This article discusses the labour market situation for different categories of immigrant populations and young people of immigrant origin in Sweden, pointing to the failure of integration policies. The article argues that, as in other labour-importing countries, it is Sweden's economic needs and structural labour market conditions that are decisive for their integration, or alternatively segregation, or discrimination in the labour market and in working life. It challenges the argument which points to cultural factors intrinsic to ethnic minorities themselves as a major obstacle to their successful integration in the labour market. Instead, it shows the operation of discriminatory mechanisms which affect persons of non-Swedish origin, particularly in a tight labour market situation. (Economic and Industrial Democracy / FUB)
This article discusses the labour market situation for different categories of immigrant populations and young people of immigrant origin in Sweden, pointing to the failure of integration policies. The article argues that, as in other labour-importing countries, it is Sweden's economic needs and structural labour market conditions that are decisive for their integration, or alternatively segregation, or discrimination in the labour market and in working life. It challenges the argument which points to cultural factors intrinsic to ethnic minorities themselves as a major obstacle to their successful integration in the labour market. Instead, it shows the operation of discriminatory mechanisms which affect persons of non-Swedish origin, particularly in a tight labour market situation.
Economic and political realities in Europe are in a process of change from industrial mass production and growth to a pattern of jobs which require new skills in the shrinking industrial sector, in information technology and the expanding service sector. Politics at national level are declining in importance and are being replaced by politics decided at supranational level. Ongoing developments in EU member-states bear witness to the profound transformations in labour market conditions and job opportunities as a consequence of structural change and technological renewal. We can also see the changes in progress caused by the consolidation of the Single Market and the establishment of the European Union itself. While there is an awareness that these processes will affect many areas at national and European level, the consequences for the economy, for politics and not least for social conditions are still difficult to overlook. What will the Single Market imply for people and job opportunities? What will the changes mean for different groups or categories of people? What will, for example, the outcome be for the nearly 55 million women who are economically active, and for all those women who want to enter or reenter the labour market? Will all women be affected in the same way or will there be winners and losers? Is it at all correct to speak about women as a coherent category or will access to work and social rights depend on nationality, region, class, ethnic or racial categorisation? One of the most burning questions for immigrants and ethnic minorities today is whether EU-citizenship will define insiders and outsiders when it comes to equal rights and social protection. In many respects, both women and men are affected by discrimination, segregation, and the powerlessness and lack of choice that is part of being an immigrant. This paper will, however, focus on the particular barriers and obstacles to equal rights and freedoms encountered by immigrant and minority women in Europe. In order to locate women in the dynamics of post-WW II worker immigration, I shall start out with a brief look at the history of post-war worker recruitment and detail its hidden agenda of discrimination. Next, I shall discuss and analyse the adverse effects of immigration policies on women with regard to family reunion, residence rights, the right to work and to social protection, with examples from some major countries of immigration. Against this background, I shall argue that the situation and function of immigrant and ethnic minority women in European societies and labour markets have been largely determined by the receiving countries and their economic needs on the hand; and, on the other hand, by restrictions imposed on immigrant women's equal rights. I shall finally discuss current developments and future trends for women in the context of changing labour market needs.
This article explores the work experiences of women and men, all immigrants, at one of Volvo's largest car assembly plants. It poses questions about what happens to them in the process of technological change and how they interpret their situation. Starting with a critical assessment of theories on the new organization of work from a gender and ethnic perspective, the study analyses the effects of gendered and ethnicized thinking in the work process. By comparing the work experiences of Finnish and Yugoslav women and men with regard to work situation, internal skill and career development in the context of technological change, a gendered and ethnic pattern emerges. The results indicate that gendered values exclude women immigrants from opportunities inherent in technological change, irrespective of their particular ethnic origin. Immigrant men, on the other hand, are selectively affected by obstacles to career development, by different sets of ethnic prejudice that have developed.
The article questions the dominant image in Swedish society of 'the immigrant woman' as 'the problem'. I argue that this image and the abstract notion of 'the immigrant woman' are socially constructed by the political, economical and ideological apparatus of mainstream society. Research has served power-holders to reinforce, legitimize and manage 'the problem' from an ethnocentric perspective, serving to keep the women at the borders of society and lowest down in worklife hierarchy. By presenting the women as carriers of problematic characteristics mainly defined in cultural terms, mainstream society and employers use the strategy of blaming the victim. I argue instead that subordination in the gendered and ethnically divided labour market, marginalization and invisibility in worklife, are central frames of reality where the actual problems the women meet are being expressed. The challenge facing social scientists and feminist scholars is a redefinition not seeing the women as 'the problem' but defining the problem as generated by structural subordination. The perspective of research must shift from problems defined by power and ethnocentrism to definitions that have their basis in the real life experiences of the women.
