Trapped in the Wrong Job: How Migration Policies Push Highly Educated Migrants into Low-Wage Work

Despite Sweden’s reputation as a fair and opportunity-rich society, current migration and labour market policies contribute to the systematic underutilisation of highly skilled migrants. Restrictive migration rules and labour market barriers often push migrants into jobs far below their qualifications, particularly in low-wage sectors such as cleaning, transport, hospitality, and delivery services. Evidence shows that highly educated migrants in Sweden experience significantly higher levels of education-to-occupation mismatch than native-born workers, underscoring an urgent need for policy reform.

This policy brief examines how Sweden’s migration framework shapes the labour market experiences of highly skilled migrants. Drawing on 20 semi-structured interviews with international graduates and skilled workers employed in low-paid, low-skilled jobs, the analysis highlights how permit regulations, employer dependency, and bureaucratic complexity create precarious conditions. The brief foregrounds migrants’ lived experiences and illustrates how strategies of endurance, hope, and overperformance enable short-term survival while simultaneously constraining migrants’ ability to contribute fully to Swedish society.

Overall conclusions and policy recommendations

The findings reveal a stark contrast between Sweden’s policy ambitions and the everyday realities of highly skilled migrants. Migration regulations intended to facilitate labour market integration instead generate dependency, insecurity, and vulnerability to exploitation. Requirements tied to specific employers, strict renewal conditions, and short job-search periods force migrants to accept underemployment and unfair working conditions to maintain legal status.

Rather than supporting long-term contribution and inclusion, the current system risks trapping skilled migrants in cycles of endurance and compromise. Meaningful integration therefore requires reforms that reduce dependency, improve transparency, and better align migrants’ skills and aspirations with Sweden’s long-term labour market needs.

• Increase flexibility in work permits: Reform or remove the two-year restriction binding migrants to one employer and occupation, reducing dependency and the risk of exploitation.
• Extend post-study and job search periods: Increase the 12-month post-study job-search window to 24 months, aligning with realistic labour market integration timelines.
• Clarify migration rules: Provide transparent, accessible information on residency requirements, including wage thresholds and contractual obligations—through universities, Swedish for Immigrants (SFI) programmes, and public information campaigns.
• Strengthen monitoring and protection: Enhance state oversight in sectors prone to exploitation, empower unions, and enforce employer compliance with collective agreements.
• Promote skill-matching initiatives: Expand mentorship, bridging programmes, and credential recognition systems to reduce the structural gap between migrants’ qualifications and available jobs.

About the authors

Rachel Raphason is research assistant at the Department of Business Administration, at the School of Business, Economics and Law, University of Gothenburg

Andreas Diedrich is Professor at the Department of Business Administration, at the School of Business, Economics and Law, University of Gothenburg

Joseph Trawicki Anderson is Researcher at the School of Global Studies, University of Gothenburg