Developing new ways of employing migrants in Sweden

There’s labour shortage in Sweden but at the same time the unemployment rate of people with a migrant background is still much higher than that of Swedish-born citizens. The ESF funded project Employment for migrants tries to close the gap between employers’ needs for staff and migrants’ lack of right qualifications in the care sector. 

Shortage of working age population in the north of Sweden 

The population in most European countries is getting older. There are at least two challenges with ageing populations. The first is demographic, as there are less people entering the work force than leaving. The second challenge is the increasing need for care services for the elderly. In the sparsely populated north of Sweden, these problems are bigger than in the rest of Sweden.  

Many employers in various fields are facing problems in finding staff with right qualifications. One of these sectors is the care sector. At the same time, there is a big difference in unemployment rates between Swedish-born and foreign-born citizens. There is a need for a better match between the employers’ requirements for competence and the competences of the unemployed. 

Piteå municipality is working intensively to increase the number of its inhabitants, primarily those of working age. People mainly relocate for a job. Many of those who move to Piteå are migrants. We want them to stay permanently and be included both with the labour market and the society. To achieve this, we need new ways to recognize the informal skills people have acquired through previous work or other activities. We must also find new ways to work with language support, both in the formal adult education system and at workplaces, both regarding workplace training and the introduction and mentoring of the newly employed. 

New ways to employ migrants in the care sector 

In Piteå’s national project Employment for migrants, we want to develop new methods that facilitate newly arrived migrants’ entry into the labour market, especially in elderly care in the Piteå municipality.  

We work with migrants and their development but also with workplaces and employers to make them more open and willing to integrate a newcomer in the workplace. In addition, we also need to make some changes in organizing the elderly care regarding skills supply and mentoring of trainees/newly recruited staff.  

Sophia sharing insights on her internship to the transnational EME project group.

Our process starts with the recruitment of participants. They are for example clients at the Swedish employment service or social services or participants in Swedish language courses. First, they meet with our project staff. If the participant shows interest in working in elderly care, they have a meeting with the projects’ language support and the career counsellor. The purpose of the meeting is to do a mapping of the participants’ education, language skills and other skills.  

The participant then starts an internship in elderly care with a mentor who shows the them the ropes at work. They have the same mentor throughout the internship period. The intern’s working hours are the same as the mentor’s. The language support person and the career counsellor do follow-ups periodically during the internship. They document the intern’s progress in language and vocational skills.  When the internship ends after six months, the intern should be skilled to work as a substitute in the elderly care or to start the education to become an assistant nurse. The documentation of skills is a good tool to ensure that the intern has acquired enough skills to manage a job in the elderly care.  

Simultaneously, we are developing the process of introduction to work. What is the best practice of introducing a migrant to work? What is the first work task they have to learn? How to find the best way to instruct the newcomers? 

What have we learned so far? 

• Good mentors are key to successful integration of migrants in the labour market.  
• The whole working community needs to be engaged in the introduction of the newcomer.  
• It is crucial that the introduction to work is adjusted to the intern’s language and occupational skill level. 
• There’s a need to educate the co-workers to be more open to new colleagues. It is the co-workers' responsibility to include the newcomer at the workplace and not the other way around. 
• It is important to document the intern’s progress in both language and occupational skills. This documentation can, after the internship, be used to showcase the acquired skills to a future employer. Also, the employer knows that the employee has the required knowledge to work in the care sector. 

Intern Sophia with her mentor Åsa

Linda Stenström, Quality and EU coordinator
Piteå Municipality