Written by Thomas Huddleston, MIPEX Research Coordinator, Co-author and Policy Analyst, Migration Policy Group
‘Historic’ agreement improves access and integration conditions in schools
Already at the head of the class on the MIPEX education strand, Sweden would excel further if the Swedish centre-right government and Green Party successfully open schools to all children living in the country. On 3 March, government announced a ‘historic’ cross-party agreement. According to TheLocal.se, the deal is intended to diminish the power of the anti-immigrant Swedish Democrats and make a clear choice about the future direction of Swedish policy; “We’re going to continue on the road toward humanity and order, this is a choice which closes the door on xenophobic forces,” stated Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt. Indeed, days earlier, Prime Minister Reinfeldt reflected that “Sweden has a long way to go” when he responded to the widely-reported fact that Sweden again topped the MIPEX ranking.
MIPEX III had found that top-scoring Sweden’s area of education weakness was access (57). The country scored lower on these access indicators because, since 2002, only children with residence permits legally enjoyed equal access to the education system and the support to complete each level. Attendance for undocumented children is neither mandatory, nor legally guaranteed:
The March agreement is only an outline, with many details lacking. While undocumented migrants and rejected asylum-seekers are always under threat of expulsion, they would generally have access to an education while living in Sweden. Government was already preparing the way with a State Official Report (SOU 2010:5) and public consultation about establishing the same rules for all children, with or without residence permits. Using our ‘improve your score’ tool, I rescored Indicators #38, 39, 42, & 43 from 50 to 100. This automatically recalculated the scores. If this deal guarantees equal rules at least for those who arrive as children, Sweden would substantially close its education access gap (from 57 to 86). The effect of this deal would also slightly improve the overall conditions in schools for societal integration (from 77 to 85).
In all MIPEX countries except BG, HU, RO, and SK, undocumented children have an ‘implicit’—if not ‘explicit—right to attend compulsory education. Sweden would join one half of the MIPEX countries, where all children are explicitly included in the whole education system. It would follow the lead of the other high-scoring MIPEX countries on migrant achievement and participation (BE, CA, DK, FI, PT, USA), which do not create such problems with legal access:
Only Norway sticks out among the leaders and Nordic countries because its 2010 Immigration Law restricts access to secondary and higher education for unaccompanied minors over 16.
In Sweden, the number of school-age undocumented children is unknown, but estimated between only 3,000 and 4,000. Swedish Education Minister Jan Björklund told TheLocal.se that the costs per academic year—about 50-100 million Swedish kroner (5-11 million euros)—were nothing compared to the 100 billion kroner that Sweden pumps into its compulsory schools. Minister Björklund hopes to see the new rules in place in autumn 2012, when the term starts for all children—and this time, really for all.
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