2), 252–266), and its appropriateness for understanding the emergent entrepreneurial activity of refugees and the support systems that can aid opportunity-based integration. Our findings show that first, the most common challenges refugee entrepreneurs encounter are (a) seed capital, (b) language barriers, (c) location, (d) embeddedness and (e) knowledge about the local market. Second, there are no significant differences in the challenges that refugee entrepreneurs encounter, between the UK and Germany. Third, we also find that the support system for refugee entrepreneurs is larger in Germany than in the UK due to the capacity of government and civil society support. We conclude that combating downward occupational mobility, and fully using the potential and expertise of refugees, refugee entrepreneurship could be considered as a viable option for economic integration because refugee communities offer unique opportunities for potentially expanding the scope and style of entrepreneurship in host countries.
A plethora of government‐ and non‐government actors are involved in the labour market integration of highly skilled refugees, forming a complex “system” that is difficult to navigate for integration actors and refugees. Based on interviews with 32 labour market integration actors in Sweden, this article examines multi‐level governance gaps in the wake of the simultaneous centralization and decentralization of labour market preparation services. It examines various “steps” in the labour market integration process to gain a more holistic perspective of “the system”, and identifies governance gaps in each step. The article finds that the devolution of services has opened up participatory spaces for non‐government actors, but narrowly defined mandates and short‐term funding mechanisms hamper cooperation within and between territorial levels of policy implementation.
İnsani krizin 2011’de patlak vermesiyle Suriye’den Türkiye’ye milyonlarca zorunlu göçmen sığınmıştır. Aradan geçen zamana rağmen Suriye’de politik belirsizlik halen sürmekte ve Suriyeliler için geri dönüş umudu gittikçe azalmaktadır. Geri gönderilmeleriyle ilgili toplumsal ve politik tartışmaların gölgesinde Türkiye’deki Suriyelilerin entegrasyonu, uyumlaştırma adı altında sessizce işlemektedir. Bu çalışma, Hatay’daki Suriyeli zorunlu göçmenlerin perspektifinden entegrasyon sürecini anlamayı hedeflemektedir. Bu araştırmada hermenötik bir anlayış ve etnografik bir desen ile nitel araştırma metodolojisi kullanılmıştır. Bu nedenle araştırma sahasında uzun süre kalınarak gözlemler ve 22 görüşme yapılarak veriler toplanmış ve bunlar, betimsel ve içeriksel olarak analiz edilmiştir. Çalışmanın bulguları göstermektedir ki Suriyeli zorunlu göçmenler ev sahibi toplum dışladığı için entegrasyondan uzaklaşarak ayrılma/ayrışma ve dışlanma stratejisi benimsemekte ve onlar bütünleşmek için geçici korumadan daha daimi bir statüye geçişi istemektedir. Bu çalışmada, Hatay’daki Suriyelilerin kültürleşmesinin, konumlanmasının, etkileşiminin ve kimliklenmesinin yeteri kadar gelişmediği ve yeni bir mekâna/topluma entegre edecek pratiklerden ziyade, kendilerine koruma ve sosyal kabul sağlayacak uyumsal taktikler geliştirdiği sonuçlarına ulaşılmıştır.
Refugees use social networks to navigate the institutions of immigration. Social networks also serve as support structures as refugees claim their identity and establish a sense of belonging. This paper examines the influence of personal social networks on the integration experiences of 16 asylum‐seekers in Thessaloniki, Greece. Case studies of three recent asylum‐seekers convey how the dynamics of personal social networks differentially influence the experiences of integration. The visualizations of their personal social network, the 45 individuals they engage with routinely, reveal the structure and composition of their social lives. Across the study sample, refugees with more Greek contacts were better able to navigate the economic and legal landscape. However, more engagement with host nationals did not necessarily improve feelings of belonging. Migration policies and programming should consider how to use social networks, both existing and new, to improve migrant integration outcomes.
Settlement of refugees in rural areas in Norway is part of a national strategy to counter depopulation and thus links to ideas of revitalization and more promising futures for these areas. It also links up to an idea of smaller communities as ‘better at integrating’, as smaller communities both enable and necessitate more contact between the original population and newcomers. However, although some municipalities reap advantages of the dispersed settlement policy and succeed in retaining settled refugees, other municipalities ‘fail’. This article explores how the integration of refugees in rural communities is interpreted by public integration workers in two rural–coastal municipalities where the outcomes differ significantly. Drawing on 15 qualitative interviews, we discuss how integration workers make sense of local integration efforts, and how notions of the rural are (re)produced through their integration narratives. The analysis finds that the integration narratives draw on and reproduce both distinct and overlapping imaginaries of rural areas. We identify two main imaginaries: the rural as future‐oriented and dynamic, and the rural as close‐knit and peaceful.
Suriye İç Savaşı yaklaşık otuz beş milyon Suriyelinin evlerini terk etmesine neden olmuş ve Türkiye coğrafi ve kültürel yakınlığı nedeniyle en çok Suriyeliye ev sahipliği yapan ülkelerden biri olmuştur. Türkiye, 2022 yılı itibariyle yaklaşık 3,6 milyon Suriyeliye ev sahipliği yapmaktadır. Bu Suriyeli mülteciler, geldikleri ilk yıllarda 'misafir' olarak kabul edilip temel ihtiyaçları Türk hükümeti tarafından karşılansa da artık gelir getirici bir işte çalışabilecek kapasiteye ulaşmışlardır. Çoğu hala emek yoğun sektörlerde güvencesiz bir şekilde çalışırken, kendi işini kuranların sayısı da hızla artmıştır. Bu Suriyeli işletmeler, kuruluşlarından bu yana, yeni işler yaratarak ve Suriyeli mültecilere geçim kaynağı sağlayarak Türkiye'deki kapsayıcı ekonomik büyümeye katkıda bulunmakla kalmamış, aynı zamanda entegrasyon süreçlerine de katkıda bulunmuştur. Ancak bu Suriyeli işletmeler, yerel işletmelerin karşılaşmadığı bir dizi sorunla karşı karşıya kalmaktadırlar. Bu bağlamda, bu makale Suriyeli işletmelerin potansiyellerini gerçekleştirmelerini engelleyen sorunları incelemeyi ve bu sorunların üstesinden gelmelerine yardımcı olacak bir model geliştirmeyi amaçlamaktadır.
The welfare magnet hypothesis holds that immigrants are likely to relocate to regions with generous welfare benefits. Although this assumption has motivated extensive reforms to immigration policy and social programs, the empirical evidence remains contested. In this study, we assess detailed administrative records from Switzerland covering the full population of social assistance recipients between 2005 and 2015. By leveraging local variations in cash transfers and exogenous shocks to benefit levels, we identify how benefits shape intracountry residential decisions. We find limited evidence that immigrants systematically move to localities with higher benefits. The lack of significant welfare migration within a context characterized by high variance in benefits and low barriers to movement suggests that the prevalence of this phenomenon may be overstated. These findings have important implications in the European setting where subnational governments often possess discretion over welfare and parties frequently mobilize voters around the issue of “benefit tourism.”
The control function of reception centers hinders asylum seekers’ settlement to their host communities. Even though open accommodation centers compose the majority of the European reception system, few studies have comprehensively analyzed their controlling aspects from the asylum seeker perspective. In this article, we examine asylum seekers’ experiences of confinement in Finnish reception centers by using semi-structured and individual interviews (n = 28). We identified three “layers” of confinement in asylum seekers’ accounts: spatial, service-based, and communicative. Together, these permeable but overlapping and accumulative layers define asylum seekers’ experiences by hampering their efforts to participate in local communities and reducing their autonomy.
The Progress parties have been variously dubbed 'flash party, protest party', 'tax-revolt party', petty bourgeois protest movement populist party, 'extreme right-wing party' None of these labels passess unambrguously through a critical examination More recently, commentators have some times referred to the Progress parties as conventional bourgeois parties. Such a label is however. also problematic, as the social background or class profile of both parties shows an increasing dewaUun from conventional bourgeois parties Our approach is that the Progress parties must be inter preted in connection with the new cleavages in postindustral society We discuss the Progress parties in relation to cleavages emanating from the welfare state, and in particular to postindustrial materialism and the changed role of the working class
During the 1990s, the working class has become the core clientele of right-wing populist parties in Western Europe. This article empirically examines the motives of workers for supporting a right-wing populist party. Based on data from the European Social Survey for Austria, Belgium, France, Norway, and Switzerland, three different sets of explanations are tested: (1) hypotheses stressing economic determinants, that is, the fear of wage pressure and competition over welfare benefits; (2) hypotheses emphasizing cultural determinants, that is, the perception of immigration as a threat to national identity; and (3) hypotheses focusing on social alienation, that is, dissatisfaction with the way the country's democracy works and the nonintegration into intermediary networks (trade unions). We find questions of community and identity to be clearly more important than economic grievances. Hence, in Austria and Switzerland, the electoral success of right-wing populist parties among workers seems primarily due to cultural protectionism: the defense of national identity against outsiders. In Belgium, France, and Norway, cultural protectionism is complemented by deep-seated discontent with the way the countries' democracies work.
Integration has become both a key policy objective related to the resettlement of refugees and other migrants, and a matter
of significant public discussion. Coherent policy development and productive public debate are, however, both threatened by
the fact that the concept of integration is used with widely differing meanings. Based on review of attempted definitions
of the term, related literature and primary fieldwork in settings of refugee settlement in the UK, the paper identifies elements
central to perceptions of what constitutes ‘successful’ integration. Key domains of integration are proposed related to four
overall themes: achievement and access across the sectors of employment, housing, education and health; assumptions and practice
regarding citizenship and rights; processes of social connection within and between groups within the community; and structural
barriers to such connection related to language, culture and the local environment. A framework linking these domains is presented
as a tool to foster debate and definition regarding normative conceptions of integration in resettlement settings.
Biographical interviews with refugees in all 15 Member States of the European Union indicated some of the major obstacles to integration they experienced in the host societies. One of the most fundamental barriers came from the racism and ignorance of some Europeans, experienced at both the personal and institutional levels. Negative attitudes were compounded by the enforced dependence and marginalization of refugees in Member States with highly developed welfare systems. Personalities of refugees appeared to be the other critical factor in the ability and wish to be accepted in the new host society. The paper contains quotations from the interviews that illustrate the process and experiences of refugees that relate to the issue of integration in the European Union.
Post-1965 immigration to the United States has given rise to a vigorous literature focused on adult newcomers. There is, however, a growing new second generation whose prospects of adaptation cannot be gleaned from the experience of their parents or from that of children of European immigrants arriving at the turn of the century. We present data on the contemporary second generation and review the challenges that it confronts in seeking adaptation to American society. The concept of segmented assimilation is introduced to describe the diverse possible outcomes of this process of adaptation. The concept of modes of incorporation is used for developing a typology of vulnerability and resources affecting such outcomes. Empirical case studies illustrate the theory and highlight consequences of the different contextual situations facing today's second generation.
In year 1998 the Swedish government adopted an ambitious urban renewal policy (URP). One of its main elements was to combat social exclusion in a number of housing areas in Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö. Between 2002 and 2004 I have been studying implementation of this policy and its ideas in five neighborhoods in Stockholm. Based on previous research I claim that this form of ethnified urban poverty, in popular discourses named urban segregation, is being generated by the structural unemployment and by the so-called "ethnic factor" embodied in processes of stigmatization and discrimination. URP has been set up to assist the general welfare policy to challenge and ultimately solve this social problem. In this article I focus on three problems inherited in the policy implementation: disparity between theory and practice concerning the basic ideas of URP; the anomaly concerning the time aspect and an extreme unwillingness by the state to follow up the implementation process. One of the main conclusions is that URP has failed in its "mission" to assist the general welfare policy because, firstly, the local analysis of what generates the social exclusion highlighted only the structural unemployment. The impact of discrimination and stigmatization was omitted. Secondly, URP:s practical implementation was particularistic, non-relational and anomalistic.
African Americans and Hispanics traditionally have faced many barriers that limit their access to and choice of housing. During summer and fall 2000, local fair housing organizations conducted 4,600 paired tests across 20 major metropolitan areas nationwide. These surveys directly compared real estate or rental offices' treatment of African Americans and Hispanics to that of whites. The 2000 study replicates a 1989 national paired testing study, providing the most complete information available about the persistence of housing market discrimination against African American and Hispanic home seekers. The study finds that disparate treatment discrimination in rental and owner-occupied housing markets persists, but has declined substantially in magnitude over the last decade. Key exceptions to this general decline are discrimination against Hispanics in access to rental housing, racial steering of African Americans, and less assistance to Hispanics in obtaining financing provided. © 2005 by Society for the Study of Social Problems, Inc. All rights reserved.
Migrations, with all the incidental collision, conflicts, and fusions of peoples and of cultures which they occasion, have been accounted among the decisive forces in history. Every advance in culture, it has been said, commences with a new period of migration and movement of populations. Present tendencies indicate that while the mobility of individuals has increased, the migration of people has relatively decreased. The consequences, however, of migration and mobility seem, on the whole, to be the same. In both cases the "cake of custom" is broken and the individual is freed for new enterprises and for new associations. One of the consequences of migration is to create a situation in which the same individual-who may or may not be a mixed blood-finds himself striving to live in two diverse cultural groups. The effect is to produce an unstable character-a personality type with characteristic forms of behavior. This is the "marginal man." It is in the mind of the marginal man that the conflicting cultures meet and fuse. It is, therefore, in the mind of the marginal man that the process of civilization is visibly going on, and it is in the mind of the marginal man that the process of civilization may best be studied.
Discussions of inner-city social dislocations are often severed from the struggles and structural changes in the larger society, economy, and polity that in fact determine them, resulting in undue emphasis on the individual attributes of ghetto residents and on the alleged grip of the so-called culture of poverty. This article provides a different perspective by drawing attention to the specific features of the proximate social structure in which ghetto residents evolve and try to survive. This is done by contrasting the class composition, welfare trajectories, economic and financial assets, and social capital of blacks who live in Chicago's ghetto neighborhoods with those who reside in this city's low-poverty areas. Our central argument is that the interrelated set of phenomena captured by the term “underclass” is primarily social-structural and that the inner city is experiencing a crisis because the dramatic growth in joblessness and economic exclusion associated with the ongoing spatial and industrial restructuring of American capitalism has triggered a process of hyperghettoization.
In analysing the social rights of immigrants, this paper draws on insights from comparative welfare state research and international migration studies. On the premise that the type of welfare regime has an impact on immigrants’ social rights, it utilizes Esping-Andersen’s welfare regime typology as a point of departure. However, this typology must be complemented by two analytical constructs borrowed from the international migration literature: the immigration policy regime and entry categories associated with the form of immigration. The paper examines the social rights of immigrants in three countries generally regarded as exemplars of the welfare regime types: the United States, representing the liberal regime; germany, the conservative corporatist regime; and Sweden, the social democratic regime. It maps out immigrants’ formal incorporation into the welfare systems of the three countries and pays special attention to legislation from 1990 onwards in order to understand the interplay between welfare regimes, the forms of immigration, and the immigration policy regimes in shaping immigrants’ social rights.
This article examines the limits to harmonization at the level of the European Union through a case study of policy towards people who fled the war inBosnia and Herzegovina in the early 1990s.
Specific attention is paid to the development of the policy of granting“temporary protection” instead of full refugee status to Bosnian asylum-seekers, which stretched across all fifteen member states.
It is argued that “temporary protection” emerged as a set of specific responses to the outbreak of war in the former Yugoslavia, involvingcompromises between states’ desires to restrict asylum on the one hand, but meet demand from public opinion and international organizations to offerprotection to refugees on the other.
Subsequent analyses have suggested that these compromises might providean effective way forward for harmonization of policy at a European level,and even a reformulated international system of refugee protection.
However, the authors question this view: they analyse the extent to which“temporary protection” for Bosnians was coordinated, and whether it actually provided the states and individuals with the benefits that have been suggested.
This paper exploits a natural experiment to study the influence of regional factors on initial and subsequent location choices among immigrants. The results suggest that immigrants to Sweden are attracted to regions with high representation from the individual's birth country and large overall immigrant populations. Labour market opportunities affect location decisions, but people also tend to choose localities with many welfare recipients. The impact of most regional factors does not change over time. Thus, there is little evidence that information improves or that preferences differ between initial and subsequent stages.