Talking about Integration: The Voices of Syrian Refugees Taking Part in Introduction Programmes for Integration into Swedish Society
| Published date | 01 April 2019 |
| Author | Gregg Bucken‐Knapp,Zainab Fakih,Andrea Spehar |
| Date | 01 April 2019 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/imig.12440 |
Talking about Integration: The Voices of
Syrian Refugees Taking Part in Introduction
Programmes for Integration into Swedish
Society
Gregg Bucken-Knapp*, Zainab Fakih* and Andrea Spehar*
ABSTRACT
The significant increase in the number of refugees entering the European Union and the low
employment rates among them remain pressing issues across Europe. While previous research
has mainly focused on refugee integration prospects from the policymakers’point of view, we
shift the analytical focus to how refugees perceive the introduction programme experience,
examining the case of Syrian refugees to Sweden. Drawing upon semi-structured interviews
with Syrian refugees, our results suggest that the quality of language training, the complexity
of the validation process for educational qualifications and the lengthy administrative proce-
dures are perceived as important barriers hindering the access of refugees to the Swedish
labour market. These barriers are differently perceived, especially by those with differing
levels of education. This highlights the utility of an intersectional approach, and the continued
need to explore the diversity of migrant experiences when assessing integration policies and
programmes.
INTRODUCTION
Since 2014, the flow of refugees to the member states of the European Union has dramatically
increased in number. Integration into their new host countries constitutes a major challenge for all
levels of society and the actors charged with facilitating refugee inclusion. Perhaps the central indi-
cator of whether adult refugees are perceived as having successfully integrated into the receiving
society is when they secure employment. Yet, as both popular and scholarly accounts of integration
underscore, refugees tend to encounter substantial difficulty when trying to establish a lasting foot-
hold on the host country’s labour market. The integration of refugees into the labour market is a
highly difficult objective to achieve, owing to numerous economic, political, social and cultural bar-
riers. Refugees have on average lower employment rates, lower incomes and more unstable
employment contracts than those who are native-born (European Commission, 2016; OECD,
2016). Such difficulties are especially intriguing given the substantial policy efforts at both local
and national levels targeted at increasing the workforce participation rate of refugees.
This article seeks to make a meaningful contribution to the present debate on the integration of
refugees into the Swedish labour market. Previous research generally claims that Sweden is an out-
lier when it comes to integration policy, emphasising how relevant practices and policies are
*
University of Gothenburg, Sweden
doi: 10.1111/imig.12440
©2018 The Authors
International Migration ©2018 IOM
International Migration Vol. 57 (2) 2019
ISSN 0020-7985Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
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