Immigration, Collaboration, and Employment : Assessing the relationship between local level collaborative

Abstract: Employment integration of non-Swedish residents into the Swedish labor market increasingly sparks political debate and begs further exploration. While some scholars try to focus on pre-arrival characteristics as determinants of an immigrant’s future employment prospects, this project attempts to examine the degree to which municipal-level conditions influence the local employment rate amongst non-Swedes. This project examines human capital investment as the primary tool of employment integration of newly arrived non-Swedes into municipal labor markets. This investment can be in the form of public services or actual monetary investment, represented by the collaboration between local public employment offices (Arbetförmedlingen) and Swedish language institutions(Svenska för Invandrare skolor) and the municipal-level costs of language career services. Using a questionnaire answered by 24 institutions and data on municipal spending, a multiple regression model is produced for the employment rate amongst non-Swedes. The results of the analysis indicate little explanatory value of both the monetary investments and the level of collaboration between the public employment office and language institutions on the non-Swedish employment rate in the municipalities. The interpretation of the results is that more factors than have been modeled here determine variance of employment outcomes. Human capital investment in the service and monetary forms presented here have little and non-significant explanatory value over employment rate amongst non-Swedes. Future studies must combine more information from multiple sources and multiple methods to create better-adapted policies and services towards Swedish labor market integration of non-Swedes.