Umea University Department Social and Economic Geography

Course: Population and Mobility

Term Paper: Refugees Migration to Sweden after the WW2

Submitted By: Faizan Khan

Date: 2012-06-01

Table of Contents

Introduction ............................................................................................................... 1

Aim ............................................................................................................................. 1

Methodology ............................................................................................................. 2

Theoretical Framework ............................................................................................ 2

Refugees and Asylum Seekers .................................................................................. 3

Adaptation and Integration of Refuges in Swedish Society ..................................... 5

Labour Market Integration ...................................................................................... 6

Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 7

References ................................................................................................................. 9

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Introduction Before the Second World War, Sweden was a land of emigration. But after the WW2 Sweden

change from emigrants to immigrant’s country. According to Statistics Sweden report after

Second World War, 1.4 million people left and 2.4 million moved to Sweden (SCB, 2004). In

1950´s and 1960´s a large number of immigrants came from the Nordic countries and Southern

Europe to Sweden. Labour immigrants came to Sweden in these two decades did not have the

same employment opportunities as the national have and the situation is the same in other

European countries (Scott, 1999). This trend continues until 1970´s, after wards Swedish labour

market was not as attractive as in last two decades after the Second World War (ibid). Jan

Sundquist stated that during 1950´s and 1960´s two types of migration exists here, labour

migration and forced migration. The demand for skilled and educated labour was high at that

time, so Sweden welcomed labour migrants as other Western European countries. As mention

above that mostly these migrants from Nordic and southern European countries e.g. Greece,

Yugoslavia and Italy (Sundquist, 1995). The liberal immigration policies from Government

result a protest from the trade unions due to which the policy changed and labour immigration to

Sweden became restricted in late 1960´s (Bengtsson, et al, 2005). Due to these restrictions the

graph of immigrants to Sweden falls. After the 1970´s the nature of immigration to Sweden

changed from labour migration to Refugees migration which are mostly from Latin America

specially Chile, apart from that a large number of refugees from the Middle East (ibid).

Sundquist referred refuges migration as forced migration; those refuges are forced to migrate due

to war, religious, political or ethnic persecution (Sundquist, 1995). According to Sweden

migration board (migrationsverket), total number of asylum seekers was 29,648 in 2011 and in

the first four month of 2012 the total number of asylum seekers was 10922 (Migrationsverket,

2012).

Aim

The aim of this paper is to investigate immigration trend to Sweden in general after the World

War Two. Within the same area more specifically refugee migration and their integration in

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society and labour market were the main theme of this paper. Topics include in this paper are

immigration history, refugee and asylum seekers, adaptation and integration of refugees in the

Swedish society and in the last labour market.

Methodology

The main method used in this paper is reviewing secondary data. To carry out better results

various literary sources were used which include books related to migration, peer reviewed

journals, OECD reports were studied which focused on the migration in general and specifically

in Sweden. The statistical data were gathered from the relevant authentic resources Statistika

centralbyrån (Statistics Sweden) and migrationsverket (Sweden Migration Board). For literary

sources Umea University library database and Google scholar are used.

Theoretical Framework There are many reasons for people to leave their own country. Some of them move in search of

better work, people not just move for themselves but also for their families or may be due to the

war in their country which is a threat to his life and compel him to move from that area.

According to International Organization for Migration (IOM) “people tend to move only when

their situation and that of their families falls below a critical threshold of tolerance, below which

they no longer perceived possibilities of survival according to local norms of safety, dignity and

well-being” (IOM, 2001).

There are three levels stated by Thomas Fiest in his book for the motivation of migration. Micro,

macro and the last one is meso level. The micro level deals with the individual opinion of their

own either he/she decide of staying or moving. The macro level deals with reason for migration

at a larger level. In the context of refugee migration, the macro level includes the problems in

the host country e.g. political instability, conflicts, ethnic or religious persecution, income

inequality etc. Such problems affect the whole population in the country. The third level used in

migration studies is the meso level, where migration decisions are carried out in groups of

people, communities, organization or kinships (Faist, 2000). It is the contrast of micro level

where migration decision where taken individually. Migration scholars are taking more interest

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in that how migration decisions were taken communally. In the meso level the immigrants send

information to the family or community in the origin country, which may be a cause for the

migration of those origin country members confronting problems (ibid).

According to Robert Putnam social capital is the features of social organization such as

networks, norms and social trust which facilitate coordination and cooperation for mutual

benefits to attain the common objective among the participants (Putnam, 1995). The meso-level

can be connected to the social capital theory, as both ideas argue the significance of social ties

between people (Palloni et al., 2001). Both meso level and social capital have the same

characteristics of attaining the objectives in groups, social network, social organization etc.

Refugees and Asylum Seekers During the Second World War the Sweden industry was almost un-harmed from war devastation.

Sweden post-war immigration history is divided into two distinct phases. The first phase begun

from 1945-70´s and the second one´s started after 1970´s. The demand for labour increases after

the Second World War, thus a large number of people migrated from the other Nordic countries

and North-Western Europe for better work opportunities. During the first phase the immigration

to the country was mostly of labour migrants, due to these skillfull labour forces Swedish

economy expands in that period. In the second phase the nature of immigrants changed from

labour to refugees (Bevelander, 2004).

Refugees to Sweden show different trends e.g. in 1970´s the dominant figure of refugees from

Latin America specially Chile, in early 1980´s Poland, Iran and Iraq in late 1980´s, and

Yugoslavia and Bosnia-Herzegovina in the 1990´s (Edin. et al., 2000). As these political

migrants are mostly originated from non-OECD countries, and the time of their moving to

Sweden is due to political un-stability on their homelands (ibid).

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Figure 1: Asylum Seekers in Sweden from 1988-2008

Source: Focus Migration

The above figure 1 shows the total number of asylum seekers in Sweden from 1998 to 2008. The

number of asylum-seekers to Sweden was small until 1980´s, about 5,000 applicants per year.

But after 1985 that there was a tremendous increase in this number, in 1992 the number of

asylum seekers reaches to its peak of 84,000 applicants in 1992 mostly affected from the war in

former Yugoslavia. Due to this high number of asylum seekers, the government developed a

strategy to integrate these refugees in mostly three big metropolitan cities (Stockholm,

Gothenburg and Malmo) and other small municipalities. After receiving this huge number of

refugees in 1992 the government then tightened the policy to discourage refugees entering to the

country. The number of asylum-seekers fell down but again in 2007 the Sweden again seems the

favourite country among asylum seekers, in the same year Sweden Migration Board registered a

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total of 36,207 applications of asylum seekers. Half of them were from Iraq due to the war, the

authorities granted a residence permit about 72 % of the applicants. The same year Sweden listed

on the top of refugees receiving countries within all industrialized countries (Focus Migration,

2009).

Adaptation and Integration of Refuges in Swedish Society Adoption or integration means to become accustomed and used to the new society through

cultural, social and psychological means. According to Sandquist et.al (2000) language, attitude,

personality, cognitive functioning and personality are the most prominent factors that affect the

adaptation and integration process.

For most part of the immigrants and refugees they found it very difficult to rise above the

differences that they found in their home country culture to the one the host country which they

moved. Moilanen et al 1998 described that migration have numerous effects on the families and

individuals such as cultural changes, social environmental changes and interpersonal relations

changes. The mental health issues of refugees are comparatively higher than the native-born

Swedes. (Sundquist et al., 2000) A study relating to Latin American refugees in Sweden found

that many of them experienced xenophobia (racial intolerance), discrimination from the

authorities and social degradation, as generally they were moved from their home country,

cultural and social lives activities and migrated far away to large geographic distance from their

origin countries (Sundquist, 1995).

The setup for integrating the refugees in Sweden is divided in different levels among government

institutions. First the new comers to the country are dispersed among different counties, which is

the responsibility of the Migration Board. Then the initial integration measures including social

services, training (language) are delivered to the refugees by the local municipalities

(Bevelander, et.al, 2009).

The Swedish Government decided an overall integration policy in 2008 for the years until 2010.

In the strategy seven main areas was highlighted which needs more assistance to achieve the

goal. Those are stated below:

Quick introduction for newly arrivals to the country

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Creating more work opportunities

Better quality education in schools

Better language skills and creating more adult education opportunities

Effective measures towards anti-discrimination

Urban districts development with extensive social exclusion

Common basic values in a society

The mainstream of integration policy is to provide the basic and equal rights to all newly arrived

immigrants to Sweden regarding of their cultural and ethnic backgrounds (Regeringskansliet,

2009).

Sweden with other European countries Ireland, Finland and Spain mutually launch a “MOST”

project in 2008 funded by European Refugee Fund. Various models were studied towards

improvement of integrating the process of resettled refugees. The link between pre-departure

actions, the introduction of these refugees in the host countries and their long-term integration

among the new societies were the main theme of the project (Bevelander, et.al, 2009).

Labour Market Integration Integration of immigrants and their families into the labour market is important from economic

point of view and also good for the integrating into the whole society within the host country.

Integration of refugees in the labour leads to social cohesion, and helping them to become self

sufficient in the new society, while the acceptance of more immigration by the residents of host

country (OECD, 2009).

Another study by OECD argues that every year about three million migrant legally comes to the

OECD member countries and the number will rise in the future because of the ageing population

and lower birth rate in the host countries. The migrants contribute a lot to the advanced countries,

as they are lacking labour due to that of ageing population and lower birth rate (OECD, 2006).

This is the positive side of the picture of integrating immigrants in the labour market but the

unsuccessful integration of migrants affects both the individual himself and host society as a

whole.

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The labour market in Sweden regarding to the integration of immigrants appears to be slower

due to the record humanitarian migration to Sweden in 1990´s. In that period situation in

Swedish labour market was highly critical for the immigrants and the situation was the same for

native born Swedes. But after that the situation starts normalizing which has a positive impact on

employment of immigrants (OECD, 2007). After 1992 the Swedish labour market situation

improved for whole population as the unemployment rate decrease and employment rates

increase but still there are some disparities between the Swedish and foreign born worker

(Englund, 2002). Jan Sundquist argues that in Sweden it is clear that refugees who find job are

more likely work below their educational level compared with the native born Swedish. And

those who are get employed most of them doing are labour intensive jobs, which are not mostly

desirable among Swedish.

As discussed earlier that during 1990´s the mass migration of refugees to Sweden confronting

them to find work in the host country and the employment rate among refugees was too low.

According to Bevelander, after that employment rate among refugees in 2007 was 57 percent for

males and 51 percent for women. He further explain that those refugees who sought asylum at

the border and obtained resident permit their got employment easily compared with those

resettled refugees and same ethnic group. In the overall study women rate of employment is

lower than that of males among all groups and admission types (Bevelander, 2009).

According to SCB the statistics shows from the last quarter of 2011the number of employed

population increases for both the Swedish born persons and foreign born persons. The increase

figures are 24000 and 41000. The same trend were seen also in women employment rate, the

foreign born women increased employment rate are 2.7 percentage points and among Swedish

born women by 0.7 percentage points in the same period (SCB, 2012).

Conclusion Refugees in every society face many post migration challenges. The situation is same for

Sweden also where the newly arrived refugees confronting with so many problems. The overall

situation is due to small share of e.g. limited social capital, integration in the labour market etc.

Refugees himself are also more responsible for these entire situation, e.g. for not following

properly introductory programmes included language which is the most important factor of not

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getting jobs. Sometimes refugees are double minded in making decision whether to return back

to their homeland or not, they are not sure about the worst conditions due to which they left their

countries. Many studies reveal that those refugees who are successfully integrated into the

Swedish society are having more intention to stay in Sweden compared with those who are not

properly integrated. Above that from current increasing employment rate of foreign born

population shows that the integration policy is working properly and more immigrants got

opportunities to enter the labour market.

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References

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