ALPHA. Demokratiskolan.se is a PROTOTYPE · Content review in progress
Demokratiskolan
The Integration card from MethodKit for Society and Politics
Card 41 of 128 · MethodKit for Society & Politics
  • AreaPeople & belonging
  • Centre of gravityCentral government
  • Points of influence3 on the journey
  • Decisive electionRiksdagsvalet
People & belonging

Integration

Introduction, inclusion, assimilation & integration

After the residence permit, the next journey begins: the language, the job, the housing and the sense of belonging. Central government sets the framework and the money for reception, but it is in the municipality that integration happens: in the sfi classroom, the school, the association sector and the neighbourhood.

Where does the power lie?1

  • Municipality · sfi, school & settlement · approx 40 %
  • Region · health & care contact · approx 5 %
  • State · laws, assignment & establishment · approx 50 %
  • EU · funds & coordination · approx 5 %

Central government sets the framework and pays, the municipality does the work. The general election shapes the system, the municipal election everyday life.

How it works: the breakdown

The municipalityIntegration in practice
The regionHealth & care
Central governmentThe system & the money · centre of gravity
Who decides?
The municipal council (kommunfullmäktige), the labour market and social welfare committees and adult education.
The regional council (regionfullmäktige) and the healthcare committees.
The Riksdag, the Swedish Migration Agency (Migrationsverket), the Public Employment Service (Arbetsförmedlingen), the Social Insurance Agency (Försäkringskassan) and the County Administrative Boards.
What do they decide?
Sfi, civic orientation, school and preschool, housing for assigned new arrivals and often its own labour market measures.
Health examinations for new arrivals and asylum seekers, interpreters in care and care on the same terms as for other residents.
The Settlement Act that distributes new arrivals between municipalities, the establishment programme, the establishment benefit and the central government grants.
Where are decisions made?
In the committees and in the municipality's integration unit.
At the health centres and through 1177.
In the Riksdag and at the agencies. The County Administrative Board coordinates in each county.
Who pays?
The municipal tax plus a central government standard grant per person received.
The regional tax plus central government compensation for asylum seekers' care.
The central government budget: establishment benefit and standard grant to the municipalities.
Fastest way in?
Municipal election The municipal election shapes sfi and reception. Associations look for language friends and homework helpers.
Regional election The regional election shapes the resources of healthcare. Views through the patients' advisory committee.
General election The general election shapes laws and benefits. The referrals (remiss) are open.
EUEU funds co-finance integration projects, and the EU's asylum rules decide who even begins an establishment here. Shaped in the European Parliament election.

Read the table by column to understand one level, or by row to compare the levels. The green level is the area's centre of gravity.

How it works: follow the decision

The case A newly arrived family comes to the municipality
  1. State

    The residence permit opens the door

    When the Migration Agency has granted a residence permit, the family is to leave the asylum system and enter society. The Settlement Act says that all municipalities are obliged to receive new arrivals who are assigned to them.

    Point of influence

    The general election shapes the Settlement Act and the compensation to municipalities.

  2. State

    The counties and municipalities get their numbers

    The Government decides how many new arrivals each county is to receive, and the County Administrative Board distributes the numbers between the municipalities based on labour market, population and previous reception.

  3. Municipality

    The municipality arranges the first things

    Housing, a school place for the children, preschool and enrolment in sfi. The municipality receives a central government standard grant per person, meant to cover the first years.

    Point of influence

    The municipal election shapes how reception is organised. Many municipalities look for volunteers: language friend, homework help, association guide.

  4. State

    The establishment programme starts

    The Public Employment Service enrols the adults in the establishment programme: sfi, civic orientation, work placement and job seeking full time, normally for two years, with establishment benefit from the Social Insurance Agency.

  5. Municipality

    The association sector opens doors

    Alongside the agencies, civil society does much of what cannot be decided into being: language cafés, sports clubs and friendships. The municipality's association grants often support the work.

    Point of influence

    Here you can step in yourself as early as tomorrow: language cafés and associations are always looking for more people.

  6. Your everyday life

    The classmate, the colleague, the neighbour

    A few years later the family are colleagues, classmates and neighbours. How fast it went was decided by a chain of decisions, and by how many people opened a door.

The journey looks the same in reverse: what has been built came the same way, through the same decisions. Whoever knows where the decisions are made also knows where they can be changed.

Questions to discuss

  1. What made the biggest difference the last time you yourself were new in a setting?

  2. Whose responsibility is integration: the new arrival's, the public sector's or civil society's?

  3. How is reception distributed fairly between municipalities with different conditions?

  4. What in your municipality works today as a shortcut into society, and what shuts people out?

  5. When is a person fully integrated, and who decides that?

Glossary

Bosättningslagen
The law that obliges all municipalities to receive new arrivals who are assigned to them.
Anvisning
The decision on which municipality a new arrival is to be received in.
Etableringsprogrammet
The Public Employment Service's programme for new arrivals: sfi, work placement and job seeking, normally for two years.
Schablonersättning
The central government compensation the municipality receives per new arrival received.
Samhällsorientering
The municipality's course on how Swedish society works, in a language the participant understands.
Sfi
Municipal education in Swedish for immigrants.

Go further

Footnotes

1) This is an estimate of how decision-making power over the issue is split between the municipality, the region, central government and the EU, based on how responsibility is divided in legislation. A teaching guide, not an exact measurement.