Every third graduate who immigrated has a profession that does not match their education at all.
This is shown by a new report from the trade union Saco. Alona Burda from Ukraine is a trained lawyer, but now works in home care.
– I have buried five years of my life. Just throw it in the trash, she says.
Alona Burda from Ukraine is a trained lawyer, but since she came to Sweden in 2016 she has worked in home care. She has not benefited from her legal education.
– I have buried five years of my life. Just throw it in the trash. Nothing else, says Alona Burda.
And she is far from alone. At least 60,000 people have a foreign university education that is not taken advantage of in Sweden. This is shown by new figures from the trade union Saco.
– It feels terrible. It feels hopeless. That you lose hope. It’s nothing that you look forward to, says Alona Burda.
Extended mission for the Employment Agency
Of the graduates who immigrated, 32 percent have a profession that does not match their education at all, according to Saco’s new report. This can be compared with 9 percent for graduates born in Denmark. The biggest problem is in law, journalism and economics.
– I think this is very serious. For the individual, it is of course often a worse wage trend. For employers, it is pointed out that you cannot expand because you cannot get hold of the right people. And for society, it is a waste of resources, says Göran Arrius, chairman of Saco.
And now Saco is demanding that the government give Arbetsförmedlingen an expanded mission, so that it will make its efforts available to graduates who are working but who do not have a job that corresponds to their level of education.
Johan Pehrson: “What work is not your main focus”
But Labor Market and Integration Minister Johan Pehrson (L) believes that this work is already taking place.
– We work in constant dialogue with the Employment Agency, which works to ensure that people get work. Then what kind of work you have is not their main focus, but they have been given a mission which is very important to ensure that several graduates with a foreign background get into the right work roughly with what they are trained for, says Johan Pehrson.
For Alona Burda, the job in healthcare has been tough but rewarding. But now she thirsts for more and it is to law that she wants to return.
– I dream of getting a job that is at least close to my education. Because this is what I’m passionate about, says Alona Burda.