Labour Market Integration for Refugees. Street-Level Bureaucrats’ Perspectives on Policy Implementation Gaps in Sweden

From the 1990s onward, there has been growing body of scholarly accounts and official reviews suggesting that the Swedish labour market integration policy has failed in its objectives. This article examines the reasons for the persistence of policy failures in the labour market integration of migrants to Sweden from the perspectives of bureaucrats working at the end of the policy chain. A particular focus is laid on the implementation of the so-called individualized approach in the Swedish integration policy. The data is derived from official documents and semi-structured interviews with public employment service case workers. Notable gaps between policy as written and policy as performed are revealed. Contributing factors included, besides complex client needs, organizational factors resulting in limited time resources available for employment service workers and a limited range of services on offer for their clients