Less Than Half of Syrians in Sweden Have a Job – Report

According to a report, merely a third of adult Syrians in Sweden are self-sufficient. Furthermore, while self-supportability continues to grows among the general population, the trend among Syrians is going in the opposite direction.

A new report by the foundation The Global Village has highlighted severe employment problems among Syrians in Sweden.

According to the report, just 44 percent of all Syrians in Sweden aged 20–64 are gainfully employed, compared to some 80 percent of the entire Swedish population in the same age bracket.

Using the degree of self-sufficiency as a proxy, as defined by the ability to live on one's own income without support from the public sector, the picture becomes even gloomier. Among Syrians in Sweden aged 25–64, only 36 percent are considered self-sufficient, compared with 74 percent for the entire population.

Furthermore, while the degree of self-sufficiency has increased by a few percentage points for the general population between 2013 and 2019, the trend among Syrians is the opposite.

"The figures show that only a third of them are self-sufficient, that less than half of adult Swedish Syrians have a job to go to, and that long-term unemployment among them is increasing", Ahmed Abdirahman, the foundation's CEO and founder, said.

"Children and young people of Syrian origin also have significantly worse school results than the national average. There are many explanations for the figures, but above all, the number of newly arrived Syrians in recent years has greatly affected the group's results", he suggested.

"We are aware that these statistics can be used in various ways to drive political agendas from right to left. But if we are to take on the challenges, we must find out what reality actually looks like. And dare to talk about the challenges – and the possibilities", Ahmed Abdirahman concluded.

Overall, there are around a quarter of a million people of Syrian descent in Sweden, most of whom arrived in the 2010s. Syrians form one of Sweden's largest and most rapidly growing diasporas, trailing only Finns and people from the former Yugoslavia in the nation of over 10 million.