Language internships with support in native language gave more women jobs
Bild av Zen Chung från Pexels.
Internships and access to a coach in their native language increased the chances of employment for immigrant women with weak Swedish skills, according to a new report from IFAU written by UIL researchers Lillit Ottosson and Ulrika Vikman.
Ulrika Vikman
Since 2009, the City of Stockholm has offered language internships within the framework of the municipality's job market. The initiative is aimed at people with income support and very limited Swedish skills. The participant receives a four-week introduction to working life and coaching in their native language and is then matched to a workplace where they will stay for three months. During the internship, the participant has regular contact with their bilingual coach.
Higher incomes and reduced social assistance
The language internship led to higher employment. Three years after they started, almost 45 percent of the interns were employed and had a registered income from work, compared to just under 40 percent in the control group. The participants' work income increased by an average of 20 percent per month (870 SEK) in the first two years, and social assistance payments decreased by 8 percent (250 SEK).
Women's employment rose
The effects were particularly clear for women: their employment was 24 percent higher than comparable women who did not participate. There were no corresponding effects for men.
– It is probably because women, through language internships, get to take part in work-related activities, something we know they rarely have access to otherwise, but as previous research has shown, is a good way into the labor market, says Ulrika Vikman.
Language internships are available in many parts of the country, but in slightly different variations.
– It is difficult to say whether the results can be generalized; whether the results are due to the multilingual coach, how long the participants have been in the country, that Stockholm places a great focus on language learning or something else. Since Danish studies have shown that early internships can make things worse at SFI, I would also like to be careful about interpreting it as meaning that the results apply to everyone and in the longer term than three years, concludes Ulrika Vikman.
Method and data
The study is based on data from the Stockholm City Job Market and national registers. Just over 1,000 participants in the language internship between 2010 and 2018 are compared with 10,000 people with similar backgrounds who did not participate. The participants were born outside the Nordic countries, the EU, the UK and Switzerland and have had a residence permit for 0–15 years.
Links
Read the IFAU working paper that the report is built upon. The working paper is titled "Bilingual caseworkers and on-the-job training: A pathway to integration?"