Brain waste in Gävle? : Culture crash in an industrial region

Abstract: Aim and research question: The aim of this study is to investigate how high skilled foreign intellectual individuals are integrated in the job market in Gävle city. The research questions are: How does the job situation for foreign born graduates look like in Gävle city today? What factors and barriers affect the integration of high skilled foreign born graduates on the job market in Gävle city? Method: In our study the data was collected by open questionnaires and interviews as well as from different databases. The respondents consisted of foreign born graduates, politicians, representatives from the private and public sector. Although the data collection was mostly of qualitative nature some quantitative tools are used in this study such as charts and pie charts to give a more common view of the sampled group’s responses. The way we choose to work on the study was in an deductive manner as we started out in observations and later try to explain them with theory. When trying to find these theories we used textbooks and scientific articles to gather explanations by different authors.Results and conclusions: Our main findings where that the main barrier for the employers towards foreign born graduates is failure to communicate with them because of culture crash. The second most common barrier named by employers is the language. The third most common problem is related to contact networks. From the graduate point of view the first thing they name is lack of information as their biggest problem. The second most common problem for graduates is the language and the third most common problem they name discrimination which according to us is an effect of culture crash. Our conclusion and recommendation is that to help employers seeking qualified personal, and to help foreign born graduates to look for the right jobs, i.e. encourage these two streams to meet. There is work needed to be done in two directions the employers need to be informed with more relevant information about cultural background of foreign born graduates and for the public sector to provide better orientation to the foreign born graduates in the Swedish system. We have through our respondents learned that there indeed exists a level of brain waste. The theoretical implication from this study is that the research adds to strengthen existing theories. When talking about culture, according to the respondents it is important that an employer has a knowledge of diversity. Culture and language has been confirmed as barriers towards the job market by all respondents. The study also confirmed factors which hinders integration of foreign born graduates to the job market. These factors are: Hazards, disadvantages and integration containing lack of information, lack of guidance, proper job seeking tools, stereotypes and discrimination. The study shows a low priority of social integration among the foreign born respondents, versus learning the Swedish language and looking for jobs in Gävle city.   Key words: integration, job market, barriers, culture, language, foreign, Sweden