Well-educated but excluded — when language gets in the way

Published: 6 November 2025

Reading time: 4 minutes

Although many newly arrived people have high qualifications, they often encounter language barriers when trying to enter the Swedish labor market. New Forte-funded research shows that the quality of courses in Swedish for specific professions (yrkessvenska) varies and that the connection to working life could be strengthened. At the same time, participants report that the right language training can be decisive for progressing in their careers.

There is a skills shortage in several sectors, yet many highly qualified newly arrived people struggle to get a foot in the door of working life. Rarely is it due to lack of professional competence — rather, it is the result of language barriers.

Stina Hållsten, Associate Professor of Swedish at Södertörn University, has in a recently completed research project investigated how newly arrived people acquire Swedish for professional purposes (yrkessvenska) and what significance occupational language has.

—Yrkessvenska is the language needed to participate in and practice an occupation. There is good intention and ambition from society’s side and resources are put into profession-oriented Swedish courses, in the belief that they increase the individual’s motivation and improve the chance of making use of their competence. Our research shows, however, that we often underestimate how difficult it is to learn a new occupational language as a multilingual person, while the quality and availability of courses can also vary, she says.

Our research shows that we often underestimate how difficult it is to learn a new occupational language as a multilingual person.

Stina Hållsten

Associate Professor of Swedish at Södertörn University

Both occupational language and general language are important

Through ethnographic observations and interviews, the project group took a closer look at how newly arrived doctors and newly arrived workers in the municipality’s external maintenance navigate the linguistic demands at work. They also studied a number of yrkessvenska courses, whose aim is to facilitate the step into the labor market for people from other countries.

— What we observed was that even in seemingly trivial tasks within gardening maintenance, for example planting, a fairly specialized and advanced vocabulary is used. The individual must master this in order to be able to perform the job.

Stina also saw that it does not seem sufficient to learn only an occupational language with specific terminology.

— Previous research has treated occupational language and general language as two separate things — a dichotomy — but both are needed to communicate well in everyday situations, for example with patients but also with colleagues. Without a fairly stable foundation in general language, it also becomes harder to take in the material in the profession-oriented courses, she explains.

The profession-oriented Swedish courses studied as part of the project worked well, Stina emphasizes, but she also saw that their connection to working life could be improved.

— Sometimes the course content did not connect to the practice the participants had experienced — it’s a shame not to use those experiences more concretely, she says and continues:

— It’s also best when courses are led by professionals from the field together with teachers of Swedish, but here we see a gap: for example, courses are often led by a language teacher who may not fully know which terminology is needed in working life.

The medical language is difficult, with many specific terms you need to learn, but once you master the occupational language it becomes easier to get started in working life.

Oleksandra Sharova

Physician

Occupational Swedish opened doors for Oleksandra

Ukrainian doctor Oleksandra Sharova came to Sweden in 2022 after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. She is doing her practical service at a geriatric ward in a Stockholm hospital. Since arriving she has taken SFI courses and at times studied Swedish up to twelve hours a day, but what was especially helpful for her was training in Swedish for medical staff.

— The medical language is difficult, with many specific terms you need to learn, but once you get the occupational language right it becomes easier to get started in working life and it can also make your everyday Swedish much better.

It has required a great effort, Oleksandra notes, but she believes that her investment in medical yrkessvenska has saved her both time and energy.

Lack of structure hinders newly arrived people’s establishment

Stina’s conclusion is that the organization of the profession-adapted Swedish courses varies and shows weaknesses.

— They are run across the country, but the quality and continuity are carried by capable and driven enthusiasts who spread information about the training, are passionate about helping these individuals and do their best to arrange internships. Many projects are only short-term initiatives that disappear before they have taken shape. There is a lack of sensible organization and that makes the situation confusing for the individual. How does this affect newly arrived people’s entry into the labor market?

— There is no shortage of ambition or willingness at the individual level. With better organization of the training we could reduce the waste of competence that today leads to highly educated newly arrived people often taking less qualified jobs.

Tomas Nilsson (English translation by Forte)

Hard to distinguish technical terms from general language

Distinguishing what are technical terms and what is general language is one of the challenges encountered when learning yrkessvenska. Swedish pronunciation can also be difficult. For the foreign architect it is not always easy to perceive what “sluttar mot golvbrunn” means, and it is tempting to interpret it as a misspelling of “slutar,” especially since the difference in pronunciation is negligible to an untrained ear.

Source: The Institute for Language and Folklore (Institutet för språk och folkminnen)