VINCE

Obstacles and needs of the migrants

In the work with the integration project VINCE, where public integration services for migrants are developed and improved by transferring the services to the virtual, digital world, it is extremely valuable to gain insight into the needs and obstacles that foreign-born women and men themselves experience on their way to self-sufficiency.

We have spoken to Elin Berntsson, who works as a Development Manager at the unit for Work, Integration and Adult Education in Ödeshög municipality. In her role, she has also worked as project manager for the MIL project (Motivating Integration gives Long-term results).

Language the biggest obstacle

In order to be able to identify such needs and obstacles, Ödeshög Municipality has, within the MIL project and with the help of a telephone interpreter and image support, interviewed a number of women and men studying SFI (Swedish For immigrants) from Ödeshög Municipality.

The result of the study was that for the majority of those interviewed, language is said to be the biggest obstacle to a good experience of living in Sweden and about half of the interviewed individuals state that they have good knowledge of how Swedish society works and the main the factor for this is stated to be the social orientation course that Ödeshög municipality offers.

No lack of support

An unexpected finding in the MIL project was that the majority of the individuals interviewed do not feel that they lack support but experience a lack of information. Of the women who lacked support, it was mainly support on how to go about contacting, for example, healthcare and dental care, and for the men it was mainly information about the asylum process.

  • What the interviewees are asking for is not more support but help for self-help. We talk a lot about being digital, but in the way we communicate, we are not digital, but the experience from those we interviewed is that they receive written information sent home that they then cannot interpret, Elin says and adds:
  • I think we could use VINCE in the work towards becoming more digital. I also believe that VINCE can contribute to foreign-born women and men receiving information in the right way. The result that MIL points to is that these women and men do not want more support but better information so they can become independent, I think a virtual platform can contribute to that.

Thank you, Elin, for your valuable insights – we look forward to presenting the finished app to you and your unit!