From governing at distance, to governing on distances. Drawing immigrants closer to the labour market.

• It is common to talk about labour market integration of immigrants by using the distance metaphor. Immigrants are often told to be ‘far away’ from the labour market, some being described as ‘low-hanging fruits’, others as offering figurate ‘resistance’ to participate in the labour integration pro-grams aiming to draw them closer to the labour market. The way local labour market integration pol-icies are being organised is also changing. Many of the initiatives lead by public, private and civil soci-ety organisations are moving their operations closer to their target groups, in different ways: physically by moving their headquarters to the suburbs where immigrants live; culturally by employing staff speaking the languages and understanding the culture of these groups; time-wise, by displacing their activities at the times these groups are available; or cognitively by communication strategies reaching these distant groups. By adopting a relational understanding of space and distances this paper aims to examine the shift from governing immigrants and refugees at distance to governing or acting on the distances be-tween these groups and the labour market, and its consequences. The paper examines the technologies, practices and routines developed by several initiatives in the city of Gothenburg, to act on the distances existing between the immigrants and the labour market, between the institutions participating in these initiatives and the suburbs where immigrants live.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Statsvetenskap -- Studier av offentlig förvaltning (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Political Science -- Public Administration Studies (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Ekonomi och näringsliv -- Företagsekonomi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Economics and Business -- Business Administration (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Sociologi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Sociology (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Integration

labour market

distance

institutions

Publikations- och innehållstyp

vet (ämneskategori)

kon (ämneskategori)