Economic integration of Iraqi immigrants with higher education into the Swedish labour market

Abstract: The issue of unemployment and labour integration of immigrants into the labour market in host countries has always been a source of debate among the public and policymakers in the host countries. This study focuses on the economic integration of highly educated Iraqi immigrants into the Swedish labour market. Based on semi-structured interviews with eight Iraqi immigrants living in Malmö, who have higher education from Iraq, this study aims to illuminate the obstacles and opportunities for Iraqi immigrants to integrate into Swedish labour market, and to find out if their position in the Swedish labour market corresponds to their academic qualifications obtained from Iraq. The theoretical framework of this study explores the concepts of integration, human capital, social capital, and discrimination. Findings of the study revealed that, lack of fluency in Swedish language, family responsibilities, and devaluation of human capital function as main obstacles for highly-educated Iraqi immigrants’ integration into Swedish labour market. The social networks of Iraqi immigrants can be considered as a tool to avoid unemployment in Sweden, but at the same time, it provides access only to a certain categories of jobs that are not in par with higher education of these immigrants. Furthermore, the finding of this study also reveals that the positions of the highly educated Iraqi immigrants have acquired in the Swedish labour market are not commensurate with the educational qualifications they have from Iraq.