This report is concerned with various opportunities, constraints and problems related to work placement. The study aims to describe and analyze how work placement is used as a way to increase employability among unemployed people with foreign background. The empirical material consists of data from two different labour market projects with funding from the European Social Fund (ESF). Within ESF-projecs, work placement is one of the most common measures to increase the labour supply. 

The results demonstrate that work placement can function as both opportunity and constraint for labour market integration. When the work emplacement is located in a communicative, Swedish-speaking environment, it is a potential arena for language development. An opportunity for meaningful work placement is also opened up when projects are organized as vocational training. The link between the purpose of the work placement and the work placement as such, becomes very clear – it´s about the opportunity to learn a trade. Here, however, a potential problem becomes prominent. If the projects participants are trained for occupations in industries which are already ethnically segregated – the project is at risk to enforce the already segregated labour market. The study also shows how employers may be “tired” of unemployed coming to their organization for work placement. This creates a competition for placements, which do not favor those considered less employable.

This report brings together the results of an in-depth study of two Swedish labour market projects financially supported by the European Social Fund, ESF, aiming to integrate long-term unemployed people of Somali and Romani ethnical background into working life. There are around ten other similar ESF-projects in Sweden today. Why have the projects decided to define their target groups on the basis of ethnic identities, and how do they work in practice to include the participants into the labour market? The focus on these two target groups seems, at least at first sight, to be inconsistent with general labour market and integration policies that advocate general labour market measures. In these cases, the emphasis is rather on measures directed to socially categorized groups. Moreover, how can the projects avoid an “us and them” attitude, which most likely would promote discrimination instead of integration?

Both projects emphasise the importance of working both with the individual participant and groups of participants within a broader social context. The main point of departure is the participants’ common social experiences. Regarding the Romani project, the key concept is how the individual participants’ identify themselves in relation to the legally recognized Romani community in Sweden. Such a self-identification, and thereby participation on the individual’s own terms within a broader collective context, seems to be a fruitful way to forestall an “us and them” attitude. If labour market measures really aim to draw on the categorization of social identities – such as ethnicity, gender, health, age and so on – it seems that self-identification would be a most crucial aspect to explore.

Att få dom att förändras. Jobbcoaching för arbetslösa i socialfondsprojekt analyserar vad det innebär när en företeelse som coaching färdas från företagsvärlden, dvs. amerikanskt näringsliv och landar i svensk offentlig sektor, dvs. i ESF-projekt riktade till arbetslösa. Jobbcoaching inom dessa projekt blir en blandning av idéer och tankesätt från beteende-, kognitiv och humanistisk coaching samt traditionell yrkesvägledning. En central slutsats är att jobbcoaching förbiser orsaker till arbetslöshet som ligger utanför den arbetslöse. Om man vill förändra hindrande strukturer är inte jobbcoaching en metod som syftar till detta utan snarare till att individerna ska anpassa sig till rådande strukturer, dvs. dominerande normer och föreställningar om hur människor bör vara och bete sig för att vara anställningsbara. I rapporten föreslås en ömsesidig kompensatorisk coachingsmodell som utgår från ett flerdimensionellt förhållningssätt till arbetslöshetsproblematiken. Ömsesidig anpassning av både individ och arbetsliv bör fokuseras snarare än endast en enkelriktad anpassning av individen. Den omgivande miljön; organisationers, samhällets och politikens inflytande på människors möjligheter att få ett arbete måste tas i beaktande.

In this study, European Social Fund (ESF) projects for “increased labour supply” have been analysed from a broad labour market and work environment perspective. The projects should, according their commission, be an area for the development of methods and cooperation for the inclusion of unemployed people in working life. However, this area also represents a place of work and a work environment that must function properly to generate innovative and sustainable solutions for social inclusion and cohesion. The work within the projects is also influenced by several other coherent factors, such as the cofinancing system, the recruitment of participants and their health condition. The aim of the projects is also to prepare the participants for the transition into working life. In principle, the labour market can be approached from two different perspectives: an individual or a collective perspective. Or, to be more to the point: should the individual participants “sell” themselves on the labour market or should they primarily be prepared to act on the basis of their collective rights and obligations?

A key finding in the study is that the system for co-financing, which is based on the individual participant, is a structural problem for the projects – a “Catch 22”. If a participant leaves the project, for example if he/she gets a job, the project will lose the co-financing related to this person. The system presupposes established contacts and routines between the projects and the social authorities that provide them with participants, but this dialogue is not always present. In fact, recruiting participants is a problem for many projects, despite high unemployment among the target groups. These conditions may also increase competition between the projects and thus impede cooperation and networking. The conclusion is that the state needs to radically change the system for co-financing. Moreover, this study indicates that the projects need to pay more attention to work environment issues, including the localisation of the projects, to prevent them from being isolated “islands” in society. A vital debate on work environment and other labour market issues is also necessary to prepare the participants for their entry into the labour market. Essentially, the participants need to be more prepared to act on the basis of their collective rights and obligations as employees, as is laid down in labour law and collective agreements. The individual-oriented perspective is necessary to encourage the participants to approach the labour market again and to actively seek jobs or education. However, if the purpose is sustainable solutions for their inclusion into the labour market, the participants also need to know their collective rights and value as employees, as well as how to express their demands in working life.

What can, should or shall be implemented from projects to regular organisation, where, when and how, are recurrent questions in project contexts, and these are the questions being addressed in this study. Good answers for these questions are foundation stones in a well thought out strategy for implementation. The point of departure in this study is to analyse to what extent mechanisms, such as active project ownership, successful coop-eration and development directed learning, are connected with a well thought out strategy for implementation, and joined with sustainable development, in the sense that progress from projects can live on in ordinary organisations. Primarily four projects within the European Social Fund (ESF) are analysed: two ongoing and large ones in the Stockholm area and two smaller and finished ones located in the southern part of Sweden (the Helsingborg area). The projects in question are within the ESF:s program area of in-creased labour supply and have newly arrived refugees as their main target group. The projects are designed to address frequent problems and to make improvements when it comes to knowledge and methods for a more rapid and increased establishment on the labour market for the newly arrived. The analysis in this study is based on different kinds of project documents, interviews with people in and close to the four projects, ongoing evaluations, comparisons of the projects in question, and previous research. The findings from the Helsingborg area suggest that improved project ownership, cooperation and development directed learning actually do bring about a well thought out strategy for implementation; methodological progress from their two especially studied projects is adjusted to and continues in ordinary local communal organisations. The findings from Stockholm are less conclusive, because the two studied projects in this area are both still ongoing. Even though the strategy is elaborated during the project process there are potential candidates for implementation in both of them, for example regarding matching (in teams or of a stock flow type), quality securing methods, which map both formal and informal knowledge, and also parallel modules going on at the same time. The study illustrates how the projects adjust to new circumstances, e.g. when the Swedish Public Employment Service took over the responsibility for the establishment of newly arrived people from the Swedish local communes. A lesson to be learned is that the strategy for implementation ought to be considered closer and documented in a better way during the time that the projects go on.

Integration har varit ett misshandlat ord under de senaste decennierna. Istället för delaktighet och samförstånd har ordet ofta kommit att beskriva en tämligen ensidig anpassningsprocess. I många föregivet integrerande verksamheter ska migranter på kort tid lära sig allt det som (inte sällan självutnämnda) företrädare för majoriteten anser är nödvändigt för att bli en del i det svenska samhället. I det moderna politiska språkbruket ligger innebörden i integrationsbegreppet nära assimilation. I den här rapporten försöker vi frångå det perspektivet. Vi studerar istället integrationen som en lärandeprocess, och närmare bestämt några av de villkor för lärande som existerar i projekt som har just integration på agendan. Vi anlägger ett – tror vi – åtminstone delvis nytt perspektiv på lärande och integration, och hoppas att det kan inspirera läsaren till tänkande i nya banor. Vi önskar också tacka några av dem som hjälpt oss med denna rapport. Vårt första och största tack går till Faezeh Khalaji, som har genomfört de intervjuer med lärare, arbetsledare och coacher som studien bygger på. Vi vill också tacka Åsa-Karin Engstrand och Maritta Soininen för konstruktiva kommentarer på vår text i rapportarbetets slutskede, och Martin Qvist och Viktor Vesterberg för kommentarer vid tidigare seminariepresentationer.

Norrköping i november 2011Fredrik HertzbergAli Osman

The Swedish ESF-council gives economic support to projects that aim at increasing job opportunities, advancing equality between women and men and improving social cohesion. The present report investigates project applications and scrutinizes the solutions to social and political problems that are put forward in applications that have received funding from the council. Theories of gender and intersectionality are drawn upon and the perspective is influenced by Carol Bacchis WPR-approach. The presupposition of this approach is that by pinpointing solutions, the underlying representation of what is regarded as the problem can be displayed. The present results indicate that representations based on the liberal idea of the ”individual”, as well ideas of gender neutrality and conceptions linking modernity to Swedish ethnicity are predominant in the applications. These three themes are explicated in the report. It is argued that when the “individual” is put forward as normative ideal rationality and the ability to choose, as well as independence and self-assurance, are positioned as values that can solve problems of social exclusion and unemployment. Furthermore, gender neutrality is represented as a question of successfully safeguarding equal numbers and equal treatment of women and men in the projects. The underlying presumption is that this guarantees that no discrimination or inequality will occur. The final theme spells out how modernity and Swedish identity are linked together and in certain cases seen as a solution to social exclusion. The argument here is that this runs the risk of representing ethnicity as the explanation and possible justification of discriminatory and exclusionary practices. The concluding remarks stress the importance of measures that can enhance awareness of the unnoticed ideals and social norms that characterize problem representations.

"Vi kan inte hålla på att coacha och rehabilitera individen till en arbetsmarknad som inte tar emot dem."

Tidigare rapporter från TIA har påtalat att hälsa/ohälsa är en viktig aspekt i ESFprojektens verksamhet (se t.ex. Thörnquist 2011). Den här studien syftar till att kartlägga olika former av hinder i samband med ohälsa för att skapa återgång/integration i arbetslivet för personer med utländsk bakgrund. Hinder kan finnas på samhällelig, organisations- och individnivå. I en tidigare studie (Larsson 2007) visades vid en listning gjord av deltagare att det fanns 38 olika hinder eller kollisioner i regelsystem som hindrade dem från att återgå till arbetslivet efter en långtidssjukskrivning. Projektet som studerades finansierades av Europeiska Socialfondens Equalprogram 2002–2005.

Studien omfattar några utvalda projekt i ESF:s programområde 2, Ökat arbetskraftsutbud, som i första hand riktar sig till deltagare som har annan etnicitet än svensk och som har någon form av ohälsa.

Rapporten inleds med en kortare introduktion i ämnet etnicitet och ohälsa samt problematisering av begreppet hälsa. Sedan följer en beskrivning av de fem projekt som ingår i studien. Därefter tematiseras de olika hinder som projekten lyfter fram. Rapporten avslutas med reflektioner och rekommendationer.

This report deals with a Swedish project within the European Social Funds (ESF) programme area 2. The overall objective for programme area 2 is to increase the supply of labour. The report analyses ideas of ethnicity and empowerment in relation to project practices.

The methodological approach consists of document analysis, participant observation and qualitative interviews. The source material used in the document analysis consists of the project application and marketing. Nine participant observations have been carried out in the project’s daily activities. Through interviews with one project worker and two participants, different perspectives on the practices and ideas are given voice.

The results of the report emphasis that another ethnic background than Swedish often are considered to be an important factor for the individual’s lack of success on the labour market. In the analysed documents integration appears to be seen as a one-way process, hence it is largely a matter of learning about Swedish norms and culture and displaying an image of a coherent Swedish community. However, contacts between people with dif­ferent backgrounds can be seen as a form of integration activity. These encounters might not have taken place if the project had not been carried through. There is a relatively large discrepancy between the idea of empowerment’s charitable functions, how it is opera­tionalized in practice, and how this is perceived by the interviewed project participants.

Arbetskooperativ har i Sverige en lång historia bakom sig men har under senare år uppmärksammats under nya former; sociala arbetskooperativ eller sociala företag. Dessa utmärker sig genom att främst skapa arbeten för personer med olika former av arbetshinder. I den här rapporten har personal från fyra ESF-projekt med inriktning mot social arbetskooperation intervjuats. Rapporten ger en bild av hur den kooperativa rörelsen kan kombineras med arbetsmarknadspolitisk projekt­verksamhet – men också av de svårigheter som denna verksamhet kan möta. I studien analyseras bland annat hur inkludering får betydelse i projektverksam­heten i relation till frivillighet och tvång.

The European commission formed the first version of the Lisbon strategy in 2000. The objective was to turn the European Union into ‘the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion’ by 2010. One of the governing mechanisms for achieving this is the Social Fund. The objective of the Social Fund in Sweden is to ‘contribute to speeding up change and renewal within working life’. The Social Fund co-finances project that either focus on giving increased opportunities to development and renewal within working life through competence development, or giving increasing job-opportunities. Projects with the latter aim should enhance for individuals that are far from the labor market to get a job and stay through ‘unconventional methods’. In this report we analyze projects with these objectives and methods, targeting groups such as immigrants, sick-listed, disabled and youths. The report contains the origin, development and current state of the Social Fund, a mapping of funded projects during 2008, a qualitative study of project worker's experiences of inclusionary work; attitudes towards the project participants, methods, collaboration with authorities and discre­pancies between project idea and actual practice. The report ends with a discussion on the consequences of project workers' encounter with project participants. Should projects or participants be adjusted? We characterise the project activities as hybridization between social work and education and discuss possible processes of inclusion and dangers of exclusion within the projects. We emphasise the importance of a non-discriminatory policy and suggest the implementation of such a policy in terms of equality mainstreaming in the applications.