International House Gothenburg - a role model for many other cities

Swedish companies and welfare systems have been suffering from labor shortages for a long time. According to Marcus Andersson, CEO and founder of Future Place Leadership, gaining and retaining international talent is very critical for Sweden. "Today, more than three out of four (77%) of Swedish employers report shortages of workforce, which is a higher figure than ever before," says Andersson and continues: "At the same time, employers globally experience pretty much the same level of extreme talent shortages (75%), meaning that the competition between countries for the mobile workforce is heating up. Sweden could take a globally leading role in the green and digital transition, which is at risk if we cannot get international talent to relocate here. But we also need to recruit internationally to fill gaps in the welfare system and maintain our level of welfare, such as healthcare professionals." 

Today, more than three out of four (77%) of Swedish employers report shortages of workforce, which is a higher figure than ever before.

If we look at the bright side, this situation benefits Sweden. Labor shortage and good working and living conditions make Sweden a more popular relocation destination for qualified foreigners. If we look at the situation from an immigrant's perspective, moving to another country, creating a new network, and aligning to the culture is challenging. On the other hand, many immigrants who already have a contract with a company move to Sweden with their family, and one of them gets forced to sacrifice their career. This is when the retention comes into play. For companies in Gothenburg who want to create a diverse workplace, it is not enough to attract international talent; it's also very important to retain them. The only way to make booming talents migration to the city sustainable is to make their new life smooth. That was precisely the idea behind starting the Move to Gothenburg and International House Gothenburg initiative.
 

We're stronger when we're together

Move to Gothenburg first pitched the idea of opening a place such as International House Gothenburg. Move to Gothenburg, a collaborative initiative, had already been working to attract and welcome highly skilled internationals and get them to stay in the Gothenburg region. 

Niklas Delersjö, Head of Move to Gothenburg, tells how they started:
"Back in 2015, with some of the big companies and universities in the region, Business Region Göteborg, West Sweden Region, and West Sweden Chamber of Commerce discussed together how we can make the region attractive and welcoming for international talents. It was already, then, a need to recruit talent from abroad, but of course, not close to the need we see today. At the end of the discussions, we concluded that we all had the responsibility to contribute and decided that we would be stronger if we did it together. So, Move to Gothenburg was born."

Move to Gothenburg's primary goal, since it started from a white paper, has been to build up an organization that could meet the need of both recruiting employers and international talent. The first step for building a circle that puts together international talents and companies was creating a website that gathered relevant information and inspired people to move here, as well as developing a warm and smooth welcoming process. This was followed by social media campaigns that highlighted the career possibilities and an attractive life in our region.
 

Big success in the first year 

In the first year, Move to Gothenburg reached over 3 million people. More than 40,000 followers on Facebook, and 100,000 unique users visited the website. This success brought up a new idea, which was the creation of International House Gothenburg.

Niklas Delersjö continues: 
"In the area of welcoming and helping international talent settle in, we set up a goal to establish an International House in 2017. We focused on developing and providing seminars, career programmes and advisory services, but in a small format. That was important both to meet the increasing need but also to create the concept that later would become today's International House. In parallel, we worked closely with national authorities to understand and help develop their processes and lobbying towards the government.”

International House Gothenburg was opened in 2020 as Move to Gothenburg’s sister organization and started running events and giving advisory services. “Over the years, Move to Gothenburg has been a part of developing authority processes for the better. Unfortunately, we have also seen a lot of bad decisions from our government, and we are doing our best to make them correct their mistakes (or even better, not make them at all). Our long-term lobbying work has recently resulted in that the government now has allocated 25 million SEK for 2024 to work attracting and retaining international talent, which at least is a start" says Delersjö. 

Needless to say, Gothenburg region-based companies are happy about Move to Gothenburg's efforts to retain talented immigrants. Delersjö says it would not have been possible to achieve without their support. "We recently launched our job portal that has a function to only show jobs that do not require Swedish language. Here, our partners are shown at the top of searches, and we have reached over 1 million explanations of job ads and sent over 5,000 candidates to our partners' career sites. That is something that gives us a lot of great feedback."

The secret behind success is listening

Marcus Andersson says what places like IHG are doing is essential. According to Andersson, it's critical to provide a positive reception and welcoming experience to individuals, couples, and families to make them stay in Sweden. "A clear trend is also that large corporations cut down on expat contracts, meaning that they give less service to those that relocate and expect the public sector to take a bigger responsibility. Finally, when the competition between countries and cities increases, solutions like International House Gothenburg become more and more common, and we see how comprehensive solutions have sprung up in countries such as Denmark, Finland, and the Netherlands, to give some examples."

Marcus Andersson defines IHG's efforts to gain and retain international talent as a "pioneering, bold effort in Sweden and will set an important benchmark for other cities and regions that will follow suit." 

Andersson says a welcome center like IHG both has a real impact on the reception and integration of international talent and sends a strong signal to the international talent that we as a society and community are ready to welcome them to their new country and city. "At the same time, it's clear that an international house can only do so much to help international talent if Swedish government agencies cannot coordinate their work better to make the reception journey more predictable, smoother, and faster. The lack of coordination between government agencies is a pressing issue that needs to be addressed soon."

According to Niklas Delersjö, the secret behind the success of Move to Gothenburg and IHG is listening to relevant stakeholders, understanding their needs and let them be involved the process. Because all stakeholders are on the same board and have the same goal. "Working gives us both a solid knowledge and keeps us up to date with challenges. It also builds the foundation and shows that we are in this together, and we also create the solutions together. That is the main key to success for us and has put us in the position as one of the leading organizations in Europe within this field."

We're part of Gothenburg's international community

"Our guests are mostly spouses/partners that have moved to Sweden on their partner's work permit (or from Europe) for work," says Lovisa Bohlin, the manager and one of the advisors of IHG. "But we also have a lot of master's students and people who move to Sweden alone. Most questions are regarding work and studies but can also be about how to find a home, school for your kids, how to apply for SFI and other relocation-related matters."

Team IHG is delighted to become a role model for other cities. According to Lovisa Bohlin, the secret of the success of IHG is a mix of what they offer and how they contribute. "We offer individual guidance, digital and onsite, and many different workshops and events regarding how to get a job in Sweden, as well as job fairs. We also offer many activities regarding integration and moving to Sweden, and we have a building in the center of the city where talents can meet and use the facilities for free. We are a part of the city's international community," says Bohlin.

Besides internationals, IHG also gets positive feedback from companies. According to Lovisa Bohlin, many companies and universities are very happy and thankful that IHG exists and for their services. Lovisa Bohlin says, "It helps them to have a place to send their international competence to get assistance for their families and to have a neutral place to meet and ask questions. We also invite companies to our job fairs where they can find relevant competence."

IHG's future plan is clear: To reach the majority of internationals and their spouses who move to western Sweden. Lovisa Bohlin adds, "Our existence is important for our regional companies and will help them attract and retain their competence. We will continue what we have built up but also constantly improve and extend our work."

Writer: Sule Kaya Hult, journalist and intern at International House Gothenburg

International House Gothenburg is a non-profit organisation, founded in 2021 and is a collaboration between the City of Gothenburg, Business Region Göteborg, Region Västra Götaland, Labour Market and the Adult Education Committee City of Gothenburg and Move to Gothenburg.