Integrating Refugees in the Swedish Labor Market: The Implementation of “entry recruitment” and “new start job” initiatives

This paper employs a qualitative research, by means of a multiple-criteria analysis, to study the implementation of two active labor market policies in Sweden which are aimed at the integration of refugees onto the Swedish labor market. With the central research question “To what extent have the Swedish labor market policies ‘instegsjobb’ and ‘nystartsjobb’ been implemented successfully?”, the study looked at the implementation from the perspectives of the implementers at the Public Employment Service only, and did not take into account the different perspectives of the beneficiaries. Furthermore, the focus is entirely on the implementation process itself, and does not consider whether the policies are successful in terms of meeting goals or whether they create positive outcomes. The study found that the implementation process appears to fulfill many of the criteria which were identified as crucial to the successful implementation of public policies, and therefore also showing that the policies themselves have, to a greater extent, been implemented successfully.