From refugees to citizens

It is a major challenge for the Nordic countries to make it easier for refugees and their family members to enter the labour market. What are the key elements for a successful integration according to research and what are the obstacles for integration and how can these be overcome? What do the refugees say themselves?

The aim of this Nordic conference is to gather policy-makers, researchers and practitioners in the field to share good solutions. Strategies and policies will be illustrated by good practices regarding labour market integration.

The program

The day begins with an opening speech by Annica Dahl, State Secretary to the Minister for Employment and Integration. Anna Karlsdóttir, researcher at Nordregio, will then follow with a knowledge overview of how to speed up the labour market integration of refugees in the Nordic region.

Other speakers:

• Mai-Britt Haugaard Jeppesen and Shazia Mughal from Bydelsmødre, a Danish organisation that managed to break the isolation and motivate immigrant women to become active in society.

• Mohammed Al Nussirie, a pediatrician who came to Sweden as a refugee just over two years ago and is now working as a doctor in Stockholm.

• Mika Pyykkö, project manager at the Finnish Innovation Fund, will explain how Finland uses Social Impact Bonds to bring more refugees in to the labour market. We will also hear about Greve in Denmark, Gloppen in Norway and Sunne in Sweden, three municipalities who have proved successful in getting refugees into the labour market.

Moderator: Soledad Pinero Misa, who has a background as administrator at the Youth Democracy Commission, chairman of the Red Cross Refugee Center, director of Youth Against Racism and administrator at the Youth Democracy Commission.

We hope the seminar will inspire and facilitate dissemination among colleagues from all over the Nordic region.

Date: Wednesday, 8 November. 10:00 – 16:15, followed by a guided tour of the Moderna Museet. Program (in Swedish)

The seminar is full but you can follow the conference live at: http://facebook.com/nordensk/ 

The seminar is a collaboration between the Nordic welfare center, Nordregio and the Nordic Council of Ministers information office in Stockholm.