Recruiting Immigrant Workers
Subtitle: Sweden 2011
By: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Series: Recruiting immigrant workers; Recruiting Immigrant Workers
Publisher: OECD Publishing
Published: 2011
Place of publication: Paris
Language: eng
Format: [electronic resource] /
Number of pages: 160
ISBN-13: 9789264167216
Subjects: Employment (Economic theory); Social Issues/Migration/Health
Description: Sweden reformed its labour migration management policy in 2008 and now has one of the most liberal labour migration regimes in the OECD. This book attempts to answer the question of whether Sweden’s labour migration policy is efficiently working to meet labour market needs that were not being met, without adversely affecting the domestic labour market. The review also examines the impact of the reform on labour migration flows to Sweden and on access to recruitment from abroad by Swedish employers. After the reform, employers in Sweden were able to recruit  workers from abroad for any occupation, as long as the job had been advertised for a nominal period and the prevailing collective bargaining wage and contractual conditions were respected. Overall, Sweden’s new system has not led to a boom in labour migration, although this somewhat surprising result may be related to the slack labour market. The faith in employers appears to be largely justified until now, although there are some vulnerabilities in the system which could be addressed, especially in monitoring workplaces not covered by collective bargaining, and marginal businesses. The particularities of the relatively highly regulated labour market in Sweden may mean that this model is not easily transferable to other countries, but lessons can be drawn for other countries.
Table of contents: title: Foreword; title: Assessment and Recommendations; title: Bedömning och rekommendationer; title: Évaluation et recommandations; title: Introduction; title: Context for labour migration in Sweden; title: Migration to Sweden; title: The evolution of Swedish labour migration policy; title: Impact of the Swedish policy reform; title: Evaluating the new Swedish labour migration policy; title: Drawing lessons from Sweden's labour migration policy; title: Abbreviations; title: Characteristics of labour market tests in different countries; title: Application forms for Swedish work permits and offers of employment; title: STATIV database; title: Shortage occupation list for in-country changes in Sweden (1 April 2011); title: Supplementary tables on occupations in Sweden.