Conference Agenda

Integration and inclusion of migrants have been declared as a priority in many European countries. A recent study focusing on migrants’ integration in the Nordic countries concluded that they all face serious challenges in integrating immigrants into their labour markets (Calmfors & Sánchez Gassen, 2019). This symposium brings together research that examines integration and inclusion of migrants in education and work. Researchers from three European countries, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland, explore challenges and possibilities of successful inclusion of migrants in their studies.

The European Commission published an action plan 2021-2027 on integration and inclusion. Main actions include, for example, inclusive education and training from early childhood to higher education, focus on recognition of qualifications and continuing language learning. The action plan also promotes employment opportunities and skills recognition, especially in relation to women’s opportunities as well as promotes labour market integration (European Commission, 2020).

Various kinds of educational programs are available for migrants. However, their position at different levels in the labour market has become a subject of heated academic and political debate. The debate generally revolves around factors that affect the macro level structure such as employment of migrants and their descendants, economic costs and the benefits of migration and integration. The position of underrepresented groups in the labour market is typically explained as a consequence of either discrimination or lack of relevant social capital, language skills, job search strategies and job skills, just to name a few. Generally, studies in this area tend to focus on obstacles that migrants face in the labour market. However, we also need to focus on ‘successful migrants’, who have succeeded in entering education and their vocations and thus integrated in the labour market of their new host countries. In other words, what they have done differently in accessing their vocation, where many with similar backgrounds have failed. What kinds of educational pathways have been open to them? We need to get more knowledge about mechanisms that can contribute to a sustainable integration of skilled migrants via education and work.

The aim of this symposium is to examine these questions by focusing on social, linguistic, cultural, educational and labour market challenges and possibilities across these three different contexts. We start by examining historical changes in VET and migration in Sweden. Then we go on with focusing on how to get a professional driver’s license in Norway. The Swiss study explores a specific program, a pre-apprenticeship for integration, for migrants, and the last presentation examines facilitating factors to access one’s vocational career in Sweden.

Work place, workplace education and education - perceptions of knowledge requirement and skills for integration into Swedish labour market and society. A historical comparison of the mid 1900s and early 2000s Previous research supports an argument that in Sweden language education, language support and (vocational) education is central to successful integration. From a historical point of view, a natural question is: has it always been the case and if not what were the perceptions on work, education and integration and why was it different. Answering these types of questions extends our knowledge of relations between migration and societal change. In this investigation the relation work-vocation-education is of particular interest and how the changing character of this relation can be understood as part of integration politics. Even though the study focuses on the Swedish context, the analysis might be of relevance to other national contexts since the time period selected for comparison have seen similar development in the labour market from big industry to service sector and a pervasive digitalisation of practically all sectors. A common aspect of establishing discourses on migration is an assumption that learning language and knowledge of societal organisation along with a strong conviction that work leads to integration in society. Even though it is common it may vary in emphasis. We aim to investigates change in perceptions of (vocational) education, language and work as part of establishing discourses in the late 1900s and the early 2000s. Two clear features of change in the Swedish case are identified: 1) education has become more important and related to the general education system and 2) education in the 20th century promoted local social integration and served a purpose of promoting workers solidarity while 21th century education serves to promote the individual's future prospects and mobility.

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This study aims to examine how immigrants achieve professional driver license. Many of the professional drivers of taxi, public transportation and vehicles are second language users. We want to investigate the training experiences of teacher educators of professional drivers and driver instructors on how immigrant professional driving student attend training and gain professional license. Our perspective is on language/linguistic and cultural challenges within vocational drivers´ profession. The theoretical framework is based on vocational pedagogy and didactic strategies with special emphasis on connection between theory and practice. Furthermore, focus is on students’ learning process in connection to their ability to reflect on learning outcome and instructors’ and teacher educators’ mentoring in both classrooms and practical driving sessions. Due to the multicultural perspective, we employ theories on second language acquisition and learning as well as theories on intercultural competence and vocational pedagogy. The study will use individual interviews of teacher educators and instructors of driving schools, Additionally, we intend to analyze subject books, curriculum documents of educational institution at one university, and official documents of Road Traffic Department in Norway. The intention is to compare the intention of the professional driver education with realization in practice. This is an ongoing project, which infers that the results are preliminary at this point. However, we hypothesize that there are discrepancies between educational intends and practical strategies for dealing with multicultural students. We reckon that this can be explained by teacher educators and instructors lacking knowledge in intercultural competence and dealing with integrated second language integration of immigrant professional driver students.

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The Swiss labour market is highly structured and relies on standardised VET qualifications. Asylum migrants, particularly refugees and temporarily admitted persons without a recognised VET diploma or certificate, have thus struggled to find sustainable employment (Aerne & Bonoli, 2021). To support them in their endeavour to access vocational education and training, the Swiss federal government and the cantons have launched the pre-apprenticeship for integration PAI (Bundesrat, 2015; Scharnhorst & Kammermann, 2019). The PAI is a one-year pre-vocational programme that targets refugees, temporarily admitted persons, and late migrants from EU, EFTA and third countries aged 16 to 35. PAI programmes have been established in the service sector, industry, manufacturing, and agriculture (Kammermann et al., 2022). The introduction of the PAI programme is accompanied by a research project, which assesses and evaluates the implementation and impact of the PAI programme. In this contribution, we discuss the programme's outcome by investigating key factors contributing to participants' successful transition to regular apprenticeships. Drawing from findings from resource theory (e.g., Hobfoll et al., 2018) and training quality and career success in VET (Stalder & Carigiet Reinhard, 2014; Stalder & Schmid, 2016), we assume that the success of PAI participants depends on the quality of the learning environment (e.g., learning opportunities in the workplace and school, support from trainers and teachers) and on their individual and social resources (e.g., language skills, self-efficacy, support by significant others). We use data from the fourth PAI cohort, including a written survey with N = 432 PAI participants and 6 case studies that were run in 2022. Results show that participants highly appreciated the learning in the workplace and at school and felt well-supported by teachers and trainers. Two-thirds had secured an apprenticeship two months before the PAI's end. The others still searched for an apprenticeship place or said they didn't know what to do after the PAI. The pathways of the latter ones were thus very uncertain. Those who had secured an apprenticeship found their work more interesting, engaged more in learning and had better learning outcomes than those with an uncertain pathway. We conclude that the PAI programme is an essential and valid means to foster refugees' integration in vocational education and training, discuss particular challenges of the programme, and outline possibilities for further improvements.

Aerne, A., & Bonoli, G. (2021). Integration through vocational training. Promoting refugees' access to apprenticeships in a collective skill formation system. Journal of Vocational Education & Training, 1-20. https://doi.org/10.1080/13636820.2021.1894219 Bundesrat. (2015). Begleitmassnahmen Artikel 121a BV: Verstärkung der Integrationsmassnahmen für Flüchtlinge und vorläufig Aufgenommene (Bericht des Bundesrates vom 18.12.2015). Schweizerische Eidgenossenschaft. Hobfoll, S. E., Halbesleben, J., Neveu, J.-P., & Westman, M. (2018). Conservation of resources in the organisational context: The reality of resources and their consequences. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 5(1), 103-128. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-032117-104640 Kammermann, M., Stalder, B. E., & Schönbächler, M.-T. (2022). Fachkräftesicherung durch die Integrationsvorlehre. Ergebnisse zum Schweizer Pilotprogramm INVOL. BWP, 1/2022, 51–55. Scharnhorst, U., & Kammermann, M. (2019). Integrationsvorlehren – eine Flexibilisierung des Zugangs zur Berufsbildung für Geflüchtete in der Schweiz. BWP, 5/2019, 16-20. Stalder, B. E., & Carigiet Reinhard, T. (2014). Ausbildungsqualität aus Sicht von Lernenden und Betrieben in der Schweiz. In M. Fischer (Ed.), Qualität in der Berufsausbildung – Anspruch und Wirklichkeit (pp. 97-118). Bertelsmann. Stalder, B. E., & Schmid, E. (2016). Lehrvertragsauflösung und Ausbildungserfolg - kein Widerspruch. Wege und Umwege zum Berufsabschluss. hep.

This study focuses on ‘successful migrants’, who have succeeded in gaining employment in Sweden in their previous vocational area. The aim is to describe factors on various levels – individual, organisational and national – that have facilitated migrants’ way back to work as well as their inclusion at workplaces. Although Sweden is the context, the findings are relevant for all countries that receive migrants. In policies and research, finding relevant employment is emphasised as key to integration for many reasons, including financial, well-being, and health (Ager & Strang, 2008), cultural competence (Ganassin and Johnstone Young 2020), and acceptance as a full-fledged citizen (Wehrle et al. 2018). Like other migrants, the participants in this study encountered difficulties on their journeys, but by focusing on the success factors that define them, we evade the one-sided story of marginalised and incapable refugees. Twenty migrants and five employers/mentors were interviewed. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the interviews (Braun & Clarke, 2006). The overarching theme of facilitating factors concerns language proficiency, individual factors, enabling frameworks, and supporting persons and networks. The migrants’ own ambitions and motivations, and the support they got in interpersonal encounters were especially emphasised as important. In the migrants’ narratives, a central theme in relation to the theoretical perspective was how to deal with threats to their social and professional identity in the new country. For them, maintaining a positive self-image was key to the strength needed to fight for a return to working life. People in the environment were important in this struggle – for positioning them as competent persons and for offering support. (Eliasson et al., 2022)

This presentation is based on an article: Eva Eliasson, Marianne Teräs & Ali Osman (2022): ‘Back to work’—factors facilitating migrants’ re-entry into their previous vocations, Journal of Education and Work, DOI: 10.1080/13639080.2022.2144168 Ager, A., & Strang, A. (2008). Understanding integration: A conceptual framework. Journal of Refugee Studies 21(2), 166–191. Braun, V.,& Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology 3(2), 77–101. Ganassin, S., & Johnstone Young, T. (2020). From surviving to thriving: ‘Success stories’ of highly skilled refugees in the UK. Language and Intercultural Communication 20(2),125–140. Wehrle, K., Klehe, U.-C. , Kira, M., & Zikic, J. (2018). Can I come as I am? Refugees’ vocational identity threats, coping, and growth. Journal of Vocational Behavior 105, 83–101.