Nordic focus on getting more newly arrived women into work

The study defines ‘newly arrived’ as people who in the past five years have been granted residence permits based on their refugee status or their need for protection, or if they are close relatives to such a person.

This definition was chosen because the Nordic countries have different definitions of ‘newly arrived’:

In Sweden you are a ‘newly arrived’ when taking part in the Swedish Public Employment Service’s introduction programme – around two years after being granted a residence permit.

In Denmark a person is ‘newly arrived’ if he or she was given a residence permit no longer than five years ago.

In Norway the term is used to cover people who are targets for integration measures which form part of the Introduction Act, i.e. people who have lived in a Norwegian municipality for less than two years.

In Finland and in Iceland, the term is not normally used.

Asylum seekers, labour migrants and others who have arrived on a family reunion basis are not considered newly arrived.

The study therefore focuses on newly arrived women’s links to the labour market during the first years after gaining residence permits.

Source: ‘Integrating newly arrived women’, Nordic Council of Ministers, 2018