Migration and Welfare—A Study in Northern Sweden

ABSTRACT

A new regional planning policy for Sweden was defined in the mid 1960's. The outspoken aim was to increase the economic growth of the so called “assisted areas”, mainly northern Sweden. Politicians and planners felt that the migration of people from north to south was unfortunate and caused severe problems. But there were doubts wether this new policy was a realistic one at all, as the well educated people anyhow would prefer to live in the three large metropolitan areas of southern Sweden. That tendency was by some considered as a strong indication of not only that living conditions were better in metropolitan areas but also that growth could only take place where the elite wanted to live.

Norrbotten, the most northern province, covering some 25 % of the area of Sweden and with a population of only 260,000 had during the 1960's experienced a net migration of almost 3,000 people annually. As the first comprehensive regional development plan for that province was prepared in 1966, it seemed necessary to undertake a study of attitudes amongst those people who by way of education and vocational training actually seemed to be in a position to choose where to live more or less freely. Did they actually need the facilities of the large metropolitan areas? What factors did actually decide the place of living? Was the individual always moving in order to attain a higher material standard?

Some 1,800 people of three distinct strata were interviewed in 1967. They were people undergoing retraining, people about to leave the high school and, as a complement, a group of recruits from a military establishment. Those people were asked to state what was a sufficiently high level (also ranking) in terms of education, services, spare time and cultural activities, job opportunities etc. The six levels were modelled after conditions in Norrbotten and a typical large metropolitan area.

The results showed that job or higher education possibilities were the key factors. E.g. attachment to their place of birth, services or cultural activities were not that important.

Eleven years after the first study, a questionnaire was sent out to those earlier interviewed excluding the military people. About 800 completed the questionaire, including all the early questions plus some on the material standard of living and the reasons for moving from one place to another during a decade.

We draw the following conclusions from the study: Attitudes do not give a very good indication of future decisions on where to live. People are strongly tied up to the necessity of obtaining job or a specific education than all other aspects combined. Even those people who were ranking e.g. social services, cultural activities and so on very high moved because they wanted a better job—or any job. Only in rare cases do people state that reasons like unhappiness, family reasons or health were the cause of moving to a specific town.

Those people interviewed with a good education moved more than northerners in general to better jobs, higher incomes and a better material standard. But those people with somewhat lower education, even if they explicitly would accept rather trivial jobs, had to move on average more, just to obtain a living.

The general conclusion is that the Swedish labour market and welfare system in general was well designed for those people who actually could make a career based on a good education. In this process not only less educated people but also small towns and communities as well as whole provinces were left behind. This is still the case with the northern province of Norrbotten.