Browsing Current Themes in IMER Research by Issue Date

Från gemensam idé till pragmatisk handling - mångfaldstankar och stra...
Rönnqvist, Sofia Journal article in Current Themes in IMER Research;1 : Malmö högskola Internationell Migration och Etniska Relationer (IMER) Current Themes in IMER Research (2004)	scientific ARTICLE

Immigration patterns, economic integration and residential segregatio...
Bevelander, Pieter Journal article in Current Themes in IMER Research;2 : Malmö högskola, Internationell Migration och Etniska Relationer (IMER) Current Themes in IMER Research (2004)	scientific ARTICLE

English abstract:	This paper offers an overview of immigration to Sweden in the last decades of the twentieth century, including the labour market integration and residential segregation of immigrants. The character of immigration has gradually changed from primarily labour migration up to the middle of the 1970s to refugee immigration and family reunification during the last decades of the twentieth century. Since the 1970s economic integration of immigrants has gradually decreased while residential segregation has increased. This development reached its peak in the early 1990s, when refugee immigration increased considerably at the same time as the economy deteriorated. Integration policies have not blocked this negative process.
Swedish abstract:	Den "mångkulturella" samhället finns i Sverige om vi bara ser till på antalet utlandsfödda i förhållande till födda i Sverige. När vi däremot undersöker två viktiga mått på integration, sysselsättningsintegration och boendesegregation, visas tydligt att stora grupper av invandrare är marginaliserade i det svenska samhället. Sett ur detta perspektiv har den svenska integrationspolitiken misslyckats de senaste decennierna. Hur har denna situation uppkommit? Såväl invandringen som arbetsmarknadsintegrationen och boendemönstret av nyligen anlända immigranter har över tiden fått en förändrad karaktär. Majoriteten av invandrarna som kom till Sverige under de första decennierna efter andra världskriget var från de nordiska och de andra europeiska länderna. Invandrarna kom huvudsakligen på grund av ekonomiska skäl. I Sverige ändrades invandringspolitiken under slutet av 1960-talet till stor del som en följd av påtryckningar från fackföreningsrörelsen (LO). En relativt liberal politik ersattes med en mer restriktiv politik som begränsade fri arbetskraftsinvandring från de icke-nordiska länderna. Under senare delen av 1900-talet har interna konflikter, krig och geopolitiska förändringar lett till ett ökat antal flyktingar i världen. Invandringspolitiken gentemot flyktingar och familjeåterförening var fortfarande relativt liberal i Sverige under denna period. Detta innebar att de flesta invandrare som kom till Sverige på 1970-talet, men framförallt under 1980- och 1990-talen var flyktingar från Östeuropa och icke-europeiska länder och familjer från tidigare invandrade flyktingar och arbetskraftsinvandrare. Statistiken visar att familjeåterförenare och flyktingar står för vardera hälften av dem som har fått uppehållstillstånd de senaste decennierna. Den ekonomiska krisen under första halvan av 1990-talet samt den dramatiska ökningen av asylsökare under samma period gjorde att flyktingpolitiken skärptes. Sveriges integrationspolitik förändrades också med tiden och är sedan mitten av 1970-talet baserad på kulturell pluralism och på honnörsorden, jämlikhet, valfrihet och samverkan. Arbetsmarknadsintegration och att motverka boendesegregation har varit högt prioriterade mål i denna politik. Bosättningspolitiken som implementerades under mitten av 1980-talet och som fördelar flyktingar som fått uppehållstillstånd över ett flertal kommuner kan ses som en sätt att förverkliga dessa mål. Under 50- och 60-talen integrerades arbetskraftsinvandrare relativt väl på arbetsmarknaden. Koncentrationen i boende av en del av dessa invandrargrupper sågs som ett sätt att behålla vissa kulturella särdrag i en ny omgivning. Den successivt minskande ekonomiska integrationen av senare invandrargrupper medförde för vissa grupper en mycket stark ökning av boendesegregationen. Human- och social kapital, överförbarhet av yrkesskicklighet, strukturella förändringar på arbetsmarknaden, olika typer av diskriminering, generell integrations- och arbetsmarknadspolitik kan ses som faktorer som ökar transaktionskostnaderna för att som invandrare lyckas på arbetsmarknaden i jämförelse med svenskar. Framförallt den strukturella förändringen inom den svenska ekonomin i en tjänsteekonomi som efterfrågar högre generella kunskaper och ökad tonvikt på språkkunskaper har ökat kostnaderna för nya invandrare att förvärva dessa färdigheter. Ökande rekryteringskostnader för potentiella arbetsgivare medför att vissa grupper löper risken att diskrimineras. Utestängningen från arbetsmarknaden ökar socialbidragskostnaderna. Svag arbetsmarknadsintegration påverkar på ett negativt sätt individens möjligheter att välja bosättningsort. Etnisk segregation är även ett problem för välfärdsstaten i och med att många sociala tjänster som skola, förskola, vård av olika slag och andra offentliga tjänster är organiserade enligt geografiska faktorer. Så, när segregerade områden väl har uppstått är risken stor att både social och ekonomisk ojämlikhet förstärker varandra.

386.pdf (281.9Kb)

Vita fläckar - Om integrationspolitik, ledning, och mångfald i Malmö ...
Broomé, Per; Rönnqvist, Sofia; Schölin, Tobias Journal article in Current Themes in IMER Research;7 : Malmö Institute for Studies of Migration, Diversity and Welfare (MIM) and School of International Migration and Ethnic Relations (IMER) Current Themes in IMER Research (2007)	scientific ARTICLE

English abstract:

Malmö has a long history of immigration and integration work. Ambitions have kept pace with immigration and are high among the political leadership and many managers of municipal organisations. Experience relating to different integration policy ideas and practical integration work is considerable. It is important to stress that our presentation of critical analyses of integration policy and diversity management is by no means a denigration of these ambitions or insights, but rather indicates the difficulties of implementing integration policy and diversity management measures in a large municipal organisation. The municipal authority's integration experiences lead to the continual revision of its own internal integration policies, of which the diversity idea and diversity management are included. Revisions, new ideas and measures – ad infinitum – seem to be natural features of integration policy. This is particularly evident in the political rhetoric, as well as in the different integration plans and measures. One reason for this is that integration and diversity issues are dealt with reactively as problems arise, i.e. the discovery of a problem triggers some kind of action. In contrast, the opportunities and possibilities that human diversity offers are given very little attention. The three articles appearing in this issue describe and analyse how diversity issues have difficulty in being included in management practices and how the discoveries of diversity and its content are either curtailed or fail to materialise in the organisation of the City of Malmö. The first article describes how integration policy alternatives arising from the diversity idea are difficult to establish in relation to, for example, alternatives relating to the introduction programme and employment opportunities for immigrants. The issue of diversity is a white spot in the municipality's integration policy. One myth about the white spot's content, and which affects integration policy, is that the potential of diversity is known, culturally ordered and can be quantitatively represented. Another myth is that so called social engineering can deal with the content of the white spot. A similar problem arises in the second article, when the diversity issue is identified as something primarily concerned with "arranging diversity in society", while diversity issues are dismissed in the internal organisation. Internal diversity issues thus become a white spot for managers. One myth, which affects the organisation, is that the content of the internal white spot is charted and included in the organisation of its own accord. The third article deals with the struggle between whether it is core work or the diversity perspective that is in focus. Core work is experienced by managers as the most central. The diversity issue thus becomes a white spot in that it is placed outside the core work frame. One myth is that the unfamiliar content of the white spot can be prevented from impacting the existing organisation. All three articles point to the fact that managers and political leaders have difficulty in identifying the benefits of diversity for the internal and external organisation in anything other than general terms. This observation probably reveals an important reason as to why the diversity issue has not been picked up by management and put into practice.

broome_ronnqvist_scholin.pdf (762.2Kb)

Integrationspolitik utan ände
Broomé, Per Journal article in Current Themes in IMER Research;7 : Malmö Institute for Studies of Migration, Diversity and Welfare (MIM) and School of International Migration and Ethnic Relations (IMER) Current Themes in IMER Research (2007)	scientific ARTICLE

English abstract:

The conceptual development of Sweden’s integration policy is a remarkable journey in itself: from the influx of foreign labour in the 1950s and 1960s, via refugees and their reception in the 1970s, immigrants and introduction programmes of the 1980s and 1990s, to diversity and integration in the 21st century. This conceptual development reflects many different aspects – and this article discusses some of them. The main questions addressed are: To what extent is integration policy driven by central state directives or by municipal’s experiences, capacity and ability? Is integration work the sole concern of local government authorities and public agencies, or are other societal actors involved? What kind of ideas, strategies and courses of action have affected and influenced integration policy? How does management at the local level react to an increased immigration and its effects in the formation of the municipality’s integration work? With a focus on the development in Malmö, this article describes the management’s ideas, strategies and the municipality’s courses of action with regard to integration. Management is seen as a result of economic and demographic changes, the discovery of ethnic diversity and its effects in the city, legislation concerning the multicultural society and national integration policy, discrimination and diversity perspectives and the system’s inherent prerequisites with regard to work, roles and competence. Management is not regarded as something individual – which is the most common way of studying it – but as a collective and political phenomenon. Management is distinguished by the measures, policies, decisions and course of events that can be discerned over time and where the underlying ideas and assumptions of reality can be interpreted. Some development characteristics are very evident. Firstly, that a united political front of the dominant parties against popular and xenophobic political currents was established as a defence of the multicultural society; a front that recognised and accepted migration to Sweden from a humanitarian point of view and as a dynamic factor in societal development. Despite well-informed warnings of the weaknesses of “social engineering solutions” to “the immigrant problem” the political leadership has nevertheless relied on such special solutions for immigrants and on traditional welfare policies combined with the development of a comprehensive administrative field for the reception of refugees/immigrants nationally and locally in the municipalities. The united political front of the established parties allowed the administrative powers to create specialised reception and integration systems without any critical analysis of the resources provided for integration. For politicians it was a question of breaking down the opposition to a multicultural society among citizens and preventing xenophobic forces from gaining political power. It would seem, however, that the impact of xenophobic political parties – parties that are not in accord with multicultural ideology – has not been curbed. In the 2006 elections the Sweden Democrats won a considerable number of seats on local councils, particularly in Skåne, which means that xenophobic forces are once again to be found on the political playing field. Secondly, a long line of projects were initiated at the end of the 1990s and beginning of the 21st century in order to influence the organisation, its members and improve integration in society. These were mainly concerned with educational efforts and project work designed to change and improve the organisation’s way of working with diversity and included themes like “Staff Training in Discrimination Issues”, “Diversity as a Personnel Concept” and management training initiatives like “Commitment for Malmö”. Initiatives to affect the situation in “densely populated immigrant areas and exposed districts” were also included in collaborations with the state, such as the co-called “Blommanpengarna” (Development grants), “Nationellt exempel” (National examples) and “Storstadssatsningen” (Metropolitan investment). In spite of all this alarming reports about the situation for immigrants in Malmö increased and the situation still doesn’t seem to have improved as far as immigrants are concerned. Thirdly, the diversity ideology “bites” slowly in the organisation, despite considerable efforts to establish it within the municipal organisation. While diversity ideology certainly leads to a number of discussions at management level, it seems to stop there. In other words, such efforts don’t lead to many integrating actions of a diversity nature “on the shop floor”, in the shape of utility-oriented assessments of diversity in the recruiting of co-workers and managers, or a diversity content relating to an inclusion of “all differences”, or a pointing out of the qualitative aspects in the encounter between internal differences and external relations. Discrimination ideology does gain ground, however. Action plan objectives for a certain quantitative representation of foreign born people are agreed on in the organisation. At the beginning of the 21st century such an approximate representation was reached in the organisation as a whole, and is a goal that carries great weight. Even though such a representation exists, it doesn’t reach as far as the category of management or to the political mandate, where representation is considerably weaker. In itself this quantitative ethnic representation allows for spontaneous encounters and the development of a diversity idea, although this doesn’t happen in the permeating and utility-directed way aimed at in diversity ideology. In spite of the double undertaking of welfare and growth in the recently (2004) launched programme for integration (entitled Welfare for All), which indicates a change in integration policy in Malmö from “local government to local governance”, the long-term goals still tend to be classic general socio-political welfare goals, namely, that every able-bodied person should have a job, every student should have complete grades, everybody should be offered housing, and the crime rate should be zero. The immigrant issue only appears as a background formulation (multicultural resource) and as a restriction (abolishing segregation in the city) in the success of the programme; something that is explained in terms of the municipality shouldering an integration burden that is actually the state’s responsibility. A clear social engineering perspective also characterises the programme and is strengthened by an expectation that collaboration must take place if the problems are to be solved. While such collaboration is expressed as other public agencies on the one hand and industry and voluntary organisations on the other, no explicit reference is made to immigrants and immigrant groups. A number of reports show that such collaborations are not always successful. Those experiencing least success are, not surprisingly, immigrant entrepreneurs, immigrant associations and immigrant citizens, whereas collaborations prove more successful in terms of the public sector agencies such as the police, the employment agency and the social insurance office.

broome.pdf (858.9Kb)

Mångfald, ledning och idéspridning i Malmö stads organisation
Rönnqvist, Sofia Journal article in Current Themes in IMER Research;7 : Malmö Institute for Studies of Migration, Diversity and Welfare (MIM) and School of International Migration and Ethnic Relations (IMER) Current Themes in IMER Research (2007)	scientific ARTICLE

English abstract:

This study can be regarded as a continuation of the study relating to how diversity was interpreted in different parts of the City of Malmö. That particular study showed that the diversity goals formulated by the City of Malmö were interpreted in very different ways in different parts of the city; a fact that made a study of the role and importance of leadership when it comes to spreading ideas about diversity much more attractive. This study's empirical framework consists of interviews with senior managers and with politicians, as well as the scrutiny of political documents and action plans. The empirical investigation showed that politicians and managers who are close to the political level thought that the organisation should be able to handle differences of an internal as well as an external nature. They interpreted diversity as something qualitative and thought that the organisation would have to change if it was to encompass different kinds of people. The other managers interviewed had a slightly different concept of the meaning of diversity. In their view the quantitative representation of different ethnic groups was needed in order to understand and interpret the needs of the different social and ethnic groups. Social problems could, for example, be handled in a more efficient manner if the staff of the organisation had a wider local knowledge. The managers also encountered different dilemmas in relation to the implementation of the diversity idea; dilemmas relating to the interpretation of different competences and the fact that some competences are not evenly distributed in different segments of the population. Such dilemmas are also related to issues of heterogeneity and homogeneity. There was also a dilemma when it came to power and different ideas and interests in the organisation. It was apparent that the managers do not really solve these problems and that their actions are rather passive when it comes to diversity issues. Their way of dealing with the problems is either to say that the problems will solve themselves over time or to redefine them. Instead of viewing the diversity issue as an organisational matter, the managers deal with it as different forms of societal problems that have to be controlled. Qualitative issues relating to diversity and organisational change are left out. Why this happens can be explained in two ways. The first explanation is that the managers act in a pragmatic way. Organisational problems and vague action plans leave the floor open for different solutions and pragmatic ways of dealing with problems. Another interpretation is that the organisation's different ideas and views about diversity and welfare policy interact and conflict, which naturally leads to confusion. In other words, the organisation has problems in deciding whether diversity is an issue connected to social control or to innovation.

ronnqvist.pdf (777.2Kb)

Browsing Current Themes in IMER Research by Issue Date

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English abstract:	A lesson in social integration – a study of diversity and identification in a school for adults. The aim of the study is to understand how a municipal adults education school views ethnic diversity within its activity in relation to the organizational identity i.e. the core values of the organization. The rhetoric about the school identity is filled with recurrent references to a "we" that is active, sensitive for the needs of the students. Assimilation intentions and a disciplinarian, authoritarian attitude towards the students, underpin the references that occur in this self-differentiating process. Unity through a collective view on democracy and identification with equality and responsibility as exclusively Swedish values has the impact that people with another ethnic background is seen as not qualified to work as teachers at the school. They are seen as lacking the necessary, "Swedish" values. A broken Swedish, another religion or ethnic background can be used in the recruitment process as the expression of "wrong" values. The advantages with ethnic diversity are connected to language and cultural competence in addition to the applicants' "Swedish competences".
Swedish abstract:	I studien analyseras Komvuxskolans föreställda kärnvärderingar, deras underliggande beståndsdelar och implicita antaganden, samt hur identifieringen med dessa värderingar sker. Vidare förs det en diskussion kring hur denna identifieringsprocess påverkar implementering av etnisk mångfald.

English abstract:	Diversity and organization – an introduction. The introduction is two folded, firstly to give the reader a brief background to the research program "Diversity as the Human Resource Philosophy" at IMER, Malmö högskola, and secondly to give the reader a comprehension of the ambiguous concept of diversity. The aim of the separate research projects in the program is to create a deeper theoretical understanding as well as practical knowledge of diversity in general and particular in public organizations. We try to highlight the complexity of the diversity concept by contrasting diversity to other concepts like human difference, assimilation and the melting pot.
Swedish abstract:	Inledningsavsnittet ska dels ge läsaren en bakgrund till forskningsprogrammet "Mångfald som personalidé" på IMER, Malmö högskola, dels skapa en ökad förståelse för det mångtydiga mångfaldsbegreppet i en organisatorisk kontext. Syftet med de i programmet ingående delprojekten är att skapa en djupare teoretisk insikt och en ökad praktisk kunskap kring organisation/organisering och mångfald i allmänhet och i offentliga verksamheter i synnerhet. Mångfaldsbegreppet är mångtydigt och i denna introduktion ges en bred bakgrund där begreppets komplexitet tas fram. Vi förhåller oss till begreppet bland annat genom att kontrastera mångfald mot andra begrepp såsom, olikhet, assimilering och smältdegel.

English abstract:	Analyzing the rhetoric of a municipal commissioner of Malmö City and the text of the City’s diversity policy, the paper discuses the connection between content in the rhetoric and the organizational logics in the City’s organization. The special character of the organization, its organizational logics as a public organization, is part of the problem in implementing a diversity policy in the City. Variations in organizational reactions to the policy can be seen as a consequence of a lack of clearly stated objectives and creative methods for implementation in a loose coupled organization.
Swedish abstract:	Med hjälp av en analys av kommunalrådsretorik och retoriken i mångfaldspolicyn för Malmö kommun diskuteras styrkor, svagheter och svårigheter i styrningen av etnisk mångfald i den kommunala organisationen. Kommunens speciella organisatoriska karaktär, dess organisationslogik, är en del av problemet med att implementera en mångfaldspolitik, den speciella utmaningen i kommunens mångfaldsarbete. Variationen i reaktionsmönster i den kommunala organisation kan bland annat ses som en effekt brist på klara mål och kreativa metoder för implementeringen i en löst kopplad organisation.