Labour Immigration from Third Countries to the European Union

Transcription

1 Malmö University Department of International Migration and Ethnic Relations IMER Bachelor Thesis January 2009 Labour Immigration from Third Countries to the European Union - A Focus on Sweden and the Law Changes of December 2008 By: Adela Pezo & Karolina Edsbäcker Supervisor: Maria Appelqvist

2 2 ABSTRACT New regulations of labour immigration from countries outside of EU and EEA have on the 15 th of December 2008 been introduced into the Swedish legal system. This research examines the law changes of labour immigration from third countries to Sweden at the time of the ratification of the new law. The aim of this research has been to examine how common labour immigration directives and policies of EU are maintained and implemented in the domestic sphere of Sweden and the possible outcomes on the Swedish labour market by applying the current law implementations. The results show the complexity of combining national laws with EU policies and regulations. The main findings show a difficulty of maintaining an unharmed principle of community preference as well as to preserve Swedish employment standards in order not to risk wage dumping when implementing the new law of labour immigration. Key words: Swedish Law Proposal 2007/08:147, Labour Immigration, Third Country National, Migration Policies, EU Blue Card System, Europeanization

3 3 ABBREVIATIONS AF AMS AMV EEA EU EURES ILO IMER IOM LO MCG OECD SOU Arbetsförmedlingen (Public Employment Services) Arbetsmarknadsstyrelsen (The Labour Market Board, part of AMV) Arbetsmarknadsverket (The Labour Market Board) European Economic Area (EU, Iceland, Lichtenstein and Norway) European Union European Employment Services International Labour Organisation International Migration and Ethnic Relations International Organization for Migration Landsorganisationen i Sverige (The Swedish Trade Union Confederation) Malmö City Tunnel Group Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Statens Offentliga Utredningar (The Swedish Government Official Reports)

4 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This examination has been completed as a finishing paper in International Migration and Ethnic Relations (IMER) to obtain a graduate certificate in form of a Bachelor Degree. The study has been performed during ten weeks with the support of the School of IMER Assistant Professor Maria Appelqvist. Maria s support has been essential for this paper and her advice has been of a leading guidance. Thank you Maria! We would like to give a special thanks to our respondents for their valuable time and their engagement that has led to the finishing of this bachelor paper. Thank you! An extra appreciation is given to the Swedish Migration Board project manager of the new law implementations, as he gave us his valuable time a few days before the law implementation and we thank him for that. Thank you! There are many people who have been supportive throughout the writing of this bachelor paper and you all know who you are. Last, but not least, we would like to thank Staffan who has supported us with his academic knowledge. Thank you Staffan! Malmö, January 2009 Adela Pezo & Karolina Edsbäcker

5 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION Aim of Research PREVIOUS RESEARCH METHOD Choice of Method Structure of Research Paper Selection of Respondents and Data Collection BACKGROUND: LABOUR IMMIGRATION TO EU & SWEDEN Labour Immigration to EU Current Policies of Labour Immigration to EU Labour Immigration to Sweden Recruitment Process of non EU/EEA Nationals Agency-based Labour Market Consideration The Swedish Law Proposal: 2007/08: Table: Swedish Work Permits THEORY Political Theory: What is Europeanization? Europeanization: Attitudes and Approaches Europeanization: Modes of Governance Europeanization: The Convergence Theory Table: Europeanization, Table I and II Labour Market Theories The Theory of Structural Transformation The Knowledge Gap Hypothesis The Dual Labour Market Theory ANALYSIS Law Changes and Implementations Abandoning the Agency-based Labour Market Consideration Competence Demand Demographical Demand Complexities of the New Law Implementations Principle of Community Preference Wage Dumping CONCLUDING DISCUSSION OWN REFLECTIONS & FURTHER RESEARCH WORKS CITED APPENDIX INTERVIEW GUIDE INTERVJU GUIDE... 72

6 6 1. INTRODUCTION The number of labour immigrants arriving to Sweden has significantly reduced since Sweden started to regulate labour immigration in the 1970s. 1 According to IOM (International Organization for Migration) labour migration is defined as a cross-border movement for purposes of employment in a foreign country. 2 Changed labour demands on the Swedish labour market commonly have had an impact on the development of national labour immigration policies. Prior to the entry of the European Union (EU) in 1994, Sweden regulated the intake of labour migrants by domestic policies. The Swedish participation of the Tampere meeting in October 1999 lifted the discussion of labour migration from the national level of Sweden to a common European level. 3 The controversial subject of labour immigration discusses the complexity of enabling labour immigration from third countries 4 to the member states of the European Union. To follow the action plan of the Hague Programme of 2004, the European Commission presented a proposal of directives of labour immigration on the 23 rd of October The purpose of the proposed directives is to establish common labour migrant rules and a common legal system governing labour immigration within the Union. The Blue Card system was the primary directive proposed. 5 According to statistics presented by the European Union, two workers will be necessary to economically support one retired person in The aging population alongside with the low amount of highly skilled 7 1 The Swedish Government Official Report (Statens Offentliga Utredningar) SOU 2006:87 Arbetskraftsinvandring till Sverige - Förslag och konsekvenser.minstry of Employment, p.89 2 International Organization for Migration (2008) Labour Migration European Parliament (1999) Tampere European Council Presidency Conclusion A third country national is according to the European Commission Glossary of Justice and home affairs any person who is not a national of an EU Member State European Commission, Glossary Justice and home affaires European Commission The Swedish aliens act defines a third country national as a national which is not a citizen of an EU member state, a country of EEA or Switzerland 1 kap. 3 c UtlL. Government Offices of Sweden, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The Swedish Aliens Act (Utlänningslag, UtlL) SFS 2005: European Commission, Open door for qualified workers Cerna, Lucie (2008) Towards an EU Blue Card? The delegation of National High Skilled Immigration Policies to the EU level. ESRC Centre on Migration, Policy and Society Working Paper No , University of Oxford, publications/working%20papers/wp shtml,

7 7 workers arriving to Europe (only 5 % of the world s total amount of highly skilled) have derived into the proposed Blue Card directive. 8 The Blue Card system aims to attract high-skilled workers from third countries to obtain a temporary work permit in an EU member state and thus contribute to the economic growth, and counteract the demographical issues of the Union. 9 The implementation of the Blue Card would also function as an additional step towards the realization of the Lisbon Treaty. The treaty of Lisbon defines what EU is entitled to do and what measures the Union can apply on the member states. 10 The purpose of the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty has additionally been to establish some of the ground rules for working together. 11 The Lisbon Treaty has not yet been ratified by all member states of the Union, however, Sweden has recently ratified the treaty (on the 20th of November 2008). In view of the political climate of the European Union, the Swedish Government is in favour of an increased labour immigration and explain a demand of employees from third countries as a means to counteract the demographical issues which the Swedish labour market is about to face within a foreseeable future. 12 The Swedish Government has in order to follow the directives of the Lisbon Treaty, introduced a national strategy on how to improve the employment situation of Sweden and contribute to the economic growth of the European Union. 13 Measures within different areas of the employment legislation and politics have been taken Supra. The definition of highly skilled has commonly been debated within the Blue Card proposal as the member states have different conditions of determining who is regarded as a highly skilled immigrant. 8 Supra. 9 European Parlament (2008) Offentligt seminarium om EU-blåkortet: Mot en proaktiv politik för illegal invandring Bryssel. 10 Europa (2009) Treaty of Lisbon-Taking Europe into the 21 st Century Supra. 12 SOU 2006:87, The Swedish Government Official Report (Statens Offentliga Utredningar) SOU 2005:50 Arbetskraftsinvandring till Sverige befolkningsutveckling, arbetsmarknad i förändring, internationell utblick, Minstry of Employment, , Confederation of Swedish Enterprise (2008) Sökande sökes! Rekryteringsenkäten , Swedish Government (2008) Nya regler för arbetskraftsinvandring. Proposition 2007/08:147, Ministry of Justice Swedish Government (2007) En nationell strategi för regional konkurrenskraft, entreprenörskap och sysselsättning Swedish Commission N P Confederation of Swedish Enterprise: 2008:4

8 8 The purpose of this research is to investigate the contemporary measure of a change in labour immigration from third countries from an IMER 15 perspective. Studies at the IMER department have commonly contained research on international migration patterns. Considering that the patterns are constantly changing, this research paper seeks to understand the current process of enabling immigrants from third countries to enter EU, and specifically Sweden, for the purpose of work obtainment. 1.1 Aim of Research The Swedish Government has presented new regulations for labour market immigration from countries outside EU and EEA to Sweden. 16 The current law changes strive to increase the efficiency of recruiting labour immigrants from third countries in order to meet the demand of Swedish employers. According to surveys conducted by the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise (Svenskt Näringsliv), the competences Swedish companies demand do not match the supplied skills of the Swedish workforce. 17 A missmatch of competences in combination with demographical changes of the Swedish workforce has along with the political debates of labour immigration within EU triggered the law changes which were ratified on the 15th of December As previously mentioned, the purpose of this study is to investigate the complex process of law changes in the domestic sphere of an EU member state. The changes of the recruitment process will be presented by applying different theories discussing political, social and economical migration processes of labour immigration from third countries, in order to facilitate the understanding of the governmental implementation initiatives. To increase the validity of the research and to gain a deeper knowledge of the current law changes, the research paper has been based on qualitative interviews as a complement to the established theories and previous research on this field of study. 15 IMER, International Migration and Ethnic Relations 16 The Swedish Law Proposal 2007/08:147 P Confederation of Swedish Enterprise: 2008:4

9 9 The aim of this research is to examine the current law proposal of 2007/08:147 in relation to labour immigration from third countries to Sweden and its interrelation with EU policies. This is done by investigating: How common labour immigration directives and policies of EU are maintained and implemented in the domestic sphere of Sweden. Possible outcomes on the Swedish labour market by applying the current law implementations.

10 10 2. PREVIOUS RESEARCH Since the new regulations were still in process at the data collection of this thesis, finding sources on the specific research subject was a challenge. The new legislations came into force on the 15 th of December However, extensive information has been found in previous research and reports on similar subjects, and these sources have further enriched and contributed to this study. The starting point of this research paper was the Swedish Government Official Report (SOU) 2006:87 18 which was conducted by the Swedish Committee of Labour Immigration. This report served as a guideline and pre-study for the governmental proposal of the national law changes on labour immigration. SOU 2006:87 clearly outlines facts about the Swedish demography and labour market, as well as giving an international view on how other countries have regulated their labour immigration. Furthermore, the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise has conducted studies, which examines the Swedish employers views on recruiting third country nationals. These studies have been pivotal for this bachelor thesis. Moreover, as no previous research with a similar aim as this bachelor thesis has, to our knowledge, been performed, the proposal of 2007/08: was critically examined. The proposal contains a lot of valuable background information including details of the previous recruitment process and suggested implementations of the new law changes. However, the ambition of this bachelor research has urged for selecting the parts of the law changes which have been considered to be of major importance. The overall purpose of our selection of theories for this research, have been to integrate the viewpoints of the respondents which are part of this study with established theories on labour immigration and policy implementations. Europeanization theory has commonly been adopted on case studies that seek to understand the interactive process of EU and the complexity of processing changes of EU regulations at a domestic level of a single member state. This research paper has been inspired by the work on Europeanization published by Professor 18 SOU 2006:87 19 Swedish Government (2008) Nya regler för arbetskraftsinvandring. Proposition 2007/08:147, Ministry of Justice

11 11 Claudio Radaelli. Examples of previous research which have included the theory of Europeanization when analyzing a case study and which have been used for this research paper are: Spelets Regler Europeisering genom interaktion mellan Europeiska unionen och klubbfotboll conducted by Christina Karlsson and the European Integration s Online Paper Negative and Positive Integration in European Immigration Policies by Vink P. Maarten. To gain a deeper understanding of the intentions behind the law changes of Sweden, various theories which explain contemporary labour market changes and specifically the changes of labour demand by employers have been useful. In SOU 2006:87, as well as in the studies conducted by the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise, the transformational changes of the Swedish labour market were highlighted. Researchers such as Bell, Castelles and Dickens have under the theory of Structural Transformation and the Knowledge Gap Hypothesis, investigated the changes of the demands of skills and competences expressed by employers in the contemporary world. The research of learning processes, conducted by Senge, has been applied as a complement to their findings. Borjas and Böhning have examined how the emergence of a dual-labour market may occur as a result of increased labour immigration. Finally, these theories have together with studies and statistics published by for instance the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) contributed to the comprehension of the law changes of labour immigration from third countries to Sweden.

12 12 3. METHOD 3.1 Choice of Method Qualitative and quantitative studies have usually asked different questions when conducting a research. Quantitative and qualitative research methods are broad tools and while the former is considered to be more exact and measurable, the latter is said to be more subjective. A qualitative research can broadly be defined as: any kind of research that produces findings not arrived at by means of statistical procedures or other means of quantification. 20 In this research paper, a qualitative research method has been chosen. The qualitative method is characterised by the interaction between the collection of material and the analysis. 3.2 Structure of Research Paper This research, firstly, examines the primary source of the Swedish law proposal 2007/08:147. The secondary sources used are documents that discuss the recruitment of labour from third countries to the EU and Sweden. In addition to these documents historical aspects of relevance for understanding the current changes of labour immigration have been presented. Thirdly, two Swedish companies and three governmental institution representatives were interviewed to gain a practical understanding of the recruitment process. These six 21 respondents were selected, as they constitute in the main parts of the process chain when recruiting a third country national. Fourthly, in order to broaden the interpretation of the collected data, the research applies both political and labour market theories. Finally, the research conducts a theoretical analysis of the recruitment process of third country nationals entering Sweden and the process s interrelation to EU policies. According to Golafshani the multiple methods of data such as interviews, recordings and documentations which have been used in this research leads to a more valid, reliable and diverse construction of realities. 22 The empirical material has partly been based on semi-structured interviews. Semistructured interviews are commonly defined as a combination of structured and 20 Golafshani, Nahid (2003) Understanding Reliability and Validity in Qualitative Research. University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The Qualitative Report Volume 8 Number 4 December , P.8 21 Two respondents participated in the interview with the European Employment Services (EURES) 22 Golafshani 2003:8

13 13 unstructured interviews. 23 Sarankratos states that the interview structure depends on the research topic and purpose, resources, methodological standards and preferences and the type of information sought. 24 By using semi-structured interviews, the desire is to be guided to an increased understanding of labour immigration from third countries to Sweden. The interviewer is responsible for assuring that the respondent is formulating his or her own experience and attitude that are relevant for the aim of the study. 25 Keith F. Punch highlights that interviews are a very good way of accessing people s perceptions, meanings, definitions of situations and constructions of reality. 26 Following established research methods, the respondents were informed of the purpose of the interview in advance and a consent to record the conversation was also attained. 27 The interviews have been transcribed in order to get easier access to the empirical data and conduct the analysis. 28 Halvorsen also mentions the advantages of recording the interviews; although, he affirms that the process of the transcription of informal interviews may be time-consuming. 29 The interview questions used are neither restricted nor limited as they seek to achieve answers from a broader perspective. This way of conducting an interview is often regarded as an in-depth interview method Selection of Respondents and Data Collection The selection of interview respondents was made by aiming on the central actors involved in the recruitment process of labour immigrants. The number of persons interviewed was six, all of whom have been involved in labour recruitment processes of third country nationals in one way or another. To protect the integrity of the respondents, their names will not be revealed. The interview guides have been following the same setup and have been constructed in order to obtain the most relevant information from each 23 Sarantakos, Situruos (2005) Social Research, 3dh edition. Published by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York. P Supra. Sarankratos 2005: Supra. P Punch, F. Keith (1998) Introduction to Social Research, Quantitative & Qualitative Approaches 2 nd ed. Sage Publications: London, Thousand Oaks, New Delhi. P Berry, Rita S.Y. (1999) Collecting data by in- depth interviewing. University of Sussex at Brighton On behalf of the reader, the transcriptions of the interviews may be given. 29 Halvorsen, Knut (1992) Samhällsvetenskaplig Metod. Published by Studentlitteratur, Lund. P.84

14 14 of the respondents. 30 To get as much out of the interviews as possible, two interviewers were present at each occasion. One person was leading the interview and one was observing the respondent and added important remarks. Being two also improved the comprehension of everything that was said and simplified the process of analysing the material. Due to geographical restraints, three of the interviews were performed on the telephone. The general shortcomings of telephone interviews have been taken into consideration, but as Raymond Opdenakker claims one of the advantages of telephone interviewing is the extended access to participants. 31 Opdenakker also focuses on the advantage of telephone interviewing when it comes to sensitive accounts 32, some issues may be easier to discuss on the phone than in a face-to-face conversation. The disadvantages of telephone interviewing, on the other hand, is the lack of noticeable social cues such as body language. Also, the possibility of the respondent to give spontaneous answers and for the interviewer to ask follow-up questions might be somewhat more difficult when performing an interview on the telephone. However, by recording the interviews and carefully listening to them many times, sounds as the pitch of the voice could be noticed as social cues. 33 The differences in professional backgrounds and experiences of the respondents have contributed to diverse approaches related to the research topic. To get a general view of how employers regard the law changes, interviews have been conducted with personnel from the recruitment department of two companies from different branches. Malmö City Tunnel Group (MCG) is part of the construction sector and Tetra Pak is within the food processing and packaging sector. 34 The common denominator of the companies, which is of interest for this thesis, is that they have both commonly been recruiting labour from countries outside of Sweden. Research conducted by i.e. the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise have shown that companies within the construction sector have expressed 30 see Appendix 31 Opdenakker, Raymond (2006) Forum: Qualitative Social Research Vol. 7, No Supra. 33 Supra. 34 Tetra Pak International (2008) About Tetra Pak , Respondent from MCG

15 15 significant difficulties in recruiting labour with the competence demanded, for that reason this study found it highly relevant to conduct an interview with MCG. 35 Additionally, two employees of the Public Employment Services (AF) were interviewed. One of the persons is working as a European Employment Services (EURES)-advisor, and the other is the chief of the EURES team in Malmö. Traditionally the roles of AF and EURES have been to handle the labour recruitments and assist the employers, but due to the law changes of 15 th of December 2008, this task is to be placed independently on the employers. The organisational changes will give the Migration Board an increased role when it comes to granting work permits. To get the views from the EURES employees contrasted, an interview with the Swedish Migration Board has also been performed. The respondent from the Migration Board was the project manager of the implementations of the new law and because of his position he had a detailed insight in the current law changes. A respondent from the Swedish Trade Union Confederation (LO) was interviewed in order to increase the understanding of trade unions role in the recruitment process of labour immigrants. Prior to the law changes of the 15 th of December 2008, LO played a major role in performing control measures of the employment standards of employers with a requested demand of recruiting third country nationals. However, the increased possibility of employers to independently perform the recruitment of labour immigrants will have an impact on the work tasks of the trade unions and LO. 35 Confederation of Swedish Enterprise 2008:4

16 16 4. BACKGROUND: LABOUR IMMIGRATION TO EU & SWEDEN This chapter gives an overview of historical as well as present aspects of labour immigration from third countries to EU and Sweden. Section 4.1 presents common measures on labour immigration within the European Union. A brief overview of the history of labour immigration to Sweden as a member state of EU, is outlined in section 4.2. In the end of this chapter, the Swedish law changes of the 15th of December 2008, are clarified. 4.1 Labour Immigration to EU The European Union stresses its needs to meet the challenges of its member states high unemployment rate and rapidly aging population and one measure that is believed to reduce these issues is to increase the labour immigration from countries outside the Union. Migration is thus a primary subject of debate in EU. The main agreements on labour immigration from third countries are described in the Amsterdam Treaty, ratified in The Amsterdam Treaty includes the common pillars of freedom, security and justice and Article 63 calls for legislative measures of third country nationals. 36 In 1999 a meeting was held for the EU Councils in Tampere. Family reunification, long term residence status of immigrants, and common legislations for students and researchers arriving to the member states were on top of the meeting agenda. Further, the Hague Programme of 2004 and the Justice of Home Affairs ministry meeting in 2006, discuss the specific integration aspects of labour migrants arriving to the Union. The contemporary politics is focused on the Lisbon Treaty that highlights the advantages of recruiting high-skilled labour immigrants from outside EU. Different factors have contributed to the change towards a more positive framework regarding labour immigration from third countries to EU. To understand this change of attitude, Spain can be taken as an example. This country has recruited work force from outside of EU for a long time. As EU did not have any settled framework for labour 36 COM (2003) 336 Final. Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions, on immigration, integration and employment. Brussels,

17 17 migration within their common immigration policy, other EU member states initially considered Spain to be of a hindrance for further harmonization of EU politics. While EU politics have focused on free labour mobility within the European Union, it has commonly excluded subjects of legal immigration from third countries from the political agenda. 37 In 1997 the European Employment Strategy emphasized the integration of third country nationals, and the employment strategy contains guidelines for the standards of employment. 38 The EU regulation 1408/71 marks the foundation of the long-term residence and the entry rights of third country nationals due to employment in the EU. The regulation should result in giving legally residing non-eu nationals the same rights as EU nationals when moving within the EU. 39 The legislative directives of the rights of third country nationals within EU derive primarily from the Tampere meeting. As an outcome from the Tampere meeting, the EU Commission proposed changes of the legislations of third country nationals in The final proposal indicates that a minimum of five years of residence should be a basic requirement for obtaining longterm residency. Long-term residents will also have the legislative right to settle in other member-states under the required conditions set by EU. The changes of the directives also suggest that the rights of third-country nationals should depend on the duration of their residence. A renewal of a third-country-national worker s permit will be possible when the worker has been resident within EU for more than three years. The general policy changes are set to achieve the same rights for third-country nationals as for the persons holding a long-term residence permit within the Union. 40 In the Hague Programme, one of the ten priorities is the migration management. Here the EU Commission aims at developing a balanced approach, implying the establishment of a common immigration policy. 41 To fulfil the Hague Programme the Commission is to give five directives dealing with economic migration to the member states. The 23rd of October 2007, the Commission presented proposals of two of the directives, one of the 37 Ette, Andreas & Faist, Thomas (2007) The Europeanization of National Policies and Politics of Immigration, between Autonomy and the European Union. Selective Europeanization: Europe s Impact on Spanish Migration Fauser, Margit. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. P COM (2003) 336 final:7 39 Supra. COM (2003) 336 final:6 40 COM (2003) 336 final:5 41 Freedom, Security and Justice The Hague programme-ten priorities for the next five years.

18 18 proposed directives was the EU Blue Card. 42 The aim of the Blue Card is to attract highskilled workers from third countries to EU. The directive is thought to complement the other measures taken by EU to become the dynamic, competitive and knowledge based world leading economy a goal of the Lisbon Treaty. 43 After two years of employment in the same branch, the Blue Card entitles the third country migrant to have the same work employment rights as a native worker. The second directive presented in October 2007, deals with a common EU rule system of employment applications. This system aims for the labour migrant to both be residence in and a worker of a member state, as well as attaining the same juridical rights in all of the member states. 44 In the directives mentioned, the member states will have the final judgement of which third country nationals are to be classified as labour migrants. 45 In addition to this, EU highlights the principle of community preference 46, which has to be unharmed by the member states Current Policies of Labour Immigration to EU In surveys completed by the European Commission the need for policy changes concerning immigration is essential in order to challenge the demographical prognoses of Europe and sustain the development of a strong European Union. However, EU recognize an increase of migrants coming to EU and points out the need for EU to be more selective when recruiting immigrants. 47 What is interesting to note is that already on the European labour markets, third country nationals tend to dominate occupational sectors such as the health-, educational- and care-section. 48 The European Commission has established equal opportunities and anti-discrimination legislations for non-eu nationals because there is a belief that an effective economic integration will lead to a decrease of irregular immigration and a more effective development of the workforce within EU. 49 Even thought the member states try to perform sensitive political measures towards immigration and do not display any acute 42 The Swedish Law Proposal 2007/08:147:23, Supra. 44 Supra. 45 Supra. 46 See section 4.2 for a more detailed explanation 47 Münz, Rainer (2004) Migration, Labour Markets and Migrants Integration in Europe: A Comparison. Hamburg Institute of International Economics. Washington DC, June 28-29, p Supra. P Supra. P.18

19 19 labour shortage, EU needs to become more attractive for high-skilled migrants or else the Union risks to loose the high-skilled migrants to already well established immigration countries such as Canada and USA. 50 The current general belief, within EU is that, as a result of implementing long-term measures, EU will successfully overcome the challenges of demographical changes, and that increased labour immigration eventually will be beneficial for economical success. The demographical challenges are one of Lisbon Treaty s main arguments for allowing a higher amount of labour immigrants to enter EU. Ekberg and Münz suggest that labour migration within EU will in short term be needed as more specialized labour force, in the long term, and especially after 2025, the aging gaps will be more visible and a higher demand of labour recruitment outside of EU will be necessary. 51 However, the demographical challenges in EU will not be solved only by allowing entry of more immigrants. 52 EU needs to be able to offer functional economic and community integration before allowing an extended entry of third country nationals. Community integration is needed to meet the higher labour migration intake from outside of EU. According to Münz and fellow researchers, many European countries have to be regarded as pro-migration countries already in 2010 to be able to meet the new demands of economic and demographical developments Labour Immigration to Sweden Sweden has traditionally been supportive towards labour immigration from countries outside Europe. However, during the last decades this migration pattern has followed a new path. Since Sweden entered the European Union in 1994, the Swedish labour market has been open for EU nationals. 54 The ability of nationals from countries outside the Union to enter Sweden for labour purposes has been restricted and work permits have only been granted during specific circumstances. 55 As Sweden in November 2008 ratified 50 Supra. P Supra. P COM (2003) 336 final:17, Ekberg, Jan (2006) Immigration to the Welfare State. Is it a Burden or a Contribution? The Case of Sweden Centre for Labour Market Policy, Research (CAFO), AMID Working Paper Series 48/2006, Växjö University , P Müntz. P Ekenger & Wallen 2002:9 55 Supra.

20 20 the Lisbon Treaty, common agreements on how to handle labour immigration from third countries will, like in other EU member states, be implemented from EU standards to the national politics. In order to follow EU directives, the Swedish Government adopted in 1994 the principle of preference of employment opportunities for people already residing in the European Union and EEA. This principle was confirmed in the treaties of Accession in April 2003, and has ever since been referred to as the principle of community preference. 56 An individual who is an EU/EEA-citizen or a citizen from a Nordic country or Switzerland does not have to apply for a work permit in order to be able to work in Sweden. 57 The principle of community preference requires EU employers to offer a vacant employment to EU citizens before the employer extends the recruitment process to include citizens of third countries. If there is a temporary need of workers within a certain occupation, and if no such workers can be found in Sweden or the rest of EU/EEA, people from other countries may apply for a temporary or permanent work permit. The application by third country nationals should be handed in and a work permit should have been granted before entering Sweden. 58 The work permits are not restricted to a certain occupation or to a specific employer, but instead fixed to a predetermined branch for a specific amount of time where workforce is needed. 59 Different categories of labour contracts exist: temporary work permits based on labour shortages, temporary permits based on seasonal work or international exchange and temporary and permanent residence permits as a result of labour market demands. 60 In 2007, the Labour Market Board (AMS) 61 decided that no more quotas for seasonal workers would be released and work permits for seasonal jobs would not be commonly granted anymore. The decision was based on a prediction of an increased labour mobility between the countries within EU. The anticipation was that a temporary European labour 56 SOU 2006:87: 20,21,38 57 Government Offices of Sweden, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The Swedish Aliens Act (Utlänningslag, UtlL Utlänningsförordning, UtlF.) SFS 2005: , 2 ch 8 UtlL, 5 ch 1 UtlF. 58 Supra. 6 ch 4 UtlL 59 Supra. 6 ch 1 UtlL 60 SOU 2006:87:37 61 The first of January 2008, the new state agency AF was formed, and AMS and AMV were closed down. The Swedish Law Proposal 2007/08:147:16

21 21 force would solve the need of seasonal workers and that seasonal workers from third countries thus would be unnecessary. 62 The demographical changes Sweden is currently facing have a crucial impact on the labour market. 63 The large cohorts born in 1940s are becoming older and the ageing population will result in vacancies on the labour market. Sweden is facing a demand of a new labour force and the companies demand high-skilled personnel who can contribute to the country s economical development. 64 The government has in agreement with other authorities, been requesting a change of the Swedish legislations regulating labour immigration from third countries. In 2008, the Swedish Government presented a proposal of changes in the laws concerning labour immigration to Sweden. The proposal was ratified on the 15 th of December The new regulation will enable employers to more easily recruit workers from outside the European Union, EEA and Switzerland. 65 The law changes still encourage employers to regard labour immigration as a final option, if the labour demand can not be met with national resources or resources from the Union. However, the intention of the new law is to provide the employers an increased opportunity of selecting workers with the specific competence and skills they request Recruitment Process of non EU/EEA Nationals Before the 2 nd of July 2007, employers were obliged to announce a vacant workplace to AF for national as well as international recruitment purposes. 66 If the vacancy had been announced to AF, the job offer was automatically released on EURES s webpage. 67 Still, EURES is a European network of employment services and in Sweden the EURES department is part of AF. EURES departments are placed in all member states and the EURES-advisers main task is to inform and assist employers and employees on the 62 The Swedish Law Proposal 2007/08:147:18 63 SOU 2005:50:33 64 Confederation of Swedish Enterprise 2008:13, Billström, Tobias (2008) Behöver Sverige invandrad Arbetskraft. The Swedish Government P.3 65 Workpermit.com (2008) Swedish government proposing changes for work permits The Swedish Law Proposal 2007/08:147:16 67 Supra.

22 22 European labour market. The job vacancy will by this web portal be available for all members of the EU/EEA and to the citizens of Switzerland. 68 To increase the independency of the employers to handle their own recruitment process, it has since the law change of July 2007 no longer been compulsory for companies to report job vacancies when they are looking for employees within Sweden or the EU/EEA. The organization of the recruitment process of EU nationals have since July 2007 been determined by the employers. The employers have the opportunity to choose if they want to take use of AF s webpage but they may also use other ways of recruitment. According to statistics encountered by the Migration Board, the number of Swedish temporary work permits based on labour market demands issued for third country nationals have decreased significantly during the last couple of years (see pg. 26 table 4.2.4). 69 One reason for the decline of the number of permits is stated to be the increased mobility within EU, as EU nationals do not need to apply for a work permit in order to obtain an employment in another member state. The statistics show that between and temporary work permits have been issued yearly during the years of 2000 to Agency-based Labour Market Consideration Prior to the law change of the 15 th of December , AF has been responsible for conducting labour market considerations and announcing current labour demands. 71 The main purpose of the agency-based labour market consideration has been to make sure that the principle of community preference has been taken into account, as well as to perform a control of the employment standards. 72 One way to assess that the principle of community preference is taken into consideration when recruiting labour from third countries has, prior to the 15 th of December 2008, been the obligation of the employer to announce the job vacancy to AF s and EURES s web portal. If the employer has reported the vacancy, and it has been available for employees in Sweden and the rest of EU 68 The Swedish Law Proposal 2007/08:147:36 69 Ekonomifakta (2008) Tidsbegränsad Arbetskraftsinvandring The law changes will be presented in detail below 71 SOU 2006:87:46 72 Supra.

23 23 (through EURES) for a minimum of 10 days and no employee matched the qualifications demanded, the option of recruiting labour from outside the Union has been given. 73 Swedish labour unions have previously had the main responsibility of assuring to AF that the terms of employment of the company with an expressed demand of employing labour immigrants, are equal to or better than those set out in Swedish collective bargaining agreements, or what is considered as standard practice in a particular industry. 74 The labour unions have also been allowed to make a stand of whether they believe it is necessary to recruit workers from outside the union or if there are employees with the demanded competence inside Sweden or the rest of EU. When the labour market consideration has been performed, and the standards of employment are set, a decision of whether a work permit will be granted or not will be taken. If AF has reached the conclusion that an individual from a third country is needed to fill the available position, the employer may start the search for employees outside EU. Sometimes the employer already had presented a specific candidate from a third country before AF performed the labour market consideration. If that has been the case, the employer is allowed to contact the selected candidate and offer him/her the employment after the employer has gained support from AF. 75 When the applicant has been announced, the job-application is sent to the Swedish Migration Board. The basic conditions for a labour migrant to be granted a work permit include an employment which pays enough to support the individual. The individual must also have solved residential issues before immigrating to Sweden. The Migration Board is in charge of evaluating the application and make sure no crime records of the individual can be found. 76 The Migration Board takes the final decision of granting a work permit. 73 The Swedish Law Proposal 2007/08:147:17 74 The Local, Sweden s News in English (2008) Government presents new labour immigration rules , 13 ch 14 UtlL, 5 ch 7 UtlF 75 The Swedish law Proposal 2007/08:147:17 76 The Swedish Law Proposal 2007/08:147:34

24 The Swedish Law Proposal: 2007/08:147 The Confederation of Swedish Enterprise conducted a study between September and December 2007 to investigate the recruitment process at Swedish companies with more than five employees. 77 The majority of the companies expressed difficulties of finding the right competence that matched the supplied work tasks. In order to solve the problems the companies requested workers with better education and they expressed a demand of an increased mobility of the labour market. 78 The study also showed a decrease among the Swedish employers of using the services of AF in the recruitment process. 79 An explanation to this finding may be traced back to the law change of 2007, which stated that the companies no longer are obliged to report employment vacancies to AF when recruiting manpower within EU. 80 In order to make it easier for Swedish companies to recruit workers from countries outside the European Union, the Swedish Government proposed changes to the previous laws and regulations controlling labour migration. 81 The major implication of this new law, ratified on the 15 th of December 2008, is the increased opportunity of the employers to satisfy the supply of their own labour demand. The new directives enable the employers to more independently decide if there is a need to recruit personnel from a country outside EU for a certain position. The employers are regarded as the experts within their branch and should thus be able to take a decision if it will be necessary to recruit workers from a third country. 82 The final decision of whether a work permit will be granted to a third country national or not, will be taken by the Migration Board. The Swedish Migration board will be in charge of controlling that the employer has respected the principles of community preference. 83 The employer will have different options of prooving for the Migration Board that the principles of community preferences are taken into account. One option is still to report the job vaccancy to the web page of AF and automatically also to EURES. 84 Hence, the employer is given the opportunity to independently make use of other methods of recruiting workers. The employer will be 77 Supra. P.2 78 Supra. P.4 79 Supra. P.5 80 The Swedish Law Proposal 2007/08:147:36 81 SOU 2006:87:36 82 The Swedish Law Proposal 2007/08:147:26 83 Supra. P Supra.

25 25 responsible of following Swedish labour agreements and has to give the labour unions an option of making a statement of the employment conditions. If the Migration Board does not receive a statement regarding the employment conditions it is their responsibility to make sure the employer follow Swedish national standards of employment. 85 Another change of the law is to prolong the work permit from 18 to 24 months. Once the 24 months have passed, the employer can propose an extension of the permit of 6 months at a time, however the maximum extension of a temporary work permit will be a total of 4 years (including the initial 24 months). The temporary work permit will be fixed to a specific employer and a certain branch during the first 2 years in Sweden. If the original employment terminates prior to the agreed time, the third counrty immigrant has the same opportunities as an immigrant from EU to reside in Sweden for three months to apply for a new job. 86 According to the new law, neither a particular state agency nor the employer is responsible for announcing to the Migration Board that the employment has been terminated in advance. 87 The Swedish Government has also proposed changes to the job-seeker visas, which are granted for third country nationals that arrive to Sweden for job interviews. 88 This ground of issuing visas gives the opportunity for individuals to stay in Sweden in order to establish contact with Swedish employers for a time period of 3 months. The traditional rules of visa application will apply, in order to be granted a job-seeker visa one has to apply for a job within a specific branch which has requested workforce. Conditions for job-seeker visas should be established in the visa guidelines and the information should be available for all countries. The Swedish Migration Board directorate will in consultation with AF, establish a list of branches where workforce is needed. A third country national who resides in Sweden on a job-seeker visa does not have to leave the country in order to apply for a specific job which has expressed a need of workforce. According to the Migration Board, an estimated number of applications will be accounted for by the new law during (to be compared with approximately issued applications in 2007, cf. table pg. 26). 85 Supra. P Supra. P Hanson, Matilda E. (2008) Lång väg för att få arbeta vitt i Sverige. Dagens Nyheter , P.6 88 The Swedish Law Proposal 2007/08:147:52 89 Supra.