- Email: [email protected]
The Swedish system: The image cracking when taking a closer look
Geoforum 53 (2014) 82–83
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Geoforum journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/geoforum
Critical review
The Swedish system: The image cracking when taking a closer look Juha M. Alatalo ⇑, Oksana V. Ostapenko Uppsala University, Campus Gotland, SE-621 67 Visby, Sweden
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history: Received 12 February 2014 Received in revised form 18 February 2014 Available online 12 March 2014 Keywords: Education system Gender Qualifications Segregation Unemployment Recruitment
a b s t r a c t Sweden has a high international profile regarding social issues and projects an image as one of the best countries in the world in terms of social indicators. Here we argue for a revised view as the reality is that Swedish system is very segregated, particularly in terms of (1) relative lack of women in positions of high influence, (2) it is the worst country in the EU28 regarding long-term unemployment for people born outside the country, and (3) it has a education system that after a number of reforms is involved in a ‘‘race towards the bottom’’ to profit from students. At the same time Sweden undervalues foreign academic qualifications and getting work largely depends on ‘‘who you know’’, not ‘‘what you know’’. Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Contents Acknowledgement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Sweden has for many years had a high profile internationally regarding the social qualities of the country. It promotes an image of a country that offers equal opportunities for all and that people from all countries are welcome, including refugees from conflict areas and political refugees. The country has accepted a large number of immigrants considering it has a population of roughly 9.6 million people. The number of people born outside Sweden is increasing and in November 2013, roughly 15% of the Swedish population was born in other countries, (SCB, 2013a). It also prides itself as a country of equal opportunities for genders, and has indeed created a number of policies that support inclusion of women in the working population. Men have to a greater extent than many other countries started to stay at home with the children when they are young; sharing the very beneficial parenthood leave between both parents. In Sweden parents can stay at home for 480 days in total with benefits, of which 390 days have higher benefits depending on the salary of the person. Fathers used 24.8% of the days for parenthood leave in 2012 (Försäkringskassan, 2013). ⇑ Corresponding author. E-mail address: [email protected] (J.M. Alatalo). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2014.02.010 0016-7185/Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Nevertheless, Sweden is highly segregated when it comes to positions of influence and power as can be seen in the relative share of various groups in the work force. Looking at people that chair the boards of companies listed in the Swedish stock market (NASDAQ OMX), only 3% of the chairs were women in 2011 (SCB, 2012). Similarly, out of the seven political parties that are represented in the Swedish parliament only one – Centerpartiet – has a woman as leader for the party, and one party – Miljöpartiet – has shared leadership positions that should always be one woman and one man. Labor market segregation in Sweden also impacts immigrants who have great difficulties getting assimilated in the country. In fact, Sweden is worst in the EU28 + Norway and Iceland for immigrant long-term unemployment. In countries like Malta and Poland, people born outside the countries fare much better and are less likely to suffer from long-term unemployment than people born in the country. In Sweden it is the total opposite; people born outside the country account for a much higher share of the long-term unemployed compared to their relative share of the population (SCB, 2013b). Politicians have acknowledged this problem, but as long as Swedish companies and public offices often continue not to hire people with a non-Swedish name, nothing will change. A major problem is that getting work in Sweden is often
J.M. Alatalo, O.V. Ostapenko / Geoforum 53 (2014) 82–83
dependent on personal contacts. Up to 70% of qualified positions get hired through personal contacts and consequently only three out of ten professionals get work solely based on their qualifications (Bergström and Nilsson, 2013), which of course makes it almost impossible for immigrants to get into the system. This kind of corruption is difficult to change, and will not stop as long as the country does not enact a merit-based employment system, at least for public positions. Segregation of immigrants is also manifest in other ways. One is that academic qualifications from many countries are often not recognized in Sweden. Thus Sweden has a large number of highly qualified physicians and engineers that cannot get qualified positions. Instead they are forced into further study which may be especially difficult for them when the education is in Swedish. Alternatively they may take up low paid work as cleaners and taxi drivers, if they can find it. At the same time many in Sweden, from students to politicians, assume that Swedish academic qualifications should be recognized worldwide. Meanwhile the results for Swedish students in the PISA test tell a different story as they are falling rapidly, and in the latest assessment Sweden was below the average for countries that are part of ‘‘The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’’ (OECD) in all subjects (PISA, 2013). These results indicate that Swedish qualifications are also open to question, not just qualifications from other countries. It is not that Swedish schools lack resources as many countries with higher scores have more students per teacher. However, one problem is that students in primary school are sometimes actually hindered by their teachers from studying at a faster pace if they find a subject interesting. This is supported by personal experience where one of our children was held back in her studies of mathematics as ‘‘everyone should study at the same pace’’, effectively killing the ambition of many students. Luckily for the child, having a parent who is a senior lecturer at the oldest university in Sweden meant this did not stop her from studying ahead of her classmates, as the parent promised to take the blame for any complaint from the teacher/school. Another problem with Swedish high schools is that the grades are prone to ‘‘inflation’’. Sweden has opened up the school system from being a public state monopoly to first let the municipalities take over the responsibility and then allowing in private companies to run them. Another reform was to let the ‘‘student money’’ follow the pupil who was then allowed to make a free choice of school instead of starting in the ‘‘neighborhood school’’ for the area where the student lives. These reforms have resulted in schools competing students and there has been an increase in the number of unqualified teachers, with the largest share of unqualified teachers in private schools. Furthermore head masters no longer have to be qualified as teachers. One way to attract students is to give high grades. Henrekson and Vlachos (2009) showed that the highest grade in high school was given out 28 times more in 2007, as compared to 1997. They interpreted this as a result of higher
83
competition among high schools to attract students. This inflation in grades from high school is clearly seen in some of the Swedish Universities where the lecturers increasingly complain that the students no longer have the basic skills in reading and writing. At universities in Sweden, the reimbursement system has also changed so that departments within the universities now get paid by the number of students who pass the exams. This has caused pressure in the university system to pass as many students as possible, creating frustration in university teachers. If economic rationales take precedence over normal academic standards is a major problem for universities, particularly those that do not attract the best students. This reform were implemented in the 1990s, ostensibly to enhance quality, but in reality had a corrupting effect as passing more students leads to economic benefits (Swedish Radio, 2013). Nevertheless, many people in the country still think Swedish academic qualifications should be accepted all over the world while academic qualifications from other countries are to be questioned in Sweden. In spite of these facts, Sweden’s citizens and it’s politicians, regardless of political party, still try to project an image of the country to the outside world as one of the best in the world, where all have the same possibilities in the society. Internally it prides itself as the best country in the world. The politicians tell the voters that they do a good job – ‘‘look how good it is in Sweden compared to other countries’’. We argue that it is time to take a new, more realistic look at the Swedish actuality. A society that is prone to systematic segregation, were finding work largely depends on ‘‘who you know’’, not ‘‘what you know’’, and an education system that is involved in a race towards the bottom by inflating student grades in order to compete for students’ money has major problems. Acknowledgement We would like to thank for the valuable comments from an anonymous reviewer that improved the manuscript. References Bergström, A.M., Nilsson, E., 2013. Meriter väger lätt. (published 04.06.13, 08.00). Försäkringskassan, 2013. Myter om Föräldrapenning Mäns uttag ökar inte i samband med älgjakt. (published 13.09.13). Henrekson, M., Vlachos, J., 2009. Konkurrens om elever ger orättvisa gymnasiebetyg. Dagens nyheter, DN Debatt. (published 17.08.09). PISA, 2013. Programme for International Student Assessment. (published Sunday 15.09.13, 04:00).
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Geoforum journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/geoforum
Critical review
The Swedish system: The image cracking when taking a closer look Juha M. Alatalo ⇑, Oksana V. Ostapenko Uppsala University, Campus Gotland, SE-621 67 Visby, Sweden
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history: Received 12 February 2014 Received in revised form 18 February 2014 Available online 12 March 2014 Keywords: Education system Gender Qualifications Segregation Unemployment Recruitment
a b s t r a c t Sweden has a high international profile regarding social issues and projects an image as one of the best countries in the world in terms of social indicators. Here we argue for a revised view as the reality is that Swedish system is very segregated, particularly in terms of (1) relative lack of women in positions of high influence, (2) it is the worst country in the EU28 regarding long-term unemployment for people born outside the country, and (3) it has a education system that after a number of reforms is involved in a ‘‘race towards the bottom’’ to profit from students. At the same time Sweden undervalues foreign academic qualifications and getting work largely depends on ‘‘who you know’’, not ‘‘what you know’’. Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Contents Acknowledgement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Sweden has for many years had a high profile internationally regarding the social qualities of the country. It promotes an image of a country that offers equal opportunities for all and that people from all countries are welcome, including refugees from conflict areas and political refugees. The country has accepted a large number of immigrants considering it has a population of roughly 9.6 million people. The number of people born outside Sweden is increasing and in November 2013, roughly 15% of the Swedish population was born in other countries, (SCB, 2013a). It also prides itself as a country of equal opportunities for genders, and has indeed created a number of policies that support inclusion of women in the working population. Men have to a greater extent than many other countries started to stay at home with the children when they are young; sharing the very beneficial parenthood leave between both parents. In Sweden parents can stay at home for 480 days in total with benefits, of which 390 days have higher benefits depending on the salary of the person. Fathers used 24.8% of the days for parenthood leave in 2012 (Försäkringskassan, 2013). ⇑ Corresponding author. E-mail address: [email protected] (J.M. Alatalo). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2014.02.010 0016-7185/Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Nevertheless, Sweden is highly segregated when it comes to positions of influence and power as can be seen in the relative share of various groups in the work force. Looking at people that chair the boards of companies listed in the Swedish stock market (NASDAQ OMX), only 3% of the chairs were women in 2011 (SCB, 2012). Similarly, out of the seven political parties that are represented in the Swedish parliament only one – Centerpartiet – has a woman as leader for the party, and one party – Miljöpartiet – has shared leadership positions that should always be one woman and one man. Labor market segregation in Sweden also impacts immigrants who have great difficulties getting assimilated in the country. In fact, Sweden is worst in the EU28 + Norway and Iceland for immigrant long-term unemployment. In countries like Malta and Poland, people born outside the countries fare much better and are less likely to suffer from long-term unemployment than people born in the country. In Sweden it is the total opposite; people born outside the country account for a much higher share of the long-term unemployed compared to their relative share of the population (SCB, 2013b). Politicians have acknowledged this problem, but as long as Swedish companies and public offices often continue not to hire people with a non-Swedish name, nothing will change. A major problem is that getting work in Sweden is often
J.M. Alatalo, O.V. Ostapenko / Geoforum 53 (2014) 82–83
dependent on personal contacts. Up to 70% of qualified positions get hired through personal contacts and consequently only three out of ten professionals get work solely based on their qualifications (Bergström and Nilsson, 2013), which of course makes it almost impossible for immigrants to get into the system. This kind of corruption is difficult to change, and will not stop as long as the country does not enact a merit-based employment system, at least for public positions. Segregation of immigrants is also manifest in other ways. One is that academic qualifications from many countries are often not recognized in Sweden. Thus Sweden has a large number of highly qualified physicians and engineers that cannot get qualified positions. Instead they are forced into further study which may be especially difficult for them when the education is in Swedish. Alternatively they may take up low paid work as cleaners and taxi drivers, if they can find it. At the same time many in Sweden, from students to politicians, assume that Swedish academic qualifications should be recognized worldwide. Meanwhile the results for Swedish students in the PISA test tell a different story as they are falling rapidly, and in the latest assessment Sweden was below the average for countries that are part of ‘‘The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’’ (OECD) in all subjects (PISA, 2013). These results indicate that Swedish qualifications are also open to question, not just qualifications from other countries. It is not that Swedish schools lack resources as many countries with higher scores have more students per teacher. However, one problem is that students in primary school are sometimes actually hindered by their teachers from studying at a faster pace if they find a subject interesting. This is supported by personal experience where one of our children was held back in her studies of mathematics as ‘‘everyone should study at the same pace’’, effectively killing the ambition of many students. Luckily for the child, having a parent who is a senior lecturer at the oldest university in Sweden meant this did not stop her from studying ahead of her classmates, as the parent promised to take the blame for any complaint from the teacher/school. Another problem with Swedish high schools is that the grades are prone to ‘‘inflation’’. Sweden has opened up the school system from being a public state monopoly to first let the municipalities take over the responsibility and then allowing in private companies to run them. Another reform was to let the ‘‘student money’’ follow the pupil who was then allowed to make a free choice of school instead of starting in the ‘‘neighborhood school’’ for the area where the student lives. These reforms have resulted in schools competing students and there has been an increase in the number of unqualified teachers, with the largest share of unqualified teachers in private schools. Furthermore head masters no longer have to be qualified as teachers. One way to attract students is to give high grades. Henrekson and Vlachos (2009) showed that the highest grade in high school was given out 28 times more in 2007, as compared to 1997. They interpreted this as a result of higher
83
competition among high schools to attract students. This inflation in grades from high school is clearly seen in some of the Swedish Universities where the lecturers increasingly complain that the students no longer have the basic skills in reading and writing. At universities in Sweden, the reimbursement system has also changed so that departments within the universities now get paid by the number of students who pass the exams. This has caused pressure in the university system to pass as many students as possible, creating frustration in university teachers. If economic rationales take precedence over normal academic standards is a major problem for universities, particularly those that do not attract the best students. This reform were implemented in the 1990s, ostensibly to enhance quality, but in reality had a corrupting effect as passing more students leads to economic benefits (Swedish Radio, 2013). Nevertheless, many people in the country still think Swedish academic qualifications should be accepted all over the world while academic qualifications from other countries are to be questioned in Sweden. In spite of these facts, Sweden’s citizens and it’s politicians, regardless of political party, still try to project an image of the country to the outside world as one of the best in the world, where all have the same possibilities in the society. Internally it prides itself as the best country in the world. The politicians tell the voters that they do a good job – ‘‘look how good it is in Sweden compared to other countries’’. We argue that it is time to take a new, more realistic look at the Swedish actuality. A society that is prone to systematic segregation, were finding work largely depends on ‘‘who you know’’, not ‘‘what you know’’, and an education system that is involved in a race towards the bottom by inflating student grades in order to compete for students’ money has major problems. Acknowledgement We would like to thank for the valuable comments from an anonymous reviewer that improved the manuscript. References Bergström, A.M., Nilsson, E., 2013. Meriter väger lätt.