Nordic Street-Level Integration Work

Fafo coordinates a Nordic network of researchers within the field of Street-Level Integration Work. A focus on what happens at the street-level, in the operationalization of policy to practice and in interaction with concrete individuals, provides important contributions to the how and why of integration work and outcomes of integration efforts in the Nordic countries. The network organizes a workshop-series designed to promote, develop, and support collaborative research on integration work in street-level organizations in the Nordic countries.

Because of their generous and comprehensive welfare regimes, successful integration of migrants is particularly important to the sustainability and legitimacy of the Nordic welfare states.

Although the Nordic countries share several welfare state characteristics, their responses to migration and outcomes of integration efforts differs widely. Comparative Nordic research have typically been concerned with policy-level of migration and integration efforts. However, there might be a long haul from national policies to local practices and realities.

To understand and manage diverging outcomes, studies need to unpack not only the significance of macro and meso-level factors, but the significance of micro-level interactions between the street-level workers who implement policy and the people who are on the receiving end of the services they provide.

We coordinate a workshop-series of three workshops designed to promote, develop, and support collaborative research on Nordic street-level integration work.

During 2023 and 2024 we will gather Nordic scholars at different career stages and with different backgrounds for in-person attendance at workshops in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. The workshops will present state-of-the-art of Nordic street-level integration work and particularities in the three countries, and encourage creative discussions among participants.

Through these workshops, we aim to develop large-scale collaborative projects that is curiosity-driven and ambitious for applications for Nordic and international sources of funding and promote co-authored publications and common dissemination plans between Nordic scholars.

By promoting collaboration between Nordic scholars on questions such as what is being done by street-level workers, and with what implications for individuals and integration policy, the workshop-series provide novel contributions to knowledge production on Nordic integration work.

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November 19 a Nordforsk seminar within the topic "Aktuelle og historiske perspektiver på NGO’ers rolle på migrationsområdet i de nordiske velfærdsstater" will be held in Aalborg, Denmark. The central focus will be about NGOs and immigration management and involve a number of interesting presentations from researchers (also from our special issue) and representatives from NGOs.

See program.

If you want to join, please register here: Registration: Nordforsk Temaworkshop, Aalborg.

On 4 December, a workshop and panel discussion will be held in Gothenburg: «Att integreras eller återvända: Myndigheters hantering av tidsbegränsad migration - ett nordiskt perspektiv».

Organiser: Centre for Global Migration (CGM) at the University of Gothenburg and the Network for Research on Street-Level Integration Work, funded by Nordforsk

Program and registration

From October 12th to 13th 2023, the first N-SIW workshop will be arranged.

The workshop will be arranged at Fafo in Oslo.

The SISP-conference 2023 invites to a panel on street-level bureaucracy.

Panel 9.6 THE STREET-LEVEL BUREAUCRACY (SLB) LENS Discretion and coping-mechanisms for public services provision in multilevel settings