Employment in Sweden from the international students’ perspective

Every 30 th person on earth is living outside her/his home country. People migrate for different reasons, one of them being studies. Those who leave their home countries to pursue studies abroad are referred as international students. International students might be valuable for their host country if they decide to stay there after their studies. Their skills, international experience and experience of the host country might result very useful in filling the gaps in the host country’s l abour market. Therefore, this study aims to understand international student’s perspectives on post-graduation employment to Sweden. To fulfil the aim, qualitative inductive approach was followed so the interviewees were not influenced by predetermined questions. Ten in-depth, unstructured interviews with international students at a Swedish university were conducted. Interviews were analysed using the method of qualitative content analysis, following three research questions which lead to five themes – career advancement, enhanced life quality, employers’ rejections, lack of soci al interactions and family role. Based on the findings, a conceptual framework was developed. The conceptual framework consists of the push and pull model, national culture, and cognitive dissonance which were found to be useful for the analysis and interpretation of the findings. Using findings from the interviews and conceptual framework, the analysis was conducted which was followed by the discussion, where the authors of this thesis interpreted and discussed the findings from different perspectives. This thesis revealed that international students are attracted to work in Sweden for different reasons. However, finding a job in Sweden is a difficult task for them. It has emerged that international students are facing troubles when looking for employment as well as with communicating with locals. Those troubles were discussed with the goal to understand why do they come out. Family topic has also emerged suggesting that it plays an important role when deciding whether to seek employment in Sweden after the studies or not. As this thesis provides insights into the experiences of international students, it is beneficial for the companies who are interested in hiring them. Moreover, companies who have never considered hiring international students could be encouraged to try a new practice. The stories provided in the thesis might be useful for the university, when providing assistance for international students as well as for the students themselves to form a realistic picture of what they might experience in Sweden