Executive summary

This study explores employers’ perspectives on and experiences of hiring low-skilled immigrants in the Nordic labour market. The main aim of the study is to identify the key motivations and benefits, as well as the challenges that employers encounter when hiring immigrants – and ways to overcome these. The focus is on lower-educated immigrants from outside the EU, as they face distinct challenges when attempting to enter the labour market.

Employers play a central role in supporting immigrant integration in society, but there is relatively little existing knowledge of their perspectives and experiences. Thus, the analysis presented in this report is based on a review of the literature highlighting employers’ perspectives, and on semi-structured interviews with both public- and private-sector employers who have committed to hiring low-skilled immigrants in the Nordic countries.

The literature review emphasises a range of incentives for employers to hire immigrants, encompassing both economic considerations and wider societal implications. The benefits of hiring immigrants include primarily the access to a larger pool of labour, but also enhanced public image and increased consumer support. Furthermore, the literature review highlights the benefits to employers of a diverse workforce, including greater flexibility, improved productivity, higher levels of motivation and enhanced customer service.

At the same time, there are various challenges associated with hiring immigrants, in the form of structural, organisational and individual barriers. Structural barriers can relate to the structure of local labour markets, the legal and regulatory framework, and the evaluation of educational records and skills validation. Organisational barriers refer to difficulties that arise at a workplace when trying to employ and integrate immigrants. These can include anticipated higher initial costs, potential management hurdles, e.g. due to language barriers or cultural differences, negative attitudes among staff members and leadership, bias and discrimination. Individual barriers concern the personal characteristics of immigrants that influence their employability, at least as perceived by employers, such as poor language and professional skills.

The empirical material includes interviews with eight employers across the Nordic countries, offering insights into their motivations, challenges and enabling factors in relation to hiring immigrants. One prominent motivation that consistently arises, in both the literature review and the interviews, is the pressing need to address labour shortages. This is particularly evident in rural areas, and in specific sectors such as healthcare, hospitality and the fishing industry.

For many employers, however, the motivation extends beyond simply filling gaps in the workforce – hiring immigrants is perceived as a way to make a positive impact on the local community. By bringing them on board, employers are enabling immigrants to become active contributors to the local economy and tax base. In interviews with Nordic employers, the most frequently cited challenges relate to communication and limited language proficiency.

Diversity management has emerged as pivotal for the successful integration of immigrants into the workforce. A key insight from this study is the importance of committed leadership that embraces diversity and fosters intercultural understanding among staff. Reducing language requirements emerged as an effective short-term solution to address language barriers, especially during the recruitment process and the initial stages of employment. Moreover, engaging interpreters or mediators, as well as translating instructions into various languages, proved to be beneficial.

Collaboration has emerged as a cornerstone of success in immigrant integration. Public-sector actors, such as local authorities and Public Employment Services, play a vital role by offering support in skills-matching, language courses, wage subsidies, and administrative assistance. Their contribution has been particularly visible in smaller localities and among smaller companies. Engagement with staffing agencies and third-sector actors has made an important contribution to the public sector’s efforts in matching employers and immigrant employees and in providing relevant courses and training.

Wage subsidies have demonstrated a positive effect on immigrant employment, particularly in Sweden. However, this study also reveals that there is room to improve employers’ awareness of these subsidies. Moreover, only a few of the interviewed employers considered wage subsidies as a hiring incentive. 

In this study, employers generally consider that the long-term advantages of hiring immigrants outweigh the initial challenges. They often note that the integration process is smoother than they anticipated. To improve integration of non-EU citizens in the labour market, it is crucial that public authorities promote the benefits of diversity to employers and increase awareness of the available public support, including wage subsidies. This can be realised through promoting knowledge exchanges, showcasing successful practices and offering specialised training in diversity management.