More than just Finding a Job: Comparative Case Study of Christian Belief-Based Employment Integration Projects in Sweden

Abstract: In the year of 2015 and 2016, the European Union had experienced the refugee crisis in relation to the unprecedented influx of refugees. In collaboration with other member states, Sweden granted a significant number of residence permits to these refugees, and has continued this work proportionally when the number of asylum applications decreases. The ongoing challenges to integrate refugees into society socially, culturally, and economically have stimulated the entire Swedish society to conduct a kaleidoscope of integration projects. Take the aspect of employment for example. The Swedish Public Employment Service (Arbetsförmedlingen) has the main responsibility to connect these newcomers with the vacancies in the job market. However, some feedback has shown that the limited options are not able to take into consideration newcomers’ diverse conditions and meet their needs. Changes of the direction of policy sometimes make their relatively disadvantaged condition even worse. Seeing such incoherence as a hindrance to integration, a few Christian communities responded by initiating new employment projects in an attempt to overcome the difficulties faced by both the government and refugees. This study is designed as case study research of two Christian belief-based employment integration projects: Talenterna and Jobbprepp 2019. I intend to use these cases to support a claim that with the application of Christian beliefs, churches or individuals, as a visible form of a social force, could be involved in employment integration more actively to transcend the structural boundary and facilitate the sharing of social capital with refugee job seekers. By comparing the qualitative data collected by six interviews and organized by narrative and thematic analyses, this study identifies the functions of religion for employment integration and displays the implementation of the selected projects. The final finding highlights the significant methodologies applied by the projects and implies these methodologies are the contributor for positive employment integration.