Through an inter-subjective lens, this open access book investigates the initial labour market integration experiences of these migrants, refugees or asylum seekers, who are characterised by different biographies and migration/asylum trajectories. The book gives voice to the migrants and seeks to highlight their own experiences and understandings of the labour market integration process, in the first years of immigration. It adopts a critical, qualitative perspective but does not remain ethnographic. The book rather refers the migrants’ own voice and experience to their own expert knowledge of the policy and socio-economic context that is navigated. Each chapter brings into dialogue the migrant’s intersubjective experiences with the relevant policies and practices, as well as with the relevant stakeholders, whether local government, national services, civil society or migrant organisations. The book concludes with relevant critical insights as to how labour market integration is lived on the ground and on what migrants ‘do’ with labour market policies rather than on what labour market policies ‘do’ to or for migrants.

Pt. 1. Concepts and methodologies -- pt. 2. State policies in relation to migrants and refugees -- pt. 3. Structural discrimination and strategies of response.

With 16% of its population born abroad, Sweden has one of the larger immigrant populations among the European OECD countries. This report looks at the challenges of integrating migrants and their families into the Swedish labour market.

This publication reviews the labour market integration of immigrants and their offspring in three OECD countries: Austria, Norway and Switzerland, and provides country-specific recommendations.

Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden face similar problems of integrating large groups of immigrants, especially low-educated ones from outside the EU, into their labour markets. In this volume, researchers from across the Nordic Region analyse how labour market integration of immigrants can be promoted. Education policy, active labour market policy, social benefit policy and wage policy are analysed. A key conclusion is that no single policy is likely to suffice. Instead, various policies have to be combined. The exact policy mix must depend on evaluations of the trade-offs with other policy objectives.

This publication presents reviews of the labour market integration of immigrants and their children in four OECD countries (Australia, Denmark, Germany and Sweden), and provides country-specific recommendations.

This report has been commissioned by the Labour Market Committee of the Nordic Council of Ministers. The chief aim is to provide policy-relevant knowledge by conducting a comparative analysis of refugee labour-market integration in Scandinavia. Instead of focusing on the well-known employment gap or the fiscal impact of refugee unemployment, this study investigates the divergent impacts of integration programmes and settlement policies for refugees from different backgrounds. Through longitudinal comparative analysis, this study examines the labour-market integration of refugees in Denmark, Norway and Sweden, searching for explanations of cross-national differences by combining statistical analyses with in-depth analyses of national policies and governance structures.