Speech
Malmö 15 December 2009
Nyamko Sabuni, Minister for Integration and Gender Equality
Speech at the conference "Integration of New Arrivals - Incentives and Work in Focus"
Check against delivery.
Ministers, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Good morning and welcome to Malmö and to the Swedish Presidency's expert meeting on integration and the introduction of new arrivals.
There are two ways to describe migration and integration processes in Europe.
The first paints a picture of immigration that has contributed to European development - to diversity and competitiveness.
Immigration that has brought extra pairs of hands in health care - extra pairs of hands looking after our children and elderly people. Immigration
that has injected ideas that are the basis of some of Europe's successful companies.
Without migration, we would be poorer both economically and socially.
The second paints a picture of high levels of unemployment among immigrants. Inadequate language skills. The clash of cultures and traditions. Crime and general widespread exclusion.
We all remember the summer of 2001, when bloody riots broke out in several British cities, with reports of damage to the tune of EUR 10 million and hundreds of injured police officers.
We remember the violent confrontations between suburban youths and police in Paris in the autumn of 2005. Over a period of three weeks, more than 10 000 cars and 300 houses were set on fire.
In our cold Swedish climes, too, we have seen similar phenomena. In recent years, young people have set fire to cars and thrown stones at police officers, firefighters and paramedics.
Exclusion is obviously an explanation for these events. Methods and measures to overcome exclusion are the reason why we are here today - to look at what works and what does not.
A new programme for freedom, security and justice, known as the Stockholm Programme, has now been negotiated and adopted. This programme lays the foundation for a common EU asylum and migration policy, but also for more structured cooperation in the area of integration.
The conditions for integration vary from country to country, depending on whether new arrivals regularly speak the language used by the majority in society or not. Depending on whether they have a knowledge of the prevailing culture or not. Depending on whether they come as labour migrants or as refugees.
Integration policy must therefore primarily be a matter for the Member States - a matter of national competence.
But at the same time, we realise the need for cooperation in the form of experience exchange, comparable statistics and, not least, a system of indicators that enables us to measure the impact of different initiatives.
There is no one country that can be considered to have the perfect model for integration, but there are good examples from which to draw inspiration.
Mentorship activities in France and Germany, for example, have produced positive results. Performance-based compensation is used with positive results in Danish language centres.Portugal has become well known for its "one-stop shops", with all necessary services for newly arrived immigrants available under one roof.
The maintenance requirement for immigration of family members has had proven effects on labour market integration in the Netherlands.
Naturally, we cannot simply copy other Member States' policies. But we can draw inspiration in order to find solutions that suit our own country.
Over the last year, cooperation in the EU in the area of integration has primarily focused on producing proposals for indicators in a number of core areas: work, education, social inclusion and active citizenship, to name a few.
The results so far will be presented during tomorrow's session. The conference organised by Germany in June this year made an important contribution to this work. And after Sweden, Spain will take the work forward.
The theme for today is incentives and motivators as tools to improve the successful introduction of new arrivals into the labour market.
In Sweden, less than 30 per cent of all new arrivals have a job after three years in the country. The median time from receiving a residence permit to finding a job is seven years. That means that fifty per cent succeed in
finding a job within seven years, and the other fifty per cent not until at least seven years have passed.
I don't know how bad the situation is in the countries you represent, but I do know that this situation is not sustainable. This trend must be broken.
Two weeks ago, the Swedish Government adopted a bill for a reform to improve opportunities for new arrivals to find work more rapidly. The reform is based throughout on inbuilt incentives, with a focus on motivators for the individual and other actors to do their part from the
very start.
The reform involves the introduction of a uniform national system. The system is based on the needs and abilities of the individual, not what the municipality can offer in the form of support and measures.
We are introducing a benefit system that requires active participation on the part of the individual. Our statistics show that women are on the
receiving end of fewer actions, and that these are undertaken later than those for men. This has led to women entering the labour market much later. With this reform, we will promote gender equality.
To give new arrivals professional support in their introduction activities, and thus to accelerate entry into the labour market, a new actor - an "introduction guide" - will be introduced. Compensation to guides will be based on how successful they are in their task.
Social networks are necessary to the individual's introduction into the labour market. The majority of jobs are found not through the Public Employment Service, but through contacts. By including civil society
organisations and introducing a mentorship programme, we hope to speed up the introduction process.
In times of economic difficulty, there is always the risk that the crisis is used as an argument for reduced openness and mobility. Xenophobia increases and extreme parties throughout Europe make inroads into
parliaments and governments. The strategy employed by these parties to win votes is to paint immigration and immigrants as a threat.
The arguments seldom make sense. One day it's all about people who come here and take our jobs; the next day it's people who come over and live off our taxpayers' money. And the solution is always the same: throw
them out and close the borders.
But let us consider the following: at present, every 100 Europeans aged 15 to 64 are responsible for supporting 46 people, that is, children and elderly people. In 40 years' time, in 2050, the number that those 100 will be responsible for will have risen to 73, according to UN estimates.
Birth rates in Europe are low, and the average life expectancy is increasing. European is facing a demographic challenge to which we must find a solution. And in my view, there are two clear ways in which to resolve it.
The first is to increase women's participation in the labour market. Currently, only 60 per cent of Europe's women work. Despite the fact that women now have a higher level of education than men, there are not as many women as men in the labour market. And this is because there are still impediments to women's participation in working life - particularly difficulties combining work and family life.
At the same time, we can observe that women's increased activity rate over the last two decades has been the single most important driving force behind GDP growth in the richer parts of the world. Women's increased
participation in the labour market has been more significant for growth in the world than new technologies and the tiger economies of China and India combined.
The other solution to Europe's demographic challenges is immigration. But in this area we must become better at combining immigration with effective labour market integration.
Above and beyond its own selfish and economic reasons, Europe also has a moral duty to receive refugees - to offer protection and a life in safety for those who need it.
Just a stone's throw away from here, the UN Climate Conference is taking place. Many see the results of this conference as decisive for our future security and that of the generations to come.
We are accustomed to using polar bears and their situation as a symbol of climate change. But maybe it is about time to start using a poor woman cooking on wood and coal and dependent on the weather for her harvest as a symbol of climate change.
While migration today is predominantly about people being forced to leave their own countries due to war and oppression, it is likely that in the future environmental disasters will be one of the major reasons forcing
people to leave their own countries.
Climate change will affect future migration.
Integration is a dynamic and multi-faceted process. In order to succeed, efforts must be made by many more actors than just governments and EU
institutions.
An active role for civil society and its organisations is required. But it is also about a shift of perspective and a change of attitude towards new arrivals in Europe.
People who have packed their bags and left their own countries to seek a better future in a new country have already demonstrated enormous determination and drive. They would like nothing better than to work, to contribute, to do their part. Essentially, they have exactly the same needs as all of the rest of us who
live and work in Europe.
It was President Roosevelt who said those familiar words:
"This country will not be a good place for any of us to live in if it is not a reasonably good place for all of us to live in."
This sentiment should guide our policy. Our policy must be about fighting for the forgotten people - the most
vulnerable people! Those who, more than any others, need respect and solidarity.
I am deeply concerned about the rise of exclusion.
About the divide between those who contribute and feel needed, and those who could contribute but live on benefits.
I am concerned about the divisions between people who are proud of a life in which their strengths are utilised, and people who are degraded by a life in which this is denied to them.
I am concerned about the difference between those who are tired after a long day at work and those who are tired of not having a job to go to.
The EU Member States must make it possible for new arrivals to realise their dreams in life too.
Let us make sure that these coming days are fruitful and interesting, so as to contribute to the future work for better integration in the EU.
Thank you.
