Combatting long-term unemployment among immigrants beyond the Covid-19 pandemic

Concretely, this report aims to answer the following research questions:

• Have immigrants in the Nordic countries been more likely to face long-term unemployment during the pandemic than their native-born peers? How has the number of long-term unemployed immigrants developed during the pandemic, and is it an ongoing challenge?
• Which national-level institutions and actors have been involved in supporting long-term unemployed immigrants and which policies and measures have been used?
• Which initiatives have been implemented at regional and local levels in the Nordic countries to help long-term unemployed immigrants in finding new employment? What can we learn from these initiatives?

The report finds that across all Nordic countries, immigrants were more likely to face long-term unemployment during the pandemic than their native-born peers, making this a key integration challenge across the Nordic Region. Nonetheless, the Nordic countries differ in how acute the challenge of long-term unemployment among immigrants was during the early phases of the pandemic, and how rapidly the situation improved afterwards.