Around 200 asylum seekers have applied to extend their temporary residency into permanent residency through a jobs scheme, but none of the asylum seekers has managed to find full-time permanent work.
Many asylum seekers in Sweden live on temporary residence permits which have to be renewed every few years. Some apply for permanent residency if they meet certain criteria such as having a full-time job.
Two hundred asylum seekers have applied for permanent residency this year through the job requirement but so far all of the applications were rejected for not meeting the requirements, Arbetet reports.
In total, 6,660 asylum seekers have requested to extend their temporary residency by two years with 840 being approved so far.
The requirements for the job scheme make sure that asylum seekers are in work for at least the next two years, meaning those with short term contracts do not qualify. Salaries also have to be at the Swedish standard for the job and not below it and all asylum seekers below the age of 25 must have the equivalent of a Swedish high school diploma.
Studies have shown that recent migrants to Sweden and Germany from the Middle East and North Africa tend to have very little education and efforts to get them further training have been largely unfruitful. Only three per cent of migrants, according to the Swedish Employment Service, are actually interested in further education.
Attorney Karin Gyllenring, founder of the law firm Asylbyrån which deals with migrant cases, said the educational requirement is particularly unfair. “Those who do not have a secondary education will be disadvantaged because of this,” she said.
Migrants are also vastly overrepresented in Swedish unemployment statistics with individuals from a migrant background having an unemployment rate five times higher than native Swedes. Of Swedes with foreign backgrounds, 21.8 per cent of Swedes, or just over one-fifth, are said to be unemployed according to a recent report.
Germany, which also took a large share of migrants at the height of the migrant crisis in 2015, is facing the same problem with some experts claiming that up to 74 per cent of migrants are only fit for menial jobs despite the growing need for skilled workers.