Response to interpellation 2023/24:421 on the establishment of foreign-born women in the labor market
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
L considers the promotion of the establishment of foreign-born women in the labor market to be a priority issue 1. L emphasizes that the Swedish language and education are crucial for entering society 2 3, and that individuals must take personal responsibility 2. L argues that opportunities must be combined with requirements 4 and that Arbetsförmedlingen should focus on vulnerable women 4. L considers it most effective for people to learn Swedish and receive a basic education 3. L considers that there are valuable proposals in the investigation on education 3 and that a new investigation on a Sweden course is necessary 3. S considers that the government is pursuing a policy that leads to division and that the proposals would provide societal benefits 5. S argues that it is more effective to implement the investigation's proposals as quickly as possible 6.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Arbetsmarknads- och integrationsministern Johan Pehrson (L)
Mr. Speaker! Sofia Amloh has asked me if I intend to take any initiatives in light of the proposals that have emerged in the sub-report Establishment for more - equal opportunities for integration.
Promoting the establishment of foreign-born women in the labor market is a priority for the government. Far too many foreign-born people, especially women, stand far from the labor market and thus lack a real opportunity for freedom, to independently shape their lives and participate in society. This has consequences not only for the individual woman but also for her family and, in the long run, for society as a whole. People who come to Sweden should not get stuck in unemployment and long-term dependence on social assistance or other benefits. In order for us to reach that, the work line needs to be strengthened and requirements to participate in activities that lead to jobs must be clarified. Good knowledge of the Swedish language is an important prerequisite for the opportunity to establish oneself in society and in the labor market.
The Government has received the partial report Establishment for more - equal opportunities for integration and, after having sent it for consultation, has also received consultation responses. Preparation of the partial report and the consultation bodies' responses is currently ongoing within the Government Offices. The Government will return with an announcement regarding how the partial report's proposals will be handled.
Sofia Amloh (S)
Mr. Speaker! The background to why I have submitted this interpellation and why we are having this debate today is that a large proportion of those who have been without work for more than 24 months are foreign-born women with a short educational background. It is about people who often want nothing more than to work but who need support to be able to enter employment. To break the segregation and increase equality, more foreign-born women need to enter employment, which gives them power and freedom over their own lives.
The social benefits of women entering the labor market are many. We see that exclusion is growing stronger and deeper. At the same time, this government is pursuing a policy that leads to more division, instead of building a society where we can live together and contribute to the common good. It is incomprehensible to me. It is contradictory of the government to act in this way right now.
Johan Pehrson has proposals on his table that the investigation has presented. The referral responses arrived in November, and many referral bodies state that they are positive. These are proposals that are very accurate and that would need to get started in practice and be implemented.
When we now received the list for 2024 that the Riksdag receives every year regarding which legislative proposals or political proposals the government intends to make during the current year, there is nothing concerning this – no proposals. It is indicated that one is not doing anything during 2024.
Mr. Speaker! My question to the Minister is: When will the announcement come regarding what you want to do? I am actually starting to wonder what this government and Johan Pehrson think about the proposals that the investigation has presented. Why is there nothing suggesting that you want to do anything in this area?
Arbetsmarknads- och integrationsministern Johan Pehrson (L)
Mr. Speaker! Integration is central. For people who have come to our country, regardless of whether one has come as a refugee or perhaps in the form of family migration – one has met someone in another country and come to Sweden – it is important when one comes to Sweden that one speaks Swedish. It is important that we have goals to ensure that people do this quickly.
People have had the power to come to Sweden, but then a tedious message arrives: Here we must learn Swedish. It is a very difficult language, if one is not born with it. Of course, no one can speak it from the beginning, but we who are born into it learn it when we are a year old, or earlier, when we start saying mama and papa.
It is very important, but it is difficult. However, we cannot give any other message than that the Swedish language is absolutely crucial for one to enter society even in other ways and that one understands Swedish laws and rules on equality. If one comes from another country to Sweden, it is not okay to say that the man decides. We have equality in Sweden.
All this is met by the government now with clear demands. In Sweden, we step up, but in Sweden, we set demands. It is no harder than that, but sometimes it becomes difficult when one speaks of demands. We have demands in Swedish, and we are now reworking the entire Sweden course. If one does not participate, one should be able to lose their compensation. There shall be tests, and in the long run, it is Skolverket that is responsible.
It is very important that one receives a good introduction, regardless of whether one is a man or a woman. We know that women are most vulnerable. Women do not always have the same conditions for equality as Sofia Amloh or any other Member of Parliament or any woman we meet on Drottninggatan when we leave the Riksdag; instead, many women have it difficult. Then we must work with equality, and therefore, Mr. Speaker, we work with goals.
The integration policy goals that we have today, Mr. Speaker, are very good and fine, but I inherited them from the Social Democrats. It is equal rights, responsibilities, and opportunities for everyone regardless of ethnic or cultural background. It is very good - no one can be against that - but one must see how it goes with the language. This must be measured.
How is it going with the labor market establishment? How is it going with that which is so important when one enters society, such as participating in democratic processes? How is it going with the ability to take responsibility for one's own life? No one other than the human being themselves can do that. As a Liberal, I believe in the human being and in that the human being has an enormous power. If one receives help and we provide it, but also set requirements, one can manage it, and we are therefore working on restructuring the integration policy goals.
One issue where we are very doubtful concerns the establishment. We are looking at the question of how the compensation should look so that people truly participate in the establishment fully, otherwise it is wasted time. I want people to enter society as soon as possible, and this applies to both men and women.
We are working on Sverigekursen, and we are working with the goals. We are also working with the investigation, and a good deal of that is very good. People who have come to our country but who perhaps do not have refugee status shall also receive support to enter. Everyone can, however, completely voluntarily pick up any book and learn Swedish. It is difficult, but Sfi is there. Sfi is also very demanding, but there is no alternative.
Sofia Amloh (S)
Mr. Speaker! When I ask the Minister a question about what he wants to do with the concrete proposals in the investigation, the Minister responds by starting to talk about the national goals and the goal formulations that he wants to do something with.
At the same time, the Minister takes every opportunity he can to criticize us Social Democrats for having problems governing when we are in power. Then I begin to seriously wonder what the Minister means.
One has removed the establishment of foreign-born women from the regulatory letters, but at the same time, one does nothing in this area. One does not begin to take into account, answer or submit proposals in the area, but the answer from the government is language, requirements and opportunities. Yes, we say, absolutely! The government knows that we Social Democrats also say this.
My question to the Minister today concerns the fact that there are proposals on the table for a more ambitious, more individually tailored establishment program. It has been investigated, submitted, and referred; it is positive and would also play a huge role in ensuring that the entire labor market is characterized by what comes out of the investigation.
I think it is appropriate that the Minister answers the questions. Why is nothing being done? Why do we not have this on the Riksdag's table? If one now wants to work with integration and getting women into work, as the Minister speaks so warmly about here, is it not time to move from words to action?
I think it is high time for the Minister to prove that everything he says is legitimate and that he means it. Furthermore, these are not proposals for the largest or most expensive reforms we can see. There are more expensive reforms than these, and there are less accurate reforms than what is proposed here.
I therefore have a question. I understand that the government thinks we Social Democrats are difficult when we push for more foreign-born women to try to establish themselves, come in, create power over their own lives and get the prerequisites. The government's answer is to start talking about requirements. Absolutely! But if one is not given any prerequisites to live up to the requirements, locking effects are created that only result in societal losses, nothing else.
Implementing the proposals only yields societal benefits. It is time to put them on the table. Where are the proposals, and what does the Minister think of the commission's proposal for a more ambitious, individually tailored establishment program?
Arbetsmarknads- och integrationsministern Johan Pehrson (L)
Mr. Speaker! The very simple answer to Sofia Amloh's question is that it is being prepared. The Riksdag has a fantastic oversight possibility and can every day ask the question why the proposal is not coming. This is the Riksdag's oversight task, which is fantastically important, but if I can only give the message right now that it is being prepared, I must also be able to point out that we now have requirements that people shall learn Swedish in Sweden. Then Sofia Amloh says: But we social democrats think so too.
I don't like anything about the Social Democrats, except perhaps that it is very different to now say that one is for the Swedish language, when one has not been for it or pushed for it during the years one has governed, before coming into opposition. Then one was against it, but now one is suddenly completely for the Swedish language. Then I just say that it is a bit different, but that I welcome it.
I also welcome that Sofia Amloh raises the issue of lock-in effects. These are due to the fact that one does not combine opportunities and personal responsibility well enough. Individuals can only take responsibility for their own lives. There may be individuals who think that Sofia Amloh or the Socialdemokraterna should take responsibility for their lives. It is absolutely not the Liberalernas or Johan Pehrsons opinion, and it is not the government's opinion.
People must be given good opportunities, but they must themselves actively contribute and themselves step up when society provides the opportunities that exist. It is, however, correct that many women in Sweden are long-term unemployed today, and there, Arbetsförmedlingen has a primary task, it says.
We in the Liberals, however, make no distinction between people. Regardless of why one is long-term unemployed, who one is, or how far away from the labor market one stands, one must receive help, and it is the Arbetsförmedlingen that must focus very carefully on this. It is their mission to focus on the very vulnerable women who may have been born in another country and come to Sweden.
There we can provide subsidized employment or various forms of shorter training, but they often require that one can speak Swedish and has a basic education. Therefore, komvux and sfi are also central here – an sfi that is of higher quality and that can much more clearly set requirements on a flow of people. This is what we are working on.
When it comes to the questions that Sofia Amloh has and which are completely reasonable, I can say nothing other than that they are being addressed, but if I am to answer this all the time, the debate will become very short, Mr. Speaker.
Sofia Amloh (S)
Mr. Speaker! I note that the Minister has a different attitude toward this than he had when we debated before Christmas. At that time, the wording was much more positive, and the Minister spoke more about the proposals that are on the table.
Now I notice that the Minister is more distancing himself, keeping away from these proposals and cannot answer the question of approximately when this can come and what is being prepared in the Government Offices. There is nothing about this on the list of bills, reforms, and political proposals to be presented during the whole of 2024. The direction towards this has been removed in the regulatory letters. I see that one chooses to distance oneself from this and says that it is being prepared.
My question is: What is it that is being prepared? When one does not announce that this will be done in 2024, at what point in time can we expect some answer as to what is being prepared? When will something come? Is it all the proposals in this investigation, or is it parts of the proposals in the investigation? Is it any of the proposals in the investigation that are being prepared? The Minister of State has actually not answered that yet.
I know that the Minister often says, in this chamber and in many other places, that an effective labor market policy and an effective labor market are important. I actually do not know what is more effective than implementing these proposals as quickly as possible. Johan Pehrson has every opportunity in the world to put this on the Riksdag's table any day. Why is that not being done?
Arbetsmarknads- och integrationsministern Johan Pehrson (L)
Mr. Speaker! The most effective thing we can do is, as I have said earlier during the debate, to ensure that people learn Swedish and receive a basic education. Regardless of who one is, regardless of where one comes from, regardless of gender, regardless of how one has lived their life and how one intends to live their life, it is important that one has knowledge of Swedish. It is very special that we are talking about knowledge of Swedish now, as Lars Leijonborg is entering the chamber. He is a former member of the Swedish Riksdag, and he has also spoken a lot about knowledge of Sweden. But he heard some other words about it from the Social Democrats at that time.
But I note that the Social Democrats have changed their minds. One is never worse off than by being able to change one's mind. That is very good.
We must start there and not believe that any other policy can do anything other than support people in entering the labor market in different ways. There are valuable proposals there that are important. But it is always about Swedish and about education. There are proposals in the investigation that concern more people participating in education and more people learning both Swedish and obtaining basic knowledge. We will utilize those in different ways. But I want to emphasize that there is no other way than the Swedish language and education. It is integration policy for everyone, regardless of where one comes from.
We also add the investigation that is now to be initiated regarding a Sweden course, so that one understands Swedish society and its fundamental values regarding equality and the right to religion and the right from religion, so that it will be easier for people who have come to Sweden to live here together with us and build Sweden together with all of us others. I will actually present it this afternoon.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.