Post-industrial division of labour as a systemic barrier for immigrants in the Swedish labour market

In English ABSTRACT. Differences in labour force participation and unemployment rates between indigenous populations and immigrants are common throughout Europe. But the gap seems to be particularly wide in Sweden. Based on studies of work places that traditionally employed large numbers of immigrants, but where they are now declining, it is argued that a driving force behind this process of exclusion is to be found in technological and organisational changes. These changes seem to be more pervasive in the Swedish labour market than in other economies in Europe. What is sometimes called the “Swedish model of working life” has turned into the systemic exclusion of immigrant labour.