Mentoring as a way of integrating refugees into the labour market—Evidence from a Swedish pilot scheme

Abstract

Despite the fact that mentoring is used as a mean to increase the speed of labour market integration for immigrants around the world there is little evidence of the impacts of this type of programme. This study investigates the impact of a Swedish mentoring programme on the labour market status of newly arrived refugees. The key finding is that mentoring as a universal 'quick fix' does not attract a great deal of support. However, mentoring does show promise for males for whom a positive and significant impact when the outcome is defined as a yearly income exceeding one basic amount (appx. 4200 euro). For females, no short-term effect is found, although it is suggested the absence of an impact may be due to lock-in effects in other labour market programmes.