Title: Who wants to hire them, when there are other candidates? The aim of this study was to gain deeper understanding regarding employers’ thoughts about hiring ex-offenders. This to illustrate how it affects the reintegration into society. We wanted to examine the significance of a person's background, what obstacles employers consider to exist in the labour market and what they believe would have a positive effect on reintegration into the labour market. The empirical evidence in this study has been analysed out of perspectives from theories about labelling and deviance as well as the concept of social exclusion together with previous research in the field. Six employers were interviewed to share their thoughts on hiring people with a criminal record. We distinguished four themes which emerged from the employer’s reasoning about hiring ex-offenders: the applicant's background, significant factors for employers reasoning, obstacles in the labour market and positive reintegration into the labour market. Conclusions made from this study have shown that employers decisions are influenced by prejudices in society as well as the company’s guidelines and resources. The study has also shown that employers experience the need for more actions from politicians to contribute to a positive reintegration into the labour market for ex-offenders. Finally, this study conclude that employers believe that there are characteristics and strategies that facilitate re-entry into the labour market for people with criminal records.

The success of each of the policies implemented and the achievement of their proclaimed goals is largely influenced by the institutional framework - formal, which is legal framework that is codified and informal, which consists mainly of culture and values of society. The Czech Republic after 1989 began to take over Western legal standards, although the attitudes and moral values of the majority of society did not comply. The actual form of the Czech legal norms was influenced by bringing this country into the European Union, but also by the development of the local labour market and the attitudes of the Czech public, which is reflected most in the government-approved material, the Interior Ministry "Draft Measures to managing economic migration" and that just through the legislative process. The Czech Republic, as well as countries of the European Union, meets the paradox of EU (defined by Genç). On one side Czech law marginalized employees from the third countries and on the other hand Czech Economy these workforces needs, and that is why are created programs to attract "Requested "workers. The Czech Republic is considered by economic migrants from third countries as "buffer" land, which is for them a gateway to enter into more advanced countries of the European Union. This trend is confirmed in...

The objective of this essay is to investigate if working conditions affect the retirement age and additionally, aims to explore the differences in the effects between women and men. This study investigates this by using data of individuals living in Sweden in 2012 that were between the age of 63 and 74 (i.e individuals that are born between 1938 and 1949) retrieved fromStatistics Employment Register (Sysselsättningsregister). To complete the information, Statistics Sweden, conducted a survey on behalf of Anxo et al (2017) to 20 000 randomly selected individuals that included questions about the individual’s previous working conditions at point of retirement or at age 64 if the individual stayed above the age of 65. The result strengthened the idea from previous research that possibility to choose when and how to work decrease the likelihood of retiring earlier, hence, extends the time on the labour market. Additionally, the results indicated that psychologically demanding jobs and monotone tasks increase the probability of retiring earlier. Some results were rather counter-intuitive where the working conditions: physical demanding job, working under time pressure, number of working hours and working unsocial hours increased the likelihood for an individual to stay longer in the labour market. Additional findings in this essay that contradicted prior studies is that socializing with co-workers outside of work and the possibility to combine family and work increases the probability to retire earlier, hence reduces the likelihood of a later retirement.

Syftet med detta examensarbete är att undersöka hur nuvarande och tidigare musikerstudenter på svenska musikhögskolor får ta del av arbetsmarknadsrelaterade kunskaper inom sin utbildning och genom till yrkesverksamma musiker. Vi har utifrån våra frågeställningar fokuserat på vilka kompetenser som informanterna fått ta del av och hur de upplevt att skolan mött dessa kunskaper. Undersökningen är baserad på 6 kvalitativa intervjuer med musikstudenter som nyligen har examinerats eller är under utbildning. Alla har utifrån ett studentperspektiv fått besvara frågor och reflektera själva kring vad de ansett som viktiga kompetenser och tillvägagångssätt för att kunna försörja sig som musiker. Resultatet har visat att samtliga informanter upplever att det inte fått det stöd eller kunskap de anses ha behövt under sin studietid för att möta arbetsmarknadens krav. Det blir tydligt att det finns brister i undervisningens arbetsmarknadsfrågor och bristande stöd i karriärövergången till att bli yrkesverksam musiker. En studerande kan få erfarenhet av arbetsmarknaden som frilansande under studietiden. Ansvaret ligger på individen att göra sig attraktiv och synlig på arbetsmarknaden. Alla 6 informanter menar att ett stort kontaktnät är fördelaktigt för att konkurrera med andra musiker. Resultatet har analyserats utifrån Savickas Career construction theory, CCT, en metateori som baseras på att jobbet ska matchas till individen och nå självförverkligande. Begreppet school-to-work har i studien stått i centrum för att analysera övergången mellan skola till arbetsmarknad för musikstudenterna, där fokuset har legat på att se om de högre utbildningarna möter Savickas kriterier för en lyckad övergång till arbete. / This study concerns Swedish music students' experiences on how the music academies prepare them for a career as professional musicians. The 6 participants were either current or former students at the academies and data was drawn from semi-structured interviews. They were interviewed about their experiences of support and counselling from the schools and its employees. During the interview they were asked to reflect and discuss their experiences as students and individuals on their way to becoming working musicians. Questions were asked about competencies and skills required of the students to become a part of the labour market. The answers showed an imbalance between the knowledge they received and what they actually needed to become professional musicians, both according to the interviewees themselves as well as according to previous studies summarized. The music academy's teaching did not depict the reality as a musician according to its students. The interviewees could identify the major competences needed on the labour market, and identified the same ones missing from their curriculum. Through M. Savickas Career Construction Theory and his concept school-to-work transitions the interviewees answers were analyzed to find what was lacking for the students in aid to make a successful transition from higher musical education to work as professional musicians. Light was also shed on what competences and resources the education has given them. Our major finding concluded that there is a lack of occupational information in higher musical education, as well as a lack of real-life experiences that reflect the true labour market according to the students. The students do not get to evolve the skills they need to, but are able to build a network during these years in school that can aid them in these areas all through their careers.

Bibliography: pages 84-88. / This study focuses on the nature and degree of articulation between Technikon education and labour market needs in South Africa. More specifically, it examines the effectiveness of the assessment of labour market needs as well as the influence of institutional needs and dynamics within the formal decision-making process which governs the introduction of new programmes. The research takes the form of a case study in which the researcher examines the decision-making process relating to the introduction of a particular programme - the ND: Education: Home Economics - at a particular Technikon. Data consisted of official records and documents as well as transcripts of interviews with key participants in the decision-making process. The data was used to reconstruct and analyse the decision-making process as implemented in the case of this programme. The study argues that, in this case, the formal, prescribed process which purported to assess labour market needs did not effectively engage with the actual dynamics of the market place. The mechanisms designed to assess labour market needs were largely symbolic and highly bureaucratised. In addition to being weak in design, assessment procedures were not stringently implemented. While the introduction of new programmes is explicitly justified on the grounds of labour market needs, the decision-making process was in this case, strongly - though implicitly and informally - influenced by institutional needs and dynamics within the Technikon itself. This study points to the weaknesses in the design and control of the official prescribed process which guides decisions regarding the introduction of all new programmes at South African Technikons. On a theoretical level, it also calls into question an assumption on which much literature pertaining to Technikon education is premised, that is, the assumption that there is a relatively smooth articulation between the supply of Technikon graduates and labour market needs.

The issue of unemployment and labour integration of immigrants into the labour market in host countries has always been a source of debate among the public and policymakers in the host countries. This study focuses on the economic integration of highly educated Iraqi immigrants into the Swedish labour market. Based on semi-structured interviews with eight Iraqi immigrants living in Malmö, who have higher education from Iraq, this study aims to illuminate the obstacles and opportunities for Iraqi immigrants to integrate into Swedish labour market, and to find out if their position in the Swedish labour market corresponds to their academic qualifications obtained from Iraq. The theoretical framework of this study explores the concepts of integration, human capital, social capital, and discrimination. Findings of the study revealed that, lack of fluency in Swedish language, family responsibilities, and devaluation of human capital function as main obstacles for highly-educated Iraqi immigrants’ integration into Swedish labour market. The social networks of Iraqi immigrants can be considered as a tool to avoid unemployment in Sweden, but at the same time, it provides access only to a certain categories of jobs that are not in par with higher education of these immigrants. Furthermore, the finding of this study also reveals that the positions of the highly educated Iraqi immigrants have acquired in the Swedish labour market are not commensurate with the educational qualifications they have from Iraq.

Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka upplevelserna av etnisk diskriminering på arbetsmarknaden som resulterat i ett namnbyte från ett utländskt namn till ett mer svenskklingande bland personer med utländsk bakgrund. Vidare kommer studien undersöka ifall namnbytet gett upphov till några sociala konsekvenser som påverkar vardagen och personens identitet. I studien används en kvalitativ metod och det empiriska materialet består av fyra intervjuer med personer som genomgått ett namnbyte för att förbättra deras situation på arbetsmarknaden i Malmö. Den teoretiska ansatsen strävar efter att förklara orsakerna bakom etnisk diskriminering samt visa hur ett namnbyte kan påverka individens identitet. Studiens slutsats är att ett namnbyte kan leda till stora sociala konsekvenser som problem med familj och vänner samt svårigheter med att identifiera sig med det nya namnet vilket leder till en negativ inverkan på identiteten och självbilden. / The essay will illustrate the experiences of ethnic discrimination on the labour market, which resulted in a name change from a foreign name to a more Swedish-like among people with a foreign background. Additionally this study will investigate if the name change has lead to any social consequences that affect the everyday life and the person’s identity. The method in this study is a qualitative approach and the empirical material consists of four interviews with people who changed their name in hope of improving their situation on the labour market in Malmö. The theoretical approach strives to provide an explanation for the reasons behind the ethnic discrimination and to illustrate how the name change affects a person’s identity. The conclusion of this study is that a name change can result in substantial social consequenses like problems among family and friends and can lead to serious difficulty with connecting to and identifying with the new name.

The thesis addresses the debate about the impact of immigration policy on the socio-economic incorporation of immigrants. A distinction between rights-based and responsibility-based models of incorporation is made and the effect of a feature of the responsibility-based model, temporary residence permits, on socio-economic incorporation is studied. Empirically, a policy change in Sweden that entailed a shift from permanent to temporary residence permits is explored through individual-level register and survey data. The thesis uses a two-folded methodological approach: a traditional regression approach and a fuzzy regression discontinuity design. The composition of the available data motivates the two-folded approach. The limitations of both approaches are discussed, and the results compared and contrasted. The results indicate that immigrants with temporary residence permits work more than immigrants with permanent residence permits. This result should however be interpreted with caution due to the limitations of the approaches used. The results do not show a significant effect oftemporary residence permits on an educational outcome, Swedish tuition, nor on a labour market activation outcome, participation in labour market programmes. The predictions that immigrants with temporary residence permits study less and participate in labour market programmes more than immigrants with permanent residence permits are thus not supported.

The Covid-19 pandemic has generated a serious stress test for welfare states and welfare state institutions. This challenge has been met by unprecedented responses from governments, most notably countrywide shutdowns of substantial sections of economies to facilitate social distancing. Consequently, the health crisis was followed closely by an economic crisis. This situation has created a possibility study a process that predates the pandemic, namely liberalization. The thesis applies the theories of Thelen (2014), who claims that while there is an ongoing liberalization in welfare states, there are varieties of liberalization. She refers to the three trajectories of change deregulatory liberalization, dualizing liberalization and embedded flexibilization. The aim of the thesis is to enhance our understanding of how these varieties of liberalization are affected when countries are faced by massive external change. In pursuing this goal, I construct an analytical framework that illustrates the expected labour market policy responses for two of the three trajectory of change. I then conduct a comparative case study of labour market policy responses in Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany, and Sweden. I compare the expected responses with the actual labour market policy responses to the crisis to detect how their responses relate to the trajectories of change towards liberalization. The findings suggest that while the countries have implemented rather similar responses to the crises, some countries’ path towards liberalization has been strengthened by their labour market policy responses, while other countries have diverted from their path towards liberalization during the Covid-19 crisis. The bigger take-aways from these findings are that the process of liberalization will be affected differently due to countries differing paths towards liberalization, as well as their inherent institutional structures. The findings thus highlight the significance of both path dependence and differing trajectories of change concerning the effects of the Covid-19 crisis on the process of liberalization.

Magister Commercii - MCom / There have been many studies focussing on informal sector in South Africa in the last 25 years. This paper adds to the wealth of research that has been conducted in this field. It examines the linkages between the formal sector and informal sector, and how they interact with each other. The study uses probit models and fixed effects models to investigate how variables such as age, education and skill level affect employability and income in the labour market. This paper uses two data sets: wave 1 to wave 5 panel data of the 2008-2016 National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS) to investigate the nature of the formal sector and the informal sector in South Africa. To study the linkages between the firms in the formal and informal sector, it uses the eThekwini Large and Medium Manufacturing Firm Survey dataset collected in 2013/2014.