The researchers have interviewed over 100 highly educated refugees.
Ioanna Blasko, doctoral student in cultural geography, believes that the long process to be allowed to work in the same profession takes a long time. This often leads to reduced motivation, but also to career setbacks.
– They often also feel pressure to have to take another job in order to stay in Sweden, she says.
Lack of information
The study shows that one of the biggest obstacles to the integration of highly qualified refugees in the labor market is a lack of up-to-date information about how they should go about working in the profession they are trained for.
They often do not receive sufficient information about, for example, validation requirements for working in Sweden, internships and courses in professional Swedish, say the researchers. They believe that case managers and career counselors should be tasked to a greater extent to help navigate the labor market.
– This results in some taking courses that they did not really need.
In the video you will hear more about the difficulties for highly educated refugees in getting a job.