Street-level bureaucrat in the introduction programme – client-centred and authority-centred strategies to handle challenging working conditions

Abstract

Departing from the theory of street-level bureaucracy, this article usesa qualitative approach to examine employment officers’ perceptions of workingin the Swedish introduction programme for newly arrived migrants. Theprogramme is managed by the Swedish Public Employment Service, and theaim of the study is to illuminate how street-level bureaucrats perceive theprerequisites of implementing integration policy within the introductionprogramme, and how they respond to these prerequisites. The study showsthat the interviewees perceive the working conditions as difficult, characterizedby a pronounced tension between organizational demands andmigrants’ needs. To manage this dilemma, the street-level bureaucratsapply several coping strategies, and we highlight two broad patterns ofpractice. Within the client-centred pattern, attempts were made to use discretionto assist the participants in accordance with their needs. Within theauthority-centred pattern, the street-level bureaucrats applied a formal andrule-oriented understanding of their assignment, concentrating their effortson maintaining the functionality of the introduction programme. The mostimportant implication of the study is that it reveals a mismatch between thepolitically formulated integration policy and the actual needs of the migrants,as perceived by the interviewees. The current integration policy is heavilyinfluenced by a workfare logic, causing the introduction programme to befocussed on providing support connected to labour-market matching.However the programme lacks adequate structures to support its participantsto handle e.g. practical, health-related and psychosocial issues that wouldindirectly facilitate labour-market participation. Thus, this study encouragespoliticians and policymakers to formulate a more holistic integration policy.

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