A Bank wants to break the pattern of racial discrimination in the Swedish job market Seek to recruit more foreign graduates that the current norm
Wednesday, 24 July 2013
It takes something to the neighbourhood of five to seven years before a
graduate with a non-Swedish background (skin colour) can attempt to get
access to real employment in the Swedish job market. However, for a
white Swedish born Swede it take just a few months. This is
institutional racism, which has become the norms of the Swedish jobs
market but a Swedish bank, Swedbank is attempting to break the pattern
and start increasing the recruitment of groups not very much
represented in their places of work.
We have been reporting about the discriminatory nature and the racial
profiling of the Swedish jobs market for the three years of existence
of this network. We have cried and asked the question if there is a
dream in Sweden for any professional properly educated and trained in
Sweden but who unfortunately, has been designed by nature to contain a
different skin colour.
Job seekers in Sweden image: Scancomark.com
Look in various public places in Sweden and is you happen to come from the UK, USA, Canada, or even Denmark or Norway you will be shocked to find that in Sweden skin colour plays a leading role in obtaining a job.
However, we don’t know whether our reporting might has contributed
to an eye opener of the Swedbank which has now launched a program to
give non Swedish born a shot in career. This is even though more
attractive to skin colour profiling as, still, a white
Eastern European recent immigrants are more favoured than the darker
skinned Africans who have been living in the country for longer.
The Swedish daily, Dagens Nyehter reports that one of the candidates is
29-year-old Anna Szymik who comes from Poland. He became Swedish
through marrying a Swedish man and moved here 3.5 years ago. She
has an MBA and a master’s degree in finance and investment. In her
native country, she worked in a bank as an advisor and analyst but with
the move to Sweden, she became unemployed.
“In the beginning I focused very much on language training. I read both
SFI (in short for Swedish for Immigrants) and an intensive course in
Swedish for foreign graduates through the city,” she says in almost
perfect Swedish to the paper.
Anna Szymik tells how it has been difficult with the jobs market. She
has searched days but has rarely been called for an interview. She says
it is sometimes she has no answer for, and which has pushed her to
depression with the strong consideration of returning Poland. This will
of course destroy her marriage.
The paper reports that in a briefing on the Employment Service office
at Hötorget Anna found an advertisement about an opportunity to
practice at Swedbank. She submitted an application, got an interview,
and now has a fixed-term contract in for the back in Stockholm.
Patricia Kempff responsible for employment, education, and inclusion at
Swedbank told the Dagens Nyheter that the bank through a partnership
with the employment office has recruited foreign academics since 2011.
A total of 50 people received internship and practice and in 60 percent
of cases resulted in some form of employment.
“There are 36,000 unemployed foreign-born graduates in Sweden. We do not want to miss this expertise,” she says to the paper.
A qualitative study carried out by the workers union Saco shows that
many foreign scholars in Sweden find it difficult to get information on
how to get into employment. The information they receive comes from
friends, acquaintances or internet and Saco mean that society can do
much more for their convenience.
In Sweden there are around 375,000 foreign-born graduates and the
number is increasing every year. Most people with higher education are
in the finance and technology sector.
Today about 36,000 foreign-born graduates are unemployed in Sweden.
Among those who have jobs, many are not working in their field of study.
On average, it takes 5-7 years for a foreign-born graduates to get a
job in Sweden, the workers Union, Saco said and fees that
foreign graduates are demanding better information on the Swedish
labour market.
They also want to have informal information, such as if Swedish coffee
break culture and the relationship between employees and managers.
By Scancomark.com Team
