Therefore, it is difficult for refugees to get jobs
the Debaters: Our politicians seem to have missed the reason
This is an opinion piece. It is the writer who stands for the views that are put forward in the text, not the newspaper Aftonbladet.
DEBATE. Statistics SWEDEN showed in the week in a new report that only 55% of those who came as refugees or flyktinganhöriga to Sweden 1997-2001 were working 15 years later. Statistics SWEDEN report, as well as many others, shows that it is difficult for newcomers to enter the Swedish labour market.
We believe that this can be partly explained by the increasing nätverksrekrytering as we can observe in the Swedish labour market. There is extensive research that shows that recruitment via personal contacts and networks are the most common and, for the employer, the most effective way to recruit new staff.
Our research shows that nätverksrekryteringen increases over time, but primarily to the increases in the recession.
It has long been known that the weaker groups become extra affected in the recession. During a recession increases the unemployment rate is often more for young people, low-skilled and for immigrants than for the population at large.
The recession that hit the world in 2008 was no exception. Sweden and the nordic countries were affected, although the relatively limited extent of increase in unemployment compared with many countries in southern Europe, but nevertheless affected youth, low-skilled and migrants more than others.
Generally, governments try to combat the increase of unemployment among weaker groups by introducing different types of labour market measures, but the results are often limited.
One reason for this may be due to the understanding why the weaker groups are more affected has been limited. Our led offers an explanation.
If nätverksrekryteringen increases in the recession, will those who lack good contacts, to be the losers in a double sense. They are not only easier to get rid of the job, then they have a job that is easier to bortrationaliseras. They are also more difficult to be återrekryterade if they have a worse network.
How can it be that nätverksrekryteringen increases in the recession? Mainly there are two explanations.
For a single employer, it may therefore be rational to use nätverksrekrytering. For the labour market overall, however, it can be ineffective.
The increased nätverksrekryteringen can be observed as a more inefficient matching in the labour market, which is the case in many countries and not just Sweden. One way to measure this is to compare the jobs in relation to unemployment.
What we have seen in the past decade, an increasing share of job vacancies even though unemployment has risen, and this suggests that matching on the labour market does not work.
The aim is therefore to see up with nätverksrekryteringen. In a future recession will probably nätverksrekryteringen to increase and it will affect those groups that have weaker network, but it also affects the efficiency of the match overall.
\nAnders Nilsson, professor at the department of Economic history, Lund university.\nPeter Håkansson, senior lecturer at the Department of urban studies, Malmö university.
\n Join in the debate and comment on the article\n – like Aftonbladet Debate on Facebook.
