In many parts of the country, new arrivals find it difficult to get a job, but not in Kiruna, where, among other things, urban relocation has created a cyclically strong labor market with a shortage of labor.
The refugee autumn 2015 was something of a lottery for the municipality, says Monica Isaksson, unit manager for labor market and integration in Kiruna.
– It has gone very well, Kiruna has a thriving labor market, and most of those who have remained here, they have come to work and started their integration in the municipality, she says.
Of just over 900 Adult asylum seekers who were in the mining town north of the Arctic Circle at the end of 2015 are about 200 left today, of which almost nine out of ten have jobs.
– We need them. If you just look at elderly care, we could not have given a holiday to those who work in elderly care if we did not have these people, says Monica Isaksson.
Many new arrivals have been given simpler jobs that do not require any further education, in care, and the restaurant and tourism industry, among other things.
But 35-year-olds Mohammed Ahmed from Yemen has got a permanent job with the mining company LKAB after training as an automation technician.
– I feel safe. I feel that I am part of this society when you have a job, you feel that you have value.
Kiruna’s strong The labor market is partly due to the fact that LKAB is doing well, and the urban relocation that creates many construction projects.
But the move, forced by the underground mine penetrating further and further into the center with the risk of crack formation, also means that residential buildings are demolished.
– The dilemma we have had is our urban transformation, which on the one hand is fantastic, but on the other hand it creates problems with housing, says municipal councilor Gunnar Selberg, Center Party.
Had it not been Due to the housing shortage, more asylum seekers from the refugee autumn of 2015 could probably have stayed in Kiruna and worked, Monica Isaksson believes.
– Right now it is truck drivers who are the big thing, and also with LKAB’s contractors, they need a lot of people, so absolutely it would have been possible.
Source: ICELAND NEWS
