Integrating Immigrants Into Labor and Education; A Scandinavian Comparative Perspective

Abstract

The field of immigrant integration has been widely researched, especially in contemporary times when it has become a big political issue splitting up Europe and threatening to undo a lot of the work that has been done to bring it together. This means that the field of integration will continue to be researched in the future as it brings valuable insight into something that needs to be solved. Despite all the research that has been done, some of the answers have been very vague and based on that this research tries to encompass all the previous research and apply its lessons in Scandinavia. A region in Europe that makes for a good comparison because of its common history and homogenous culture which has for some reason led do such differing integrational policies.

Integrating immigrants into labor and education demands specific measures from the governments of the Scandinavian countries. What they have come up with is introductory programs based on each country’s political goals. This makes the programs a bit different and this research will look into the effect of that. These countries also have integration polices that are vastly different from each other and this will also play into effect to the result of their integration into labor and education. This research looks at it from a New Public Service perspective to see if there are any approaches to it that agrees with the NPS theory of serving the public by providing a bottom-up perspective that plays into making these programs and policies that directly affect immigrants. To best illustrate the differences of how these countries do in integration an illustrative comparison matrix will be used. Based on the comprehensive statistics available from these countries official statistics agencies. This will show directly how the level of integration is into labor and education in each country and will allow for a direct comparison between them.

This research found that there certainly were measurable differences between the Scandinavian countries when it came to integrating immigrants into labor and education. First of all the countries need to let the immigrants themselves have a voice in the making of the policies, that is because harsh policies that are only used to put obstacles in the way for the immigrant does nothing more than to alienate them from their new host country. Softer policies have the better effect in giving the immigrants more freedom and control of their own lives. A happy individual is also a contributing individual in society and in countries where immigrants do not have to jump over hurdles for every move they make they will be better integrated into labor and education. Another aspect to the whole integration debate is that it is time that is the best integrator. Duration of stay is key in all aspects of integrating immigrants; the introductionprograms should still be in place and help immigrants get a good introduction into society, but in the end all the research show that the duration of stay is what really adds up more positive numbers in terms of getting immigrants into labor and education.