Employment: A crucial tool for integrating immigrants and foreigners in Sweden

Abstract

The research focuses on the labour market and immigrants from outside Europe and OECD countries living in Sweden. We investigated two main questions; the first was; what accounts for higher unemployment rates among immigrants from outside Europe and OECD countries in Sweden? And the second, what accounts for lower wages and earnings of immigrants from outside Europe and OECD countries in Sweden. We collected data by reviewing secondary sources of research on labour market statistics, recruitment process of some companies, earnings of heterogeneous immigrants and natives living in Sweden. We analyzed our data with human capital theory, disparate treatment theory and unconscious bias theory. Our findings were that, stereotypical discrimination by employers was the cause for higher unemployment rate among immigrants from outside Europe and OECD countries and perceived low skills by employers was the cause for lower earnings among immigrants from outside Europe and the OECD countries.