Legal Conditions for Refugees’ Mental Health: Implications of Legislative Changes in Programs for Newly Arrived Refugees in Sweden

David Gunnarsson (), Sofia Larsson and Linda Vikdahl
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David Gunnarsson: Department of Health Sciences, The Swedish Red Cross University College, Hälsovägen 11, 141 57 Huddinge, Sweden
Sofia Larsson: Department of Health Sciences, The Swedish Red Cross University College, Hälsovägen 11, 141 57 Huddinge, Sweden
Linda Vikdahl: Department of Health Sciences, The Swedish Red Cross University College, Hälsovägen 11, 141 57 Huddinge, Sweden

Challenges, 2023, vol. 14, issue 3, 1-16

Abstract: As the number of refugees in the world is increasing and it is known that social inequality negatively impacts mental health, it is important to study integration policies, such as labour market measures. In this article, the strategic interventions of the Swedish Public Employment Service are analysed to determine how the agency’s management handled and implemented the legal changes in the new support document for its case workers. The focus is on the effects of the changes in the legal text that transferred the responsibility for establishment initiatives for newly arrived migrants to the agency and, as a result, changed the conditions for newly arrived refugees’ mental health in the new establishment programme. Eight people representing different management functions at the agency were interviewed. The results show that the intention in the new programme to view newly arrived refugees in the same way as all other unemployed people, rather than as a special category, has meant that less attention is paid to the refugees’ mental health, and the opportunities for the agency’s street-level bureaucrats to help clients have decreased. In the face of predicted growing numbers of people having to abandon their homes due to conflicts and climate changes, governmental strategies such as these needs to be revisited in order for societies worldwide to be better prepared for that challenge.

Keywords: mental health; social participation; labour market; newly arrived refugees; the Swedish Public Employment Service; establishment programme; street-level bureaucrats (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A00 C00 Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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