Immigrants on the career path

By Christina B. Claussen

Norwegian labour offices have not been effective enough in marketing the expertise of Norway's immigrants to prospective employers.

This was one of the conclusions reached by Tove Håpnes and Anne Iversen, two researchers at SINTEF Industrial Management, in their report on effective strategies in multicultural businesses. They studied four Norwegian companies that had made a deliberate - and rewarding - choice to employ immigrants. These companies, like most, want to present themselves as modern and distinctive businesses. They also want to serve as encouraging examples of the benefits to be gained by systematically developing the professional skills of immigrant workers and actively promoting employment mobility among them.

The aim of the study was to identify and call attention to the strategies of these companies and motivate other employers to promote the development of a multicultural work environment. The report by Håpnes and Iversen was financed by the Working Environment Fund of the Confederation of Norwegian Business and Industry (NHO).

- In their approach, explains Håpnes, the four companies shared some significant strategies: they did their own recruiting, they recruited according to qualifications and interests, and they focused on integration. New recruits were often recommended by immigrant employees, potentially increasing the number of immigrants to be employed if they held the necessary qualifications.

Some of the results read like fairytales. In one of the companies, for example, immigrants had contributed actively to product development and in the other companies, several immigrants launched new careers by making the transition from unskilled to skilled labour. However, according to Håpnes, positive results such as these are achieved only when a company's management abandons old prejudices, promotes cross-cultural cooperation, and pursues an active policy of integration at all levels in the company.

- The language barrier can obviously be a problem in this context, says Håpnes. Immigrant workers were therefore always placed alongside Norwegians, preventing the emergence of cliques. This was done because the companies recognized that optimal language skills are a significant advantage for the individual employee.

- Racial discrimination is not tolerated, she emphasizes. As part of the business strategy, any disparaging comments to or about an immigrant worker is met with sanctions. While workers are free to hold and reflect other opinions outside work hours, at work they are expected to play by democratic rules.

* Contact at SINTEF: Tove Håpnes
Tel: + 47 73 59 25 52
E-mail: Tove.Hapnes@indman.sintef.no