What happens when schools can no longer bind society together? In an era of growing segregation, this book explores how Swedish schools and municipalities work to counteract inequality and foster civil inclusion. Through detailed case studies of school closures, mergers, and new openings, the authors trace how local actors try to achieve 'civil repair' – to strengthen equality and rebuild cohesion through education. Drawing on rich ethnographic research, the book reveals the tensions between policy ideals and on-the-ground realities in a marketized school system. These findings speak not only to Sweden but to broader challenges in education systems across Europe and North America.

Immigrants’ access to relevant jobs is crucial for social integration and better life chances. For migrants in regulated professions, occupational reintegration depends on accreditation of previous learning by national, sectorial authorities. These migrants face complex systems that both enable and hinder occupational reintegration. In this article, we examine skilled migrants’ pathways to their vocations in Norway and Sweden, with a special emphasis on the role of bridging programmes to this end. Our analysis is based on interviews with migrants who have enrolled in or completed occupational requalification programmes. We explore how institutional opportunity structures shape their access to their professions and use four case portraits to illustrate how programme pre-requisites, timing, location and life-circumstances affect participation, and how such programmes are adapted to the candidates’ life situations. The portraits also show how the two countries offer varying support for reacredditation: Norway’s system appears more formalized and less integrated across immigration statuses compared with the Swedish system. Migrants in both countries call for a more systematic and coordinated intersectoral approach from public authorities to facilitate access to licensed occupations.

Research on migration is currently high in the research agenda in VET in the Nordic countries as well as in several other contexts internationally. The focus of attention of the studies varies, there is however a common concern with employability and social cohesion, and in specific identifying best ways forward in inclusion of migrants in the labor market and society.

Taking as departing point the presentation of partial and final results of projects in Sweden, Finland and Norway the aim of the symposium is to highlight the challenges of research in relation to theory, methodology and understanding of results that are expected to have an impact in practices.

Three projects are used as case studies to highlight and discuss these challenges. This includes partial outcomes of the project From work force immigration to inclusion – A study of Vocational Education & Training development in relation to society changes and immigration in a historical perspective. Results of the project (sweden) “First, You Must Speak Good Finnish.” Exploring the Experiences of Adult Immigrants in Education and Work in Finland. Adding to the diversity of the challenges the results of the project Tailored VET Models for Immigrants: A Pilot Project by researchers from the Nordic Institute for Studies of innovation..

The present paper delves into how symbolic boundaries in a school that is undergoing a desegregation process come to shape social boundaries of ‘we-ness’ and ‘otherness’. The theoretical framework of the study starts from an interest in analysing whether symbolic and social boundaries emerge in new encounters during a desegregation process and whether this may produce different modes of incorporation. Peer interactions and schoolwork were observed and interviews with school staff were conducted to investigate school desegregation implementation in a large Swedish town. The town we investigated has formulated a desegregation policy that, over time, has not resulted in desegregation in practice. The results highlight that schools without a coherent pedagogy, idea, or practice for social inclusion face challenges. These challenges, in turn, promote internal micro-segregation and non-incorporation of minority students, despite intentions to promote inclusion.

Context: Conducting research with migrants and refugees is essential for promoting inclusion and equity in VET, but it involves specific theoretical, methodological, and ethical challenges.

Approach: Five projects from Sweden, England, and Switzerland explored these challenges using diverse research designs and theoretical frameworks.

Findings: Common issues include the lack of suitable theories, ethical concerns in working with migrants and refugees, language-related difficulties, risks of misinterpretation, and difficulties in translating findings into policy.

Conclusions: Addressing these challenges and advancing research on VET and migration necessitates cross-national exchange, a shared understanding, and collaboration to develop more inclusive approaches that enhance outcomes for migrants and refugees. 

Context: This study examines how employers and workplace stakeholders perceive the re-entryof skilled migrants into their vocational fields after relocating to Sweden. It assesses their def-initions of an employable migrant and the inclusion strategies they recognise.Approach: The concepts of employability and inclusion are utilised to analyse the empiricalmaterial. Qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with two company owners,two mentors, and a regional coordinator.Findings: The results indicate that employable migrants are expected to adapt to workplaceculture, learn the language, and comply with legal requirements. Their competence, proactivity,creativity, and willingness to acquire new skills are valued. Inclusion strategies focus on lan-guage acquisition, social interaction, and support from management and colleagues, while rec-ognising the policies and training programs provided by society. The responsibility for inclu-sion often falls on migrants, rather than addressing systemic barriers, framing workplace inte-gration as an individual duty.Conclusion: Achieving inclusion necessitates balancing personal effort with structural changeto create more equitable workplaces.

Pedagogisk och utbildningssociologisk forskning visar att den svenska grundskolan är starkt segregerad vilket har bidragit till försämrad likvärdighet i elevers måluppfyllelse. En följd av detta har blivit att kommuner försöker hantera skolsegregationens negativa effekter genom att aktivt styra skolornas elevsammansättning. Denna artikeln handlar om hur skolledare och pedagoger i en i mindre kommuns lågstadieskola, arbetar med en ny elevsammansättning, organisatoriskt, socialt och pedagogiskt och den betydelse deras arbete får för elevers relationer till varandra och deras skolframgång. Fallstudiens har ett kultursociologiskt perspektiv vars analyser baseras på etnografiska fältanteckningar, intervjuer med skolaktörer, kommundata över elevernas resultat på nationella prov mellan åren 2016–2021 samt ett sociogram som eleverna har fyllt i. Resultaten visar att majoriteten av eleverna som sedan starten av sin grundskoleutbildning har gått i en integrerad skolform umgås i hög grad med elever som har en annan etnisk bakgrund än de själva. Eleverna får också högre resultat på de nationella proven i svenska och svenska som andraspråk i jämförelse med innan och åren direkt efter reformen. De huvudsakliga förklaringarna till denna framgång grundar sig i skolaktörernas genuina tro på en skola för alla, samtidigt som de utvecklat interaktionsförutsättningar som lagt grunden till en inkluderande skolkultur. 

This is an open access book which focuses on different aspects of education, employment, and successful integration of migrants in three countries: Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland. The chapters in this book reflect on these issues from micro, meso and macro perspectives; some are based on interviews with migrants and people who work with them, others on documents and literature about migration. There are different pathways for skilled migrants to vocations. Some start working in their previous vocations after arriving in the new environment. Some re-enter their professions but on a lower level. Some can re-train themselves in a new vocation, and some will go to further education, as studies in different chapters of this book suggest. Common for successful integration seems to be several intertwined factors: the target language competence, strong motivation and agency, supporting networks and supporting persons, as well as structural opportunities of the new environment. The book’s editorial board takes an eclectic view, hoping to start an academic debate about what ‘successful integration’ means. While discussions about the integration of migrants tend to focus on integration failures, there are millions of migrants, in different countries, who have successfully integrated into their new societies.