Immigrant Integration through Codesign – A Journey Map of integration into working life

Abstract

The shortage of workforce in several sectors has created a desperate need for immigrant workers in Nordic countries. However, integrating into the local work-life can be challenging for people moving to the region. To address these challenges, this paper explores the use of service design, social design, and especially codesign as approaches to easing immigrant integration into the labour market. Our case study consists of 11 codesign groups, comprising immigrants, potential employers, and various integration support professionals or volunteers, who participated in seven virtual and four on-site workshops. Through these workshops, participants shared their experiences and perspectives on immigrant employment and developed an employment/recruitment journey map that combined the immigrants' employment processes with their employers' recruitment processes. The resulting journey maps provide a representation of the various stages and milestones of employment, highlighting the barriers and enablers encountered in each stage and the different actors involved in the integration process. Our study demonstrates the value of codesign as an approach towards more effective and inclusive integration initiatives. We argue that a designer needs to act as an orchestrator for the whole ecosystem around the integrating individual to facilitate a holistic understanding of their whole life situation, such as their social situation, family, skills, health, or housing. By doing so, we can move from focusing solely on a single aspect of integration, such as employment status, to a more comprehensive approach, which in turn allows for a better chance of wellbeing and integration in a new country.