Early interventions improved language skills and employment for newly arrived refugees

Several studies have shown that refugees find it difficult to establish themselves in the Swedish labor market. It is thus important, both for the individual but also for society as a whole, to investigate which initiatives promote an earlier labor market integration. In a new Delmi report, the researchers evaluate a specially designed labor market program in the short and long term and show that both a faster integration and an integration that lasts over time can be achieved through well-designed interventions.

– The results from our study show that correctly designed labor market policy can really speed up the labor market establishment of new arrivals. Two factors that were distinctive for the effort we evaluated were the intensity of the program, both in terms of Swedish language training and work practice, and that the employer side was involved throughout the process, says Matz Dahlberg, Professor of Economics at IBF and Director of Urban Lab.