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Work for Less: End of Swedish Welfare State?

© Sputnik / Vladimir Presnya / Go to the mediabankStockholm metro train on a metro bridge.
Stockholm metro train on a metro bridge. - Sputnik International
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Sweden needs a new system of labor contracts to help incoming migrants better integrate into the country’s labor market, Centre Party leader Annie Lööf said.

Police organize the line of refugees at on the stairway leading up from the trains arriving from Denmark at the Hyllie train station outside Malmo, Sweden, November 19, 2015. - Sputnik International
Modern Day Slavery: Refugees May be Forced to Work for Free in Sweden
If the idea gains traction, employers will be allowed to pay migrants well below the existing minimum wage, Sveriges Radio reported on Friday.

”We need to perfect and reform the Swedish model for the [incoming migrants]… If we don’t do this we risk finding ourselves in a degree of isolation we won’t be able to cope with,” Annie Lööf said.

The Centre Party believes that this would help unqualified migrants find jobs in Sweden.

When asked whether it was legal to pay smaller wages to foreigners, Lööf mentioned already existing programs of integrating migrants into the local labor market, which allow employers to pay smaller wage tax.

In September the Danish newspaper Berlingske wrote about a team of economists from the Rockwoolfondens Forskningsenhed research center who proposed paying unqualified migrant workers less in order to make it easier for them to find a job in their new country.

Five months on, the problem is still there with a mere three percent of the newly arrived migrants being viewed as potential employees even though many of them are willing and able to work.

The problem is that refugees have little, if any knowledge of the Danish language to understand all the in and outs of the country’s labor laws and the social security system.

To obtain the status of a potential job seeker one needs to make regular visits to the employment services’ websites and write all kinds of letters and resumes. Failure to do all this implies a heavy fine and is why many are simply afraid to register – a dilemma that defies a quick and easy solution.

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