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Labour market activation policies aimed at those with multiple barriers to employment require inter-agency collaboration between local organizations providing social and employment services. This local collaborative context is shaped by different institutional logics (state, markets, professions and community) that are crucial for policy implementation. Using case studies of nine German, UK and Swedish cities, it is argued that different institutional logics help shape the form and operation of local collaboration between different agencies and actors and thus the concrete support for service users at the local level. Although all three countries are characterized by centralized employment policies, each city shows a prevalence, but not exclusivity, of certain institutional logics over others. These differences, partly reflecting the local context, are likely to lead to local variations in understandings of solidarity, policy implementation, inter-agency collaboration and networks of actors and national–local tensions. The paper suggests that an institutional logics approach provides a useful framework for helping to understand local variations and potential national–local policy conflicts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores trade union strategies to protect wages in the face of EU migration after the enlargement of the European Union. We argue that unions have three instruments at their disposal to deal with the risks linked to downward wage pressure: closure through immigration control, equalisation through collective bargaining and minimum wages, and the organisation of migrant workers. Using comparative case studies of Sweden, Germany and the UK, we show how different types of power resources shape union strategies: unions with substantial organisational resources (in Sweden) relied on a large membership to pursue an equalisation strategy and expected to be able to 'afford' openness. German unions with low membership but access to the political system pushed for a mix of closure and equality drawing on political intervention (e.g. minimum wages). British unions, unable to pursue either, focused their efforts on organisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of European Social Policy is the property of Sage Publications, Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Immigration to Sweden is dominated by women and men of childbearing age, and many arrive with children. The labour-market integration of newly arrived mothers is of concern, and well directed social policy is crucial. Parental leave is based on residence, and until recently it was granted to all parents of foreign-born children of preschool age. This study uses population and social insurance registers to investigate whether newly arrived immigrant mothers use parental leave upon arrival, and whether use is an obstacle to future labour-market activity. Our results indicate that the majority of the newly arrived mothers do not take any parental leave, but also that there are great differences in uptake in relation to country of birth and reason for residence permit. However, there seem to be only marginal associations between parental leave use and subsequent labour-market attachment. Nevertheless, moderate use is associated with labour-market activity rather than being an obstacle to it. Our results contribute to the debate on the unintended effects of social policy on the integration of immigrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyses temporal patterns in social assistance receipt in Sweden in the 2000s by looking at which circumstances facilitate versus reduce the possibilities of a person ceasing to be a recipient of social assistance. The analysis is guided by the following questions: What conditions lead people to terminate periods of social assistance receipt? Which factors are central to exits with different subsequent income patterns? How do these explain the different situations of recipients prior to termination? We focus particularly on income maintenance prior to spells of social assistance. We use event history data on monthly social assistance take-up covering the total adult Swedish population for the years 2002–2004. We adopt a gamma mixture model to control for unobserved heterogeneity. The results suggest that previous experience of both employment and social assistance receipt are important determinants for all types of exits from social assistance recipiency. A negative duration dependence is found also when unobserved heterogeneity is controlled for. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines whether and to what extent three recently implemented family policies in Sweden change incentives regarding employment and choice of childcare for parents of young children, and whether these incentives differ by income level. These policy innovations warrant close examination because they represent a decisive ideological shift from what was a coherent set of policies that created incentives for high levels of female employment and that has been identified as a model of best practice in Europe. Simulating the economic incentive effects of the three new policies for heterosexual couple families with different levels of income, we find that while family policy in Sweden continues to provide the strongest support for a model of gender equality that combines full-time dual earning with public childcare, alternative organizations of family life are now more affordable. Nonetheless, the extent to which the costs of deviation from this model have changed varies by income level. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Copyright of Journal of European Social Policy is the property of Sage Publications, Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The conceptualisation and measurement of benefit coverage is muddled with considerable confusion. In this forum contribution, we propose a new consolidated framework for the analysis of benefit coverage. Three sequential steps in measurement are suggested, involving the calculation of coverage rates, eligibility rates and take-up rates in social protection. Each step of the analysis focuses on particular aspects of programme legislation and implementation, and together the new framework will substantially improve the possibilities of research to inform policymaking. We provide an empirical illustration of our approach based on Swedish data, and highlight how our new consolidated framework for analysing benefit coverage provides a reorientation of the research agenda on benefit coverage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the wake of the recent increase in the inflows of refugees to Europe, governments have made considerable investments in public policies aimed at facilitating the labour market integration of refugees. Despite these efforts, the labour market participation of refugees remains low. This situation raises the question of whether employers actually appreciate these public policies and whether refugees' participation in specific active labour market policies (ALMPs), such as work practice or wage subsidies, increases their likelihood of being hired. In this article, we take a novel approach and combine employers' evaluations of specific ALMPs with their attitudes towards refugees. We argue that these labour market policies can only be successful when employers hold positive attitudes towards refugees in the first place. We investigate this question by means of a factorial survey experiment with employers in Austria, Germany and Sweden. Our results show that, indeed, employers' evaluations of fictional refugee candidates who participated in ALMPs are influenced by their attitudes towards this group. Participation in these policy measures is regarded positively only by those employers who already hold positive attitudes towards refugees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article puts contemporary debates about the relationship between immigration policy and the welfare state in historical perspective. Relying on new historical data, the article examines the relationship between immigration policy and social policy in Western Europe in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when the modern welfare state emerged. Germany already had comparably strict immigration policies when the German Empire introduced the world's first national social insurances in the 1880s. Denmark, another early social-policy adopter, also pursued restrictive immigration policies early on. Almost all other countries in Western Europe started out with more liberal immigration policies than Germany's and Denmark's, but then adopted more restrictive immigration policies and more generous social policies concurrently. There are two exceptions, Belgium and Italy, which are discussed in the article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses childcare services in six countries, assessing this policy instrument's potential to facilitate parents' capabilities for arranging childcare in a way they have reason to value. It draws on Sen's capability approach to conceptualize and assess childcare policy design across five key aspects of childcare provision (accessibility, availability, affordability, quality and flexibility) in a country-comparative perspective. The conceptualization of the multifaceted nature of childcare provides compelling insights into the complexity of comparing childcare services across countries. The ensuing analysis and comprehensive overview of national policies challenges the idea of a defamilialization policy cluster, which masks key distinctions between public and market service provision. The more nuanced conceptualization and operationalization of childcare policy design through the capability approach reveals parents' real opportunities for arranging childcare and the varying effects of policy design across gender and class. In addition, it goes beyond implicit commodification assumptions and opens up space for parents' potential desire for multiple care arrangement possibilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of parental leave by fathers varies notably between countries. However, the underlying reasons for cross-country differences have not been explicitly studied. We use migration between Finland and Sweden as an instrument to decompose the roles of policy design and social norms in the differences in take-up rates between these two countries. First, we inferred the role of policy by looking at fathers from the same country of origin in various policy contexts. Second, we deduced the role of norms by examining fathers who migrated at different ages and fathers with spouses of different origins. We find that the large cross-country differences in fathers' use of parental leave between Finland and Sweden mainly stem from differences in policy design. Norms seem to play a smaller but still significant role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores how policy constructions shape policy outcomes for immigrant women and men, focusing on two Swedish childcare policies: (1) parental leave and (2) childcare services. It sheds light on the dynamics between policy constructions and (1) the gender differentiation in immigrants' social entitlements, (2) the gender differentiation in social entitlements of the Swedish-born population and (3) differences and similarities between the two. Among the major findings is that the universal construction of childcare services and parental insurance promotes parity in immigrant and Swedish-born parents' utilization. Immigrant families have high enrolment rates in childcare programmes and their rates approach or equal those of non-immigrant families. In the case of parental benefits, over 40 percent of immigrant mothers would be ineligible without the universal construction, and a huge immigrant/ethnic divide in entitlement would exist. Second, a gender differentiation characterizes the claiming of parental benefits, and the differentiation is sharper for immigrant parents. Third, the ethnicity benefit differential is much wider for mothers' parental leave benefits than for fathers' benefits. Fourth, despite universal policy constructions, immigrants' weaker attachment to the labour market affects their social rights, and the effect is greater for immigrant women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article stresses the need to study how European Union (EU) member states define and implement the concept of habitual residence to assess boundaries of welfare in the EU. It focuses specifically on EU migrant citizens' social rights and draws on comparative qualitative research on two EU member states – Germany and Sweden. The article first clarifies the differences between legal and habitual residence, and distinguishes between legal definitions of habitual residence and administrative formalities tied to such definitions. After examining legal definitions at the EU level, it goes on to consider additional definitions found in each member state case and administrative formalities attached to these definitions. Following this, implications for EU migrant citizens' social rights in each country are assessed. The analysis reveals how administrative processes of residence registration shape conditionality. In this way, administrative aspects of habitual residence can have far-reaching exclusive effects on EU migrant citizens' access to social benefits and services in the destination member state, as well as inhibit their ability to enjoy their right to freedom of movement. The article thus illustrates the inherent tension between free movement and residence-based social rights in a Union with devolved social provision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article compares Spain and Sweden, dissimilar in their welfare/care, migration and employment regimes; however, both have experienced expansions of private markets for personal household services where migrants are over-represented. Using Sen’s capabilities framework as a point of departure, we explore the extent to which regime differences shaping the dynamics of personal household service markets are reflected in the capabilities and well-being of migrants employed in them. Despite variations in employment regimes and market structures, we found more similarities than differences in capabilities and well-being. Institutional contexts mattered for the access to entitlements and capabilities for alternative choices in employment, discernible in the more positive perceptions of future possibilities and potential agency to leave the sector among migrants in Sweden than in Spain. The analysis is based on 90 semi-structured interviews, as well as findings from two national migrant surveys and interviews with stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explored changes in the associations between and coexistence of disadvantages in several dimensions of living conditions in the oldest old people in Sweden. We used nationally representative data from 1992 (n = 537), 2002 (n = 621) and 2011 (n = 931). Indicators of limited social resources, limited political resources, limited financial resources, psychological health problems, physical health problems and functional limitations were used. The probability of reporting coexisting disadvantages tended to increase and was particularly elevated in 2002. Physical health problems became more common, and functional limitations, limited financial resources and limited political resources became less common during the studied period. Associations between health-related disadvantages remained fairly stable, whereas associations including other kinds of disadvantages varied somewhat over the studied period. These changes suggest that in general, the composition of coexisting disadvantages is likely to have altered over time. Consequently, the challenges faced by disadvantaged groups in 2011 may have been different from those in 1992. Moreover, the healthcare and social care services directed to older people have undergone significant changes during the past decades. These changes to the system accentuate the vulnerability of people experiencing coexisting disadvantages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The social political debate on immigration as a challenge to the welfare states has been remarkably silent on gender and family issues. This article argues that immigrants’ use of welfare benefits targeted at families may be particularly problematic, because such benefits embody certain normative tensions that other social policies do not. It is suggested that tensions may be particularly high in Scandinavia, given the Scandinavian countries’ long-term commitment to facilitating employment for women. What happens when immigrants in the Scandinavian countries use policies targeted at families to maintain gender-complimentary family practices and home-based motherhood? Will such practices be met by reforms that streamline benefits around the principle of universal employment? The article highlights policy arrangements that have been described as detrimental to immigrant women’s employment in Norway, Sweden and Denmark, and reviews whether they have been reformed in recent years and, where relevant, what arguments have been used to motivate reforms. The analysis shows that many of the relevant benefits recently have been reformed to become less accommodating of home-based care work. However, politics clearly matter, and it is not given that immigrants’ use of benefits will always be a trump card. Also, dynamics vary according to how controversial the welfare arrangement in question was before it was highlighted as an immigrant issue. A third finding is that even when benefit arrangements that have been highlighted as particularly detrimental to immigrant women’s employment are targeted, politicians often downplay the integration issue when arguing for reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Proponents of user choice argue that this type of policy arrangement improves the quality of public social services since users are expected to select the most highly performing providers. In order for users to make informed choices, however, they need quality information about the services offered by different providers. In this article, we carry out a case study, investigating whether information about service quality was presented to users of home-based elderly care in Sweden. The analysis is based on unique data regarding the information of 223 providers in 10 municipalities. The results suggest that the information was poor and lacking in important quality dimensions. This indicates a lack of real user power since it is virtually impossible for users to make informed choices without relevant information. It also makes it less likely that the general quality level of home-based services will increase as a result of the user choice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We question the common description of poverty in Western countries as largely brief and transient and show that the spell-based analyses from which this view stems diverts attention from the bulk of poverty, which is persistent rather than transient. Measures of poverty concentration are suggested. Using Swedish population data spanning 18 years (1990--2007, N (persons*years) = 102,754,809), we can avoid problems that plague poverty research using survey data and can give precise calculations of completed durations without relying on questionable assumptions. The majority of poverty years were experienced by people in long-term poverty: 69 percent of all poverty years over the 18-year period fell on people with 5 years or more in poverty. Half of all poverty years were borne by only 5 percent of the population, meaning that poverty was highly concentrated. This speaks in favour of the social policy efficiency in targeting a small group of long-term poor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article investigates how the poor and welfare recipients are depicted in British, Danish and Swedish newspapers. The study was inspired by American media studies that have documented a negative stereotypic way of portraying the poor and welfare recipients, especially when they are African Americans. The article argues that there is an institutional welfare regime logic behind the way the poor and welfare recipients are depicted in the mass media. It is not only a matter of race. This argument is substantiated by showing that the poor and welfare recipients are (1) also depicted negatively in a liberal welfare regime, the UK, where most of the poor and welfare recipients are perceived to be white, and (2) depicted positively in two social-democratic welfare regimes, Sweden and Denmark, where the poor and welfare recipients have increasingly come to be perceived as non-white, especially in Denmark. The empirical analyses are based on a sample of 1750 British, 1750 Danish and 1750 Swedish newspapers covering the period from 2004 to 2009. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

How do policymakers deal with the tension between choice and equity in healthcare? An analysis and critical examination of Swedish policymakers’ arguments when introducing legislated choice of primary care provider in 2010 shows that even when deciding on a reform with a potentially great impact on distribution of health resources, implications for equity were not systematically addressed. Effects with regards to current patterns of healthcare consumption in the population as well as existing inequalities in health outcomes were not adequately addressed. Neither was the primary are choice reform, which is based on the values of consumerism and individual choice, problematized in relation to current healthcare legislation such as the Health and Medical Services Act. Given that the values of equity and social solidarity have had such a prominent place in Swedish health policy and discourse in past decades, this is a surprising finding. In conclusion, we argue that because inequalities in health constitute one of the main challenges for public health today, the impact of healthcare reforms on equity should receive more attention in policymaking. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Street-level bureaucrats have been given an increasing role in the implementation of policies aimed at the poor. The article analyses: (1) how social workers in the Nordic countries explain the causes of poverty and whether there are variations between countries in social workers’ perceptions; and (2) the nature of the impact, if any, of various individual- and municipal-level factors on social workers’ perceptions of the causes of poverty. Survey data gathered from social workers in four countries are analysed and combined with data from the municipalities in which the respondents work. The results illustrate that social workers display a surprisingly large variation in perceptions: there are differences between countries and also differences related to individual-level factors, while municipality-level factors do not appear to influence the perceptions of social workers in an obvious way. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article is about the transnational movement of policy discourses on childcare. It considers whether the spread of neoliberal ideas with their emphasis on marketisation, on the one hand, and a social investment discourse on the other, are leading to convergence in childcare arrangements in Nordic countries (Finland and Sweden) and liberal Anglo-Saxon countries (Australia and Canada). We find points of convergence around both themes at the level of policy discourse and continued diversity in the way these ideas are translated into actual policies. In other words, convergence is mediated by institutions and political realignments. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The use of markets and market mechanisms to deliver care services is growing in both liberal and social democratic welfare states. This article examines debates and policies concerning the marketisation of eldercare and childcare in Sweden, England and Australia. It shows how market discourses and practices intersect with, reinforce or challenge traditions and existing policies and examines whether care markets deliver user empowerment and greater efficiency. Markets for eldercare and childcare have developed in uneven and context specific ways with varying consequences. Both politics and policy history help to shape market outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

While the employment of migrant women as care workers in European welfare states is increasing, the rate, extent and nature of this increase vary. The article draws on empirical research on migrant care work to develop links between three levels of analysis – micro, meso and macro. The main aim is to progress analysis of the meso level by developing indicators attached to three sets of regimes – care regimes, migration regimes and employment regimes. It is argued that variations emerge in the ways these three regimes intersect within any one country. These intersections allow us to look across different sites, markets and sectors of care work and, in so doing, reveal a degree of growing convergence across Europe in the employment of migrant care labour. This convergence contributes, at the macro level, to a transnational political economy of care. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Since the introduction of parental leave in Sweden a more gender-equal division of such leave has been targeted. In 1995 one month was reserved for each parent, implying that the month was forfeited if not used by the same parent. A second month was reserved in 2002. In 2008, a gender equality bonus was introduced, meaning that tax credits were given to parents who shared the leave equally. This study investigates the effects of these reforms on parental leave use by means of a difference-in-difference approach with parents of children born just before and just after the introduction of each reform. We use register data from the Swedish Social Insurance Agency, which include all parents residing in Sweden. The results indicate a strong effect on parental leave use resulting from the introduction of the first reserved month, a more modest but clear effect resulting from the second reserved month and, so far, no effect resulting from the gender equality bonus. Possible interpretations of the results are that (1) reserved time may be more effective than an economic bonus, (2) change from low levels of use may be easier and (3) reforms may matter most when they are first introduced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses the question of how unexpected national and international emergencies -- the 'black swans' of war, economic depression, hyperinflation and, more prospectively and topically, terrorist incidents and environmental catastrophes -- affect the character of welfare state interventions and welfare state development. We do have clear evidence of such effects in the past: hyperinflation in Germany made that country particularly inflation averse; the Great Depression was a stimulus to welfare state development in countries such as Sweden and New Zealand; and the Second World War was a key factor in the subsequent development of the post-war British welfare state. However, the impact of emergencies is, at best, a very minor theme of welfare state analysis and one largely left to historians of the welfare state, suggesting that such effects are no longer considered to be a major factor shaping welfare state development and that welfare states are like 'elephants on the move', rarely significantly thrown off course by particular events. The article speculates on why that might be, noting the importance of the timing of the emergency, its type, size, and the extent and character of prior welfare provisions. The article concludes by examining the implications of this analysis for our understanding of the likely impact of possible future emergencies of a terrorist or environmental character and of the proper political response to such emergencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using survey data from Norway and Sweden, we assess people's attitudes toward gender equality. Previous studies argue that these attitudes are more egalitarian in Sweden than in Norway. Similar to previous research, we find that Swedes are more positive towards gender equality in general. However, we find no differences regarding views on egalitarian sharing of household responsibilities, and Norwegians are actually more supportive of government intervention to increase gender equality. This suggests that the lower support for gender equality in Norway is not as clear-cut as previously thought and that active state intervention to improve gender equality may be even more feasible in Norway than in Sweden. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Nordic countries, gender equality is an explicit policy goal. For example, Norway and Sweden both offer paid parental leave for approximately one year following childbirth with earnings-related benefits and with certain periods reserved exclusively for the father. In this study, we examine the relationship between fathers' and mothers' use of parental leave and continued childbearing among couples in Norway and Sweden. The two countries offer largely similar family policies, but differ concerning family policy context. While Sweden has a consistent policy concerning gender relations, Norway has more ambiguous family policies giving incentives both to gender equality and childrearing at home. Our study is based on event-history analyses of Nordic register data and shows that fathers' parental leave use is positively associated with continued childbearing in both Norway and Sweden, for both one- and two-child couples. The association is stronger in Norway. For two-child families, a long period of leave for the mother is positively associated with a third birth. It seems as if the two-child family is highly compatible with the combination of work and family life, but that in families who choose to have more children, the mother often seems to have a weaker work orientation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent changes in Swedish alcohol policy have mainly been described by researchers and politicians in terms of a Swedish implementation of EU rules. The European Comparative Alcohol Study (ECAS), however, shows the complexity of Europeanization and can function as an example of the possibilities for the reverse influence. The project was an initiative by the Swedish Ministry of Health and Social Affairs and was presented as a comparative study that could serve as a basis for further discussions about common measures in European alcohol policy. The article analyses how ECAS has been perceived and used politically at national and EU levels. The results show that ECAS was the first attempt from Sweden and Finland to influence EU on the alcohol question, and the expressed political purpose mainly focused on the possibilities to work internationally. The article indicates that ECAS has been quite influential within the research community and within the public health frame. However, the impact within other frames has been more or less limited to the slow process of moulding public opinion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the first part of the gender revolution, women have entered the public spheres of education, employment and politics. The next step is the process by which men enter the private sphere and share the responsibility for the care of home and children equally with their female partners. Using comparable survey data, we investigate to what extent this process is underway in Norway and Sweden, analysing both ideal and actual sharing. Young Swedish couples are clearly more in favour of egalitarian sharing of housework than their Norwegian counterparts, and also seem to apply this ideal in reality to a greater extent. This is probably due to Sweden's longer history of gender equality norms, which are more 'institutionalized' in public policies (thus demonstrating path dependency). However, more or less the same explanatory factors were established to be important as those found by researchers of other, less gender-equal, societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our aim is to analyse both the incidence and distribution of economic hardship in three countries — Finland, Britain and Sweden — using measures of relative deprivation. The study represents a unique endeavour as our comparisons are based not on income data but on direct observations of consumption of goods and services. The method applied has been developed from the consensual poverty approach pioneered by Mack and Lansley (1985). Hence, what we will observe is the inability to consume socially perceived necessities, both goods and activities, because of lack of income. The preliminary results contradict, to a large degree, findings derived from more traditional studies based solely on income data. They also reveal a detailed picture of the way relative deprivation is structured within countries and the differences that prevail between the three countries. The analysis represents a first step in an effort to develop alternative tools when comparing poverty and economic well-being between countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compares data from Swedish population registers with information on regional child-care characteristics to estimate the influence of the latter on second and third-birth intensities of married or cohabiting couples in 1997 and 1998, the two years when Total Fertility Rates reached an all-time trough in Sweden. Impact of municipal-level day-care infrastructure on decisions about continued child bearing; Effects of provision rate, child-to-staff ratio and the cost of care to parents.