Projects with keyword Segmentation
Active projects
Negotiated Mobility and Belonging
An increasing share of Sweden’s foreign-born population is living in small towns and rural areas. Many of these immigrants are young, and many are recently arrived during the 2015 refugee reception that made rural areas into immigration destinations through dispersal policies. At the same time, there is also a general trend of rural emigration, particularly among young people who are drawn to the education and labour market opportunities of larger cities. Young people in rural areas, and immigrant youth in particular, are therefore confronted with conflicting norms and institutional opportunities and constraints to leave or stay, making their transitions to adulthood into negotiations of mobility and belonging. Against this background, the project will explore how spatial and social mobility intersect during transitions to adulthood among young adults in Swedish rural municipalities characterized by transnational immigration and internal out-migration. To do this, the project will combine a quantitative survey where young adults are asked about their mobility trajectories so far, and in-depth qualitative interviews and ethnographic observations. Through the project’s focus on a context where mobility and belonging is always contested, and by applying an innovative theoretical framework that combines mobilities and careership theory, the project will destabilize sedentariness as a norm and contribute to a deeper understanding of migration and integration processes.
Finished Projects
Mobility does not end at the border:
In Germany and Sweden, portrayed as symbols of hospitality in 2015, politicians and policymakers have since then advocated efficiency and order in refugee reception. New infrastructures and spatial strategies are designed in order to better manage the mobility of newly arrived refugees, for instance through the implementation of arrival centres, refined screenings and mobility predictions in Germany, which is mirrored in recent policy suggestions for Sweden. This project asks whether this development can be understood as a logistification of migration: making the mobility of refugees compliant to needs and resources of national and local communities and labour markets through the art and science of logistics. Through interviews with German experts, policymakers and stakeholders, and ethnographic attention to everyday practices of policy design and coordination, I examine how arrival centres have been implemented as logistical hubs. Inspired by emerging literature on critical logistics the project will contribute with important perspectives on inconsistencies, vulnerabilities and unintended consequences of the logistic imagination of circulation and mobility as governable. Research
Informalisation, labour migrants and irregular migrants
Studies of migrant labour in the Swedish labour market have generally focused on those having received permanent residence permission as refugees or through family re-unification legislation. This mirrors a situation in which labour migration has been quite restrictive in Sweden. Starting with a new labour migration reform in 2008, this is dramatically changing.
The aim is to study the situation of labour migrants and irregular migrants in the labour market and their understanding of collective action, as (migrant) workers. In addition the project aims at studying the employers, especially the reason for employing these two categories of migrant workers.
Civil Societies Organisations and Educational Achievements
Young people from lower socio-economic strata living in marginalized urban areas have substantially more difficulties in school. This project aims to study if and how participation in civil society organizations may improve this situation. The research questions of the project are: 1) Young people in marginalised urban areas are active in which kinds of civil society organisations? 2) Through which processes does membership in civil society associations affect educational achievements of young people in school? 3) How does the impact of membership vary in terms of the educational outcomes of young people, taking account of issues such as gender, class and ethnic background? 4) To what extent does participation in civil society organisations restrict the freedom and mobility of young people and do such restrictions differ based on gender, class and ethnic background?
The answers will help us to grasp the significance of civil society organizations for young people?s educational achievements, and in continuation their labour market entry, and used in general educational policies, and to improve the situation for young people living in marginalized urban areas.
Managing transnational work in Sweden
This project aims at investigating shifting migration regimes and how employment and labor differentiates categories of migrants in Sweden. Relations between employers and migrants become increasingly crucial for opportunities and restraints in migrant life situations in systems of managed migration. Employers also become engaged in global economic relations and at the same time negotiate the relations between the nation and the migrant workers.
Social Inclusion, Qualified Jobs and the ICT Labor Market
Jonathan Feldman, Guest Lecturer
The project investigates the conditions under which persons with different kinds of immigrant backgrounds get qualified jobs. I examine one firm in the ICT sector in Kista Science City. I show how different kinds of persons get different kinds of jobs. The assignment of jobs relates to the background of the employee, the opportunity structures and various structural relations related to gender, class and ethnicity. I show how persons with immigrant backgrounds can get good jobs and compare women and men and persons without immigrant backgrounds to those with different kinds of immigrant background.
Social Networks in Informal Recruitment Practices
In Sweden, 60-85% of all jobs are appointed through informal recruitment. The research has to a lesser extent focused on differences in the outcomes of different social networks with regard to ethnicity, gender and class. Questions about how information and recommendations are communicated within the social networks have rarely been studied. The project focuses on the relationship between the applicants and the information mediators perceived scope of action in strategies of network recruitment. What considerations are made when seeking job, and when recommending through social networks? What careers develop through recruiting via social networks and how these are affected by individuals’ social background?
The study is theoretically grounded in research emphasizing networks and social capital in recruitment, with an interactionist perspective. Three sub-studies analyze links between qualifications and work: The sample is composed of both low-and high-skilled people in jobs with both low and high qualifications as well as Swedish and foreign-born men and women. Semi-structured interviews and so-called network map are the main methods.
Informal economy
The aim of this project is to critically review the actual concepts on informal economy, and its relation to structural changes of the labour market, and migration. The project also has an ambition to highlight the borderline between formal and informal economy, and to develop a theoretical framework, suitable for empirical research on informal economy in its relation to the re-commodification of labour and migration.