Organising Immigrants' Integration: Practices and Consequences in Labour Markets and Societies

Description

This collection of field studies offers novel insights into the issues of migration and integration of immigrants. The focus of the chapters is on actions, processes, and complexity of organising practices, in contrast to more policy-oriented works. The contributors address vital questions: How is the labour market integration of refugees and other immigrants being organised in practice? What ideas of integration give rise to, and are promoted by contemporary integration initiatives? And what are the effects of these integration initiatives – on immigrants’ lives, and on their labour market integration in terms of diversity, gender, and power relations?  With contributions highlighting the importance of coordination and collaboration for the successful organising of integration, this book should be of interest to researchers and advanced students from the fields of management and organisation studies, public administration and management, migration and integration studies, sociology, cultural studies and science and technology studies. It should also interest professionals and policymakers working with integration who face the challenges described here in their daily work. for ever Acknowledgments Contents List of Contributors List of Figures List of Tables 1: Introduction Part One: Integration—What Is It, and Where Does It Begin? Part Two: Integration, Translation, and Change Part Three: Integration—When, Where, and How Does It End? References Part I: Integration, What Is It and Where Does It Begin? 2: Alternative Perspectives on Immigrant Accommodation to Society: Implications for Organising, the Labour Market, and Workplace Integration Introduction Assimilation, Integration, and Inclusion: Origins and Meanings Assimilation Integration Inclusion Organisational Practices Associated with Assimilation, Integration, and Inclusion: A Fictional Vignette Conclusion References 3: Organising (Refugee) Integration in Sweden: How It Begins Modes of Ordering Coordination Addition Ignoring Discrepancies Addition with Hierarchy Calibration Distribution Itinerary Indication Criteria Conditions of Possibility Accounting for Previous Realities Inclusion Transitive Inclusion Mutual Inclusion My Study Organising Refugees in Stockholm Conclusions References 4: “Tough Love”: The Roles Played by Municipal Housing Corporations for Integration of Newly Arrived Immigrants in Vulnerable Neighbourhoods Data Collection The Role of Municipal Housing Corporations for Integration The Roles Played by Housing Corporations Doing Good and Being Business-like Activities to Improve the Neighbourhoods Tackling Wicked Problems: Step by Step and in Collaboration Discussion and Conclusions References Part II: Integration, Translation and Change 5: Procuring for Labour Market Integration 5.1 Integration Policy, Public Organisations, and Public Procurement 5.2 Using Procurement to Promote Employment 5.3 Social Considerations in Procurement: A Gothenburg Version 5.4 A Hampering Paradox, Shifting Towards Competence Supply and Effects 5.4.1 Local Considerations in an International Context 5.4.2 The Shift Towards Competence Supply 5.4.3 Effects and Calculated Benefits 5.5 A Device to Handle with Care 5.5.1 Sources Analysed References 6: Emancipation Through Learning at Work: Work Cooperatives for “Unemployable” Immigrant Women Introduction The Pedagogy of the Oppressed and Affective Solidarity Yalla Trappan: A Foreign-Born Women’s Work Cooperative Are Labour Market Integration Programmes Oppressive? Alternative Practices: Organising Labour Market Integration Through Women Cooperatives Openness Togetherness Revealing “Womanness” Conclusion: Valorising Women’s Skills as a Road to Emancipation References 7: Pluralised Attempts to Translate Refugees’ Labour Market Integration: Field Dynamics in Two Cases of “Promoting Accessibility” in Berlin Introduction Translating “Accessibility” in Organisational Fields Context and Design of the Study Translating Accessibility in the Field of Labour Market Integration in Berlin Job-Related Language Promotion Episode 1: The Long Summer of Migration (2015) Episode 2: Companies Challenge the Existing Field Regulation (2017/2018) Episode 3: Fragmentation on the Supply Side (2019) Creating “Berlin’s Overall Concept for the Integration and Participation of Refugees” Episode 1: The Concept Is Formed (2017) Episode 2: Thematic Working Groups and Elaboration of the Concept (2018) Episode 3: Problems in Most of the Voluntary and Refugee Organisations Remain (2018–2020) Discussion: Field Dynamics and Their Consequences for the Labour Market Integration of Refugees References 8: The Italian Non-model. Integrating Immigrant Labour in Practice Immigration as a Political Issue Institutional Logics and Organisational Practices Market- and Community-Based Institutional Logics The Community-Based Model: The Riace Ambiguity Gender and Work Integration: A Complex Covenant Final Remarks References 9: Integrating Recent Refugees into the Labour Market: The Action Net in Austria Introduction The Austrian Context The Action Net of Integrating Refugees into the Labour Market How the Action Net Changed After the Arrival of Refugees from Ukraine Discussion References 10: Speaking Swedish: The Role of Language Skills in an Integration Support Project What Level of Swedish Is the “Right” One for Employability? A Project for Those Who Are Struggling the Most Emerging Challenges and Responses An Experiment, or a Model for the Future? Speaking and Writing Swedish: A Necessity for a Job? Language Tests: A Pragmatic Solution? References 11: Organising the “Labour of Hope”: A Critical Take on the Role of Internships and Mentorships in Supporting Highly Skilled Immigrants into Jobs Introduction Why Is It Difficult for Highly Skilled Immigrants to Find a Job? Problems and Proposed Solutions Hoping for a Better Future The Research Setting Findings: The Labour of Hope Being Placed into “Some Kind of Activity” An Internship Will Lead to a Job…or At Least Another (Swedish) Item on Your CV A Mentoring Programme Will Get You a Job or At Least Will Develop You as a Person The Programmes “Bring You Closer to the Labour Market”: But at What Distance? Discussion: Organising Highly Skilled Immigrants’ Hopes for the Future References Part III: Integration, When, Where and How Does It End? 12: Older Immigrants’ Integration: Organisational Processes and Practices in the Australian Context Introduction Multiculturalism Mainstreaming Diversity Organisation of Care and Services for Older People in Australia Integration Incorporating the Life Course Perspective Method Results Migrant Support Organisations Engagement with Ageing Immigrants Supporting Cultural Autonomy, Language, and Identity in Later Life Organising Continued Integration for Older Immigrants Discussion and Conclusion References 13: But You Are Not an Immigrant! On Nordic Immigration in a Cultural Perspective Denmark Scania Becomes Danish! A New Tribe: Regionauts “Brians”, Forest Dwellers and Love Refugees Finland The Early Novels The Second Generation Symmetrical Stereotypes Being an Underclass At a Distance Nordic but Not Scandinavian? References 14: The “Integration Problem”: A View from the Rocking Chair The Problem and the View “Radical Hope” as a Solution The Problem of the Recipient: Clausewitz’s Logic of Tact Integration Without Crisis? (When Those Who Are to Be Integrated Have More Attractive Alternatives) Is There a Way to Make Sense of These Fragments Theoretically? But There Is No Crisis… or Is There? References 15: Organising Integration: Some Conclusions and Directions for the Future Integration as a Boundary Word Organising Integration as Construction of Action Nets Agency Is Distributed and Shared, Not Individual To Conclude References Index