Changing roles, emerging networks. Local governments as employer, procurer and entrepreneur in labour market integration

Work-integrating social enterprises (ASF) are a form of entrepreneurship that has grown in both number and popularity in recent years. An ASF is a company that conducts commercial activities but has as its overall goal to create work and participation and thereby integrate people into both work and society. An ASF thus has two business ideas: one to produce goods and services to sell, and the other to create social sustainability and integration through work. In this sub-project, we study how different ASFs work to integrate foreign-born by giving them work and meaningful employment, but also the municipality's important role to support ASF in various ways by buying goods, services and job training from these companies.

Local governments annually procure goods and services for very large values. In connection with these purchases, the local governments can, if and when they wish, impose employment-promoting demands on their suppliers or in other ways promote labour market integration through procurement. It is called social procurement (or sustainable procurement). In recent years, the use of social procurement has increased in Sweden and many other countries and new ways of working are continuously developed, including methods to stimulate employment for people who are outside the labor market. The national procurement agency has developed extensive support for employment-promoting procurement at the same time as the local governments are inspired and learn from each other in their efforts to make better use of the potential in procurement. In this sub-study, we explore a handful of local initiatives for social procurement where procurement organization and path choices differ. We are also studying how the initiatives are scaled up through municipal-wide collaboration and through the procurement authority newly established ambassador networks for employment-promoting procurement.

Local governments are often one of the larger employers within the municipality. In order to promote integration through employment, a strategy is therefore often to review who the Local government itself can employ, make employable or facilitate entry into the labour market. The question in this subproject is how. Through case studies, we answer the question and analyze various practical solutions, its consequences and possibilities. Cases we study are:

Dala Reconstruction depot (Återbyggdepå): Borlänge Energi has long worked at its waste recycling centers with labor market integration with good results. Through Återbyggdepå, they combine waste recycling and expand the work to also involve construction waste and construction actors, a large waste stream that is involved here in waste prevention. Secondly, labor market integration by employing people in need of help entering the labor market.

Västra Hisingen We follow three cases on Västra Hisingen: Advisory board, which, based on the district's territories, brings together private, civil society and public actors to enrich, develop and integrate the district. Since 2020, the districts are no longer administrative units in Gothenburg, but the work continues.

Gislaved: Since 2020, vocational adult education, SFI, adult and vocational education and financial assistance have been merged in Gislaved. The basic idea for the organization is to gather responsibility and to be able to meet the different needs of individuals in a more coordinated manner. We follow how the practice develops from the idea to the practice.

Umeå: Umeå successfully organizes social procurement, which we study in the subproject social procurement. As part of that work, the municipality made a study of themselves, which they themselves can employ, how the work can be developed. From that study onwards, we follow the work.

We explore the policy developments in Northern European welfare states in the wake of the refugee crisis of the mid 2010s. We describe and compare how Denmark, Sweden, Germany and the Netherlands have reformed their integration programmes and policies during this period. We do this with the aim of analysing differences and similarities in the national policy responses as well as discussing potential lessons to be learned between countries. We utilize two conceptual approaches for categorising and analysing the policies in each of the countries. First, we classify the policies in terms of their focus on either the supply side, the demand side, or the matching side (the employment services). Then, we apply the terminology of carrots, sticks and sermons to the policies in order for us to assess whether the national approaches differ in terms of their use of positive incentives, negative incentives and persuasion.  We find that national policies developments have been strikingly similar across countries, although with minor differences.

2022
Olsson, Amelia, Emma Ek Österberg and Patrik Zapata (2023) Local integration practices in a changing policy context, Uppsala Multidisciplinary Conference on Migration and Integration

Ek Österberg, Emma, Maria Norbäck, Patrik Zapata och María José Zapata Campos (2022) Local government as employer, procurer, and entrepreneur in labour market integration, School of Public Administration working paper series no. 35

Gillberg, Nanna, Emma Ek Österberg och Patrik Zapata (2022) Utbildningspliktens praktik – Västra Götaland, Förvaltningshögskolans rapporter nr 164

Norbäck, Maria & Maria Jose Zapata Campos (2022) The market made us do it: Public procurement and collaborative labour market inclusion governance from below, Social Policy & Administration, DOI: 10.1111/spol.12787 

Ek Österberg, Emma & Martin Qvist (2022). Meta-governance as partial organization. Administration theory and praxis (online first)

Ek Österberg, E & Rehnberg, H. S. (2022). ”Goda exempel som redskap i styrning”. I: Ivarsson-Westerberg, A och Jacobsson, B (red.). Förvaltningen i samhället. Lund: Studentlitteratur.

Ravn, Rasmus, Ek Österberg, Emma & Thomsen, Trine (2022, forthcoming). Labour market policies and refugees – The case of Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands and Germany. In: Albrekt Larsen, Christian (Eds.) Migrants and Welfare States: Balancing Dilemmas in Northern Europe. Edward Elgar

2021
Ek Österberg, Emma, Maria Norbäck, Patrik Zapata och María José Zapata Campos (2021) Kommunen som upphandlare, entreprenör och arbetsgivare i arbetsmarknadsintegration av utrikesfödda. Förvaltningshögskolans rapporter 161. Förvaltningshögskolan, GU

Ek Österberg, Emma (2020). Att styra med upphandling – staten som marknadsaktör. I: Peter Ehn & Göran Sundström (red.). Statlig förvaltningspolitik för 2020-talet. En forskningsantologi. Statskontorets rapportserie Om offentlig sektor.

2020
Ek Österberg, Emma (2020). Att styra med upphandling – staten som marknadsaktör. I: Peter Ehn & Göran Sundström(red.). Statlig förvaltningspolitik för 2020-talet. En forskningsantologi. Statskontorets rapportserie Om offentlig sektor.

From December 2021 to June 2022, we carry out, on behalf of the County Administrative Board of Västra Götaland, a study on Compulsory education. The Compulsory education was introduced on 1 January 2018 and means that newly arrived immigrants with short education who are included in the establishment program must take part in educational activities if this is perceived as necessary by the Swedish Public Employment service (Arbetsförmedlingen) to become matchable in the long term. The municipalities provide the education that, according to rules that come into force in 2022, must be cohesive. Approximately half of all those entering the establishment program are judged to have a short education and are covered by the education obligation. How the work with the education obligation looks like in the municipalities, what efforts are given is largely under construction and how these work, varies between municipalities. The purpose of the study is to investigate how the municipalities in Västra Götaland work with the education obligation. Questions answered in the study are:
- What initiatives, and to what extent are newly arrived initiatives offered within the framework of the Compulsory education in Västra Götaland, and what is the quality of what is offered?
- How does the Swedish Public Employment Service define locally and regionally what can be included in the education obligation? 
- How do municipalities in the county locally define what can be included in the Compulsory education? 
- What success factors and suggestions for improvements emerge from the theoretical review and the empirical material?

What initiatives, and to what extent are newly arrived initiatives offered within the framework of the compulsory education in Västra Götaland, and what is the quality of what is offered?
How does the Swedish Public Employment Service define locally and regionally what can be included in the education obligation?
How do municipalities in the county locally define what can be included in the education obligation?
What success factors and suggestions for improvements emerge from the theoretical review and the empirical material?