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New report on the integration of immigrants into the Nordic labor markets

30 May 2019

Lars Calmfors, IFN, is the main author of a new report written for the Nordic Council of Ministers: Integrating immigrants into the Nordic Labour Markets: An Overall Perspective. The report was presented on Wednesday in Oslo. Per Skedinger, IFN, and Simon Ek, Uppsala University and affiliate to IFN, have written a chapter titled "Wage Policy”. The report shows that subsidized private employment is of most advantage, even for immigrants to, later on, get non-subsidized jobs, Lars Calmfors explained in Oslo. He stated that this kind of support is most common in Sweden of the Nordi9c states. He advised other countries to increase the use of this type of intervention.

2019-05-29 2Calmfors och Skedinger.jpg
Per Skedinger, IFN, during the presentation in Oslo. The photo was taken from the video: regjeringen.no.

 

There are many similarities between the Nordic countries, said Lars Calmfors. He also pointed to the differences between the countries - for example, Sweden has accepted the most significant amount of immigrants, financial support in Denmark is differentiated depending on how long a person has lived in the country, and Norway has welcomed the largest labor immigration of the Nordic countries.

Calmfors stated that Sweden has the most significant problems. Among other things, Sweden has the most considerable differences between employment for immigrants and Swedish born individuals. Per Skedinger explained in his presentation that a lower minimum wage might be considered to integrate a larger number of individuals with little formal education into the labor market. To make a difference, however, the wage reduction must be substantial. "And the balance between increased employment and increased inequality must be discussed thoroughly," said Skedinger.

Read the report

View the  seminar

Translation from Swedish to English: Victoria Svensson.