Job Search Assistance in Sweden: The Role of Mentorship and Support & Matching Programs in Migrant Women’s Job Searches

Abstract: Currently, there are different programs based on job search assistance to provide career guidance and job match for foreign-born unemployed individuals in Sweden. Regarding job search assistance programs, this study examines the roles of mentorship programs and support & matching programs in Malmö and Lund, Sweden, where one of the program goals is to increase participation of foreign-born women in the Swedish labour market. By using Pierre Bourdieu and Nan Lin’s theoretical approaches, this study essentially examines the migrant women’s experiences during their program participation in terms of their social and cultural capital. In this context, it also explores the experiences of the programs’ staff in relation to social networking in the programs. The main findings of this study are that the programs’ supportive role could enable migrant women to enhance their social capital by increasing their social networks and mobilizing the resources of those networks in their job search. Although their matching role could pave the way for capitalizing on the institutionalized cultural capital of migrant women, the programs’ professional networks might be insufficient to enable migrant women to utilize their foreign education in their professions in Sweden. The reason for this could be because of the structural challenges and limited resources of some of these networks. Lastly, the programs’ educational role could familiarize migrant women with the rules in the Swedish employment field. This could lead migrant women to increase their embodied cultural capital in relation to locally-shared professional work culture in the Swedish employment field.