Invandrade ingenjörer på den svenska arbetsmarknaden

Sammanfattning: The essay is about relatively recent immigrants with a residence permit in Sweden with refugee status and foreign engineering degrees. It is also about the companies and organizations that hire engineers. The essay is based on qualitative open interviews with five immigrants and four representatives of the companies, all localized in Kristianstad and the surrounding area. Additional interviews were also conducted with representatives of the Employment Service and the municipality SFI (Swedish For Immigrants). The essay´s conclusions are: Immigrants find themselves in a kind of wait to become a part of Swedish society and working life. The interviewed companies face almost no people with refugee-related immigrant background. The companies require knowledge of Swedish, which must also be "good enough". Both immigrants and companies considers the prerequisite for being able to get "good enough" knowledge of Swedish is getting to work at a Swedish workplace. None of the immigrants claim they have been discussing such work placements with the Employment Service. None of the companies have been contacted by the Employment Service about this question either. The companies say they make the bulk of their recruitments through personal contacts and networks. None of the immigrants have access to such contacts and networks. The companies claim to have a workplace culture that requires "self-propelled" people. But no company has induction programs for people coming from a different and perhaps more hierarchical workplace culture. The Swedish cultural codes can be difficult to understand. The interviewed migrants consider opportunities for entry into the Swedish labor market from "very difficult" to "easy to find jobs."