LAB-MIG-GOV Project “Which labour migration governance for a more dynamic and inclusive Europe?” Labour migration governance in contemporary Europe. The case of Sweden Monica Quirico FIERI, Torino, Italy April 2012 The research on which this paper is based benefits from the support of the “Europe and Global Challenges” Programme promoted by Compagnia di San Paolo, Riksbankens Jubileumsfond and VolkswagenStiftung. ii Table of Contents INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................ 1 1. FROM EMIGRATION TO IMMIGRATION COUNTRY............................................ 3 1.1 Immigration policies and their impact on labour market .................................... 3 1.2 Integration policies ........................................................................................... 6 2. TOWARDS A NEW LABOUR MIGRATION POLICY ........................................... 11 2.1 The debate on EU and Swedish Model........................................................... 11 2.2 The Committee on Labour Migration (KAKI) 2004-2006 ................................. 12 2.3 The 2008 law on labour migration................................................................... 14 2.3.1 Content..................................................................................................... 14 2.3.2 Driving actors and factors......................................................................... 17 2.4 Reference to EU and other countries.............................................................. 21 2.5 A not controversial reform? ............................................................................ 23 3. THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE REFORM ....................................................... 27 3.1 Data and evaluations on labour migrants’ flows............................................. 27 3.2 Recruitment of TCN workers........................................................................... 30 3.2.1 Targets ..................................................................................................... 30 3.2.2 Channels .................................................................................................. 31 3.2.3 Recognition of foreign education and job experiences ............................. 32 3.3 Migrants’social rights....................................................................................... 33 3.4 Self-employment ............................................................................................ 35 3.5 Open problems ............................................................................................... 36 3.5.1 ‘Irresponsible employers’: a recurring scandal ......................................... 36 3.5.2 Public authorities: new tasks, old instruments? ........................................ 41 4. FUNCTIONAL EQUIVALENT AND ALTERNATIVES........................................... 43 4.1. Asylum seekers.............................................................................................. 43 4.1.1 The ability to switch track ......................................................................... 43 4.1.2 Regularisations and Swedish political culture........................................... 44 4.1.3 Asylum seekers and the labour market .................................................... 46 4.2 International students...................................................................................... 47 4.3 Alternatives to labour migration?..................................................................... 48 CONCLUSIONS. MIGRATION AND THE SWEDISH MODEL IN THE XXI CENTURY .............................................................................................................................. 50 REFERENCES ......................................................................................................... 56 Annex: List of interviewees....................................................................................... 61 iii INTRODUCTION This report on the Swedish labour migration policy is based on the following sources: analysis of academic literature, government documents (mainly by the Ministry for Migration and by the Migration Board), and eighteen semi-structured face-to-face interviews (eleven in Swedish language, seven in English) with the Minister for Migration, Tobias Billström, state officers of the Migration Board and of the Departments of Labour Market, Justice, Foreign Affairs, representatives of the trade unions and of employers’ organisations, and finally with scholars from the Universities of Stockholm, Malmö, Linköping, Växjö1. The interviews were carried out in the Spring (March-April) and Autumn (September) 2011. Peter Springfeldt, secretary general of several parliamentary committees on migration, has been of great help, introducing me in the network of experts and officers dealing with labour migration. It has proven remarkably easy to get in touch with the persons selected for the interviews: all have been extremely willing to contribute to this research-project, starting from the young Minister for Migration, Tobias Billström (1973-), who spent forty minutes of his busy day in talking with an unknown foreign researcher. During the first phase of my field-work, in Spring 2011, I enjoyed the privilege to be guest researcher at the Institute for Future Studies in Stockholm, then headed by Joakim Palme, one of the most influential social scientists in the country, who has given me valuable advices on how to carry on the research. Eskil Wadensjö, professor of Economics at the Stockholm University, has read carefully the first draft of this report, suggesting some line for further research and recommending recent studies. From being an emigration country, thanks to a rapid industrialization starting in the 1930s, Sweden turned in the post-war years into an immigration country, due first to labour migration (from Southern and Eastern Europe) and, when this was stopped in the early 1970s, due to the growing flows of asylum seekers and other groups with protection status. After an introductory chapter providing a background on the history of immigration and integration policies, this report focuses on the reform of labour migration policy which was passed in 2008 by the centre-right government headed by Fredrik Reinfeldt, with the support of the Green Party. The background of the reform was the debate, starting in the early 2000s and still ongoing, on the challenges issued by population decline, labour market failures and pressures for Welfare State sustainability. The discussion on the need for new rules on labour migration occurred in a time of deep changes in Swedish political culture and power relations, witnessed by the defeat of the Social Democrats (in power since 1994) in the 2006 general election. Thus the need for a reform and the content of it was debated in the context of a more general confrontation on the competitiveness and sustainability − and therefore on the fate – of the Swedish model. After analysing, in Chapter 2, the driving arguments and the key actors pushing for new rules on labour migration – and at the same time the criticisms from the trade unions and from the Left − in Chapter 3, I focused on the implementation process of the 2008 law and on the ensuing discussions (at national as well as at 1 The references to the interviewees are in bold within the text, in order to distinguish them from the references to the bibliography. European and international level, particularly with the ad hoc report devoted by the OECD to the new Swedish system)2. In Chapter 4, a survey of current “functional equivalents” (i.e. migrant workers who were not originally admitted for working purposes: the most relevant categories in the case of Sweden being asylum seekers and international students) as well as of possible “functional alternatives” to labour migration (i.e. policy solutions allowing to fill labour shortages through a more effective use of domestic labour force) is carried out. Finally, in the Conclusions, I focus more broadly on Swedish attitudes to labour migration, and to migration in general (with regard to both EU citizens and Third Country Nationals), in the face of globalization and economic crisis. 2 It was the Swedish government itself to request that the OECD reviewed its new labour migration policy (OECD 2011: 3). 2 1. FROM EMIGRATION TO IMMIGRATION COUNTRY 1.1 Immigration policies and their impact on labour market During the post-war years, the number of immigrants in Sweden has increased rapidly. In 1940, the proportion of foreign-born persons of the total population of the country amounted to only 1%. The corresponding proportion had increased to nearly 7% in 1970 and to about 11% at the beginning of this millennium (Ekberg 2006:1). Today the proportion is about 14%, that is more than 1.3 million individuals; it is comparable to the United States. Moreover there is a growing group of so-called second generation immigrants (persons born in Sweden with at least one parent born abroad), today nearly 1 million individuals. So today more than 2 million individuals living in Sweden have an immigrant background (Ekberg 2011a:3). The modern era of immigration can be divided into four distinct stages3. 1) War years (just before and after World War II). Before the war, Jews from Nazi Germany sought asylum in Sweden. Although a few were accepted, the majority were rejected due to the fact that the Swedish government strove to avoid conflict