Around 60,000 Bosnian refugees have received permits to stay in Sweden, nearly all of them permanently. Today, there are some signs that the Nordic nation is starting to do better when it comes to more quickly recognizing the abilities of the people it has brought in, but work still needs to be done. 720 0 obj << /Linearized 1 /O 723 /H [ 1540 4000 ] /L 1074113 /E 61441 /N 194 /T 1059594 >> endobj xref 720 46 0000000016 00000 n Every country has its share of challenges. 0000021132 00000 n The second wave, only 24 percent in the 20-59 age bracket had found employment after four years, Public Employment Agency's fast track (snabbspr) programme, 1990 there were already 50,000 from the country living in Sweden, coming to the country as much-needed labour migrants in the aftermath of the Second World War, Swedish government has previously pointed out to The Local, openly recognized that discrimination is a key problem, A-kassa: The Swedish secret no one tells you, I want to build a bridge between newcomers and Swedish society. Read more from the serieshere. Bethesda, MD 20894, Web Policies I was prime minister of Sweden and near Christmas I was visiting our soldiers serving with the United Nations peacekeeping operation in Croatia. That's how Sweden works. Online ahead of print. The issue of discrimination meanwhile is not unique to Sweden, but still one that requires tackling. Economic support for municipalities increased too, as the government warned that even those who learn Swedish and have a good chance of doing well could have a difficult time supporting themselves, due to the financial crisis gripping Sweden in the early 1990s. 0000021511 00000 n While standardized questionnaires produce counts of isolated events, a semi-structured interview derives a story, a complex narrative in time and place. Notably, the potential to waste valuable time by not effectively assessing the skills of newcomers was an issue Sweden was aware of as far back as 1993, yet by 2014 had still not comprehensively solved. And Im personally very proud of what my country did during some difficult years to offer a new future to some of those fleeing the horrors of the Balkan wars. What kind of country is this?' Clin Child Fam Psychol Rev. 0000016232 00000 n A comparable standard of education not only made it easier for those from former Yugoslavia to adapt to Sweden's own education system, but also for them to go on and become employed. Further, the stories derived cast light on the equity of Swedish refugee reception, exposing both egalitarian and discriminatory tendencies. Child Welfare. 8600 Rockville Pike A couple of years later at a public gathering in the northernmost part of Sweden, I was approached by a young womannamed Anna Ibrisagic. Perhaps the biggest takeaway from the experience is that a good match between the people coming in and the systems of their new home is worth its weight in gold. Maryland GOP helps Trump but likely hurts itself with gubernatorial pick, In Uvalde, there were failures on all fronts. That network was enough. They wave the flag and sing the songs. 1#+L@ITgWthD[ 1Ng5[VBvs@g]*Nhu. Type-stories or clusters of experience were identified for three distinct periods: prior to war, during war, and after war in exile. That it turned out to benefit our society is, of course, also part of the good story of Sweden. I suspect that his actual knowledge of the issue is extremely limited. 0000016312 00000 n ``We will build a house of our own and work with farming. MeSH The combination of that inflow and increasing unemployment made for a toxic debate. Bookshelf They are, of course, not the only group that has come to Sweden. Refugees at a temporary camp erected to house them in Rinkaby, Skne in 1992. trailer << /Size 766 /Info 671 0 R /Root 721 0 R /Prev 1059583 /ID[<7e5690a427314225e16d2ef33d405565>] >> startxref 0 %%EOF 721 0 obj << /Type /Catalog /Pages 670 0 R /Metadata 669 0 R /AcroForm 722 0 R /FICL:Enfocus 672 0 R >> endobj 722 0 obj << /Fields [ ] /DR << /Font << /ZaDb 666 0 R /Helv 667 0 R >> /Encoding << /PDFDocEncoding 668 0 R >> >> /DA (/Helv 0 Tf 0 g ) >> endobj 764 0 obj << /S 6923 /V 7144 /Filter /FlateDecode /Length 765 0 R >> stream I regret that President Trump is slandering our country in his attempts to find reasons for what he wants to do in closing off the United States. Of the Bosnians who were given a residence permit between 1993 and 1994, only 24 percent in the 20-59 age bracket had found employment after four years. We need to do better. On average they do as well, or even marginally better, than those born in the country. Ataullahjan A, Samara M, Betancourt TS, Bhutta ZA. There was quite a lot of emphasis on employment policy measures for refugees from Yugoslavia to help them into the labour market, noted Jan Ekberg, professor emeritus in economics at Linnaeus University and an expert of the economics of migration. 0000006508 00000 n The second wave was caused by the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq. So while by 1999, 90 percent of male and 80 percent of female Bosnian refugees aged 20-59 living in in Gnosj, Gislaved, Vaggeryd and Vrnamo were employed, the corresponding figure for Malm was 37 percent and 28 percent respectively.

HViPSY1 That's one thing Sweden could have done better: they could have made sure not as many Bosnians were placed in the Malm area. 0000006362 00000 n 0000013165 00000 n 0000005909 00000 n 0000009709 00000 n Refugees from former Yugoslavia may have had their cause eased by their compatriots already being a well-established presence in Sweden by the early 1990s: other refugees cannot yet call on that capital. Climate change is a crisis. 0000008534 00000 n 0000009732 00000 n 0000006188 00000 n Practitioner review: assessment and treatment of refugee children and adolescents who have experienced war-related trauma. Photo: Jasenko Selimovi. In 2014 however, a National Audit Office study pointed out that time was still not always being effectively used when recognizing the qualifications and skills of refugees, and the overall conclusion was that there were inefficiencies in the state's measures. Sweden was apparently well aware of that suitability at the time. Snyder CS, May JD, Zulcic NN, Gabbard WJ. One year brought in about 100,000 women, children and men fleeing the carnage of the Balkans. About half of the Bosnian refugees in Sweden come from areas that fell into enemy hands _ and will stay there under the Dayton agreement. The poll of 1,680 refugees did not give a margin of error. But the Swedish government is offering a ticket home and $215 for expenses to anyone willing to make the trip. 0000020354 00000 n At this point it is worth recalling that as far back as 1993, the Swedish government was supposed to have stepped up its assessment of the education and employment experience of refugees in order to get them on the right road to employment, which should have helped avoid time-wasting like Pasic's tooth-brushing example. Ibrisagicentered business and politics, was elected to Parliament and then to the European Parliament, becoming the first from Bosnia there. In my case, I had it. Though like many refugees from Bosnia and Herzegovina who came to Sweden with secondary education, she still had to undertake basic compulsory courses which she believes were a waste of resources. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the 2020 Nov 19;371:m2876. He wouldnt find paradise. Social Democrat Jasenko Omanovi, who also came as a refugee, is a sitting MP in the Riksdag. Opinions from the Washington Post Editorial Board. When a peace accord was signed in December, there were high hopes that many of the refugees would return. During the Yugoslav wars in the 1990s, many of those fleeing the conflict looked to Sweden for protection, with just over 100,000 coming to the Scandinavian nation at the time. We need to actively work on and have a migration policy that sees migration as a positive process for Sweden, with good communication. And, sorry to say, some even resorted to violence. {3?V=WNs'g=^Nei~t,!8O)3|dm_+ASQK7}hhh "D~1WN^iA3{6HzUyL#oNF9=+295c75:}$]rL5psK8jV3B -eYVI\\`"gR|{;5E_ uz2mCs\ARZV*xn2G',r2JMW$i/K^. doi: 10.1136/bmj.m2876. Now, many from Syria have also come, although we have had Syrian communities for years. These measures during the introductory period mean that the chances of Bosnian refugees integrating well in Swedish society after moving to a municipality will increase, it argued. 0000024189 00000 n My mother was here before me, she worked at the Yugoslavian embassy before the war. What it showed quite clearly was that ethnicity means nothing the first wave of Iraqis to come here, the diaspora that Saddam Hussein threw out of the country who were very highly educated adapted perfectly well for example, the second wave who came after the education system had been destroyed had big problems.. Disclaimer, National Library of Medicine And the strict structures of our welfare society are more geared to protecting insiders than opening up to outsiders. FOIA 0000020884 00000 n Social work with Bosnian Muslim refugee children and families: a review of the literature. If it were not for the massive turmoil that could ensue, I would urge him to skip one of his golfing weekends and come to us and see for himself. 0000061079 00000 n Mitigating toxic stress in children affected by conflict and displacement. Sweden had the system it had and received a highly educated and strong group from the former Yugoslavia, Emina Pasic, President of the APU Network Association for academics, entrepreneurs and artists of Bosnian-Herzegovinian background in Sweden, explained to The Local at the Swedish Energy Agency's office in Stockholm, where she is now a senior advisor. Years later we faced organized crime gangs originating in the tight Balkan smuggling networks that grew up during the wars. Please visit the help centre for more information, Refugees from Yugoslavia arriving in Ystad, Sweden in 1993. 0000027460 00000 n 0000015402 00000 n The Local explores what Sweden can learn from that experience, as part of our Sweden in Focus series. But what lessons can Sweden learn from its successful integration of Yugoslavian refugees? Some rallied with whatever argument possible against the refugees. Far from it. They are as successful in Sweden as they are in California. When we studied what had worked at the Department of Integration when I was state secretary, we looked at different groups and how they adapted to Swedish conditions, former state secretary Jasenko Selimovi recalled. Careers.

0000006658 00000 n Government measures were also taken to try to ease the transition, like when in 1993 the Swedish government stepped up its mapping of the educational background and employment experience of the refugees in an effort to get them on the correct road to employment. 0000005540 00000 n Sweden's experience with refugees from former Yugoslavia was a positive one, but there are still important lessons to be learned. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil.

Our first encounter with Sweden was a language course for all refugees, but you sat there and learned how to do things like use a toilet, brush your teeth simple things that a highly educated person didn't need, but were obligatory, she recalled. Sweden's experience with refugees from former Yugoslavia not only shows that the ability to weigh up a newcomer's qualifications is important in the process of integration however, it has also been suggested that familiarity can play a part. The Yugoslavian experience also shows however that even if there is a good match between Swedish society and the skills of those attempting to enter it, the process can still be hindered by counter-productive policies, like placing refugees in areas suffering from high unemployment. Goldin S, Levin L, Persson LA, Hgglf B. Nord J Psychiatry. 0000006147 00000 n J Urban Health. Pre-war experience presented as preponderantly good and safe. y% MEP Selimovi has concluded that being able to call upon an established network in Sweden for example, which some of those from former Yugoslavia could do when they arrived, was important to their employment prospects and therefore the potential to integrate. Sweden's Employment Minister has openly recognized that discrimination is a key problem for foreign workers trying to get jobs here today, and APU Network President Pasic warned that a general attitude change is still needed in her adopted home. One thing all the experts The Local spoke to for this article highlighted was the harmony between the general makeup of those who came from former Yugoslavia to the Scandinavian country, and developments in Sweden, which was movingtowards a knowledge-based economy at the same time. 0000013143 00000 n He might have heard of Spotify and Minecraft. In my opinion, one of the important improvements we could make is to accept the idea that we work in a global world, competing with other people coming from other countries, and that things can't be underneath the surface because immigrants will be disadvantaged. m$ .%$0 P *"b6Z$buD& n3EDF-hPgn4VWG=/666llpbCx`m f0{=Vj-ucQ86&%N-\#!^fzhq%tMf9*f D9qk$BA@Q!DBGJ!#,eRIC?A"Cax7AGs}|8RKpr*ip ||=28 xAX/H9% VO! That's migration policy failing: it's something we have to fight against, she emphasized. Before 0000012129 00000 n And they are everywhere: in sports, culture, business and politics. In Bosnia, the government and U.N. officials have urged refugees to wait a little longer before coming back. An official website of the United States government. Acculturation and psychological problems of adolescents from Bosnia and Herzegovina during exile and repatriation. READ ALSO: 24 hours on Stockholm's streets with Afghan refugee protesters, UN peacekeepers and refugees near Srebrenica, eastern Bosnia. They plan to return with their two children, 6 and 2, in March _ not to their hometown but to government-controlled Bihac, further to the went where Suadas parents live. No less than 17 percent of our population is from Finland. ``We almost like it here, but it is difficult to live outside your country and it is difficult to get a job, said Ekrem Beslagic, a 34-year-old Muslim from Serb-controlled Banja Luka. Otherwise it can go in the wrong direction and help extremists grow which we're seeing not just in Sweden, but the rest of Europe. The success of refugees from the former Yugoslavia in Sweden is not only evident in statistics, but also in the number of important figures in the country with origins there. 2006 Dec;47(12):1197-210. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-7610.2006.01638.x. A correlation between the Sweden of the 1990s and the nature of the people coming in eased the process, as the country's labour market was a good match for the competencies of the largely well-educated refugees at that time, and that suggests that the successful integration of the present generation of asylum seekers from Syria and elsewhere will also depend on how capable Sweden is of matching them to jobs something the Swedish government has previously pointed out to The Local. Sometimes we see the conflicts from far away reflected also in our society, although far less so than what you might encounter in Manhattan. Psychiatric symptoms and the association with parents' psychiatric symptoms among recently arrived asylum-seeking children in Finland. The time spent on that for a highly educated person regardless of whether they needed it or not could have been much better used. But since the accord, only 200 have returned, the group said. Knowledge of the Unknown Child: A Systematic Review of the Elements of the Best Interests of the Child Assessment for Recently Arrived Refugee Children. 0000006340 00000 n She served for a decade, elected from and by Sweden. BMJ. %PDF-1.4 % That young womans road from Sanski Most to Lule turned out to be only the beginning. I believe they have made Sweden a better country. And I'm not just talking about higher education: but also basic education, high school. At home we struggled with both an economic crisis and a more massive influx of refugees than we had ever had. Please enable it to take advantage of the complete set of features! The extent of trauma-stress exposure during each of these periods proved unrelated. Clipboard, Search History, and several other advanced features are temporarily unavailable. A Swedish government document from 1993 optimistically points out that the integration of these people should be made easier in that it is the question of a relatively homogenous and well-educated group. We had a very strong education system which put very high demands on kids from a young age and they were graded early on. Photo: Jan Ekberg. Some groups have sometimes taken longer time to integrate. A lack of local knowledge and language ability means immigrants take time to settle and enter the labour market in their new home, and with unemployment high in the aftermath of Sweden's financial crisis, refugees were at a heightened disadvantage. Invoking emergency powers wont solve it.

Bus after bus with desperate refugees was crossing over. Urban inequities; urban rights: a conceptual analysis and review of impacts on children, and policies to address them. That, they say, will give peace a chance to settle in. We ranked well compared to similar countries and had a lot of foreign students in Bosnia and Herzegovina who came there to study, which is very important. She was from Bosnia, and she knew that I had been there and that I had wanted to help. PMC There is a lot of creativity around. This site needs JavaScript to work properly. Aida Hadzialic, who fled as a refugee at the age of five, became Sweden's youngest ever cabinet minister when she took up the position of adult education minister in 2014. 0000014065 00000 n HHS Vulnerability Disclosure, Help The .gov means its official. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. Two decades ago thousands of refugees fled war in Yugoslavia and made Sweden their home, where today they are a well-integrated part of society. Unemployment there was very high in the mid 90s, he said. and transmitted securely.