The Impact of Immigration on Election Outcomes in Danish Municipalities

In this paper we study the effects on support for different political parties due to an increase in the immigrant share in Danish municipalities during the period 1989-2001. We find that the immigrant share has some notable effects. The anti-immigration parties are among those that win votes when the immigrant share increases, but a pro-immigration party on the left also gains from an increase in the immigrant share. The non-socialist party that is most pro-immigration, however, loses votes when the immigrant share increases. Our results indicate that in the elections some Danish voters voice their displeasure about immigration in their own neighbourhood. But we find no clear indication of a general decline in support for the welfare state on account of immigration, as several scholars have been predicting.immigration, immigrants, elections, racism, xenophobia

A Gender Perspective on Self-Employment Entry and Performance as Self-Employed

Research on self-employment has increased during recent years and particular attention has been paid to self-employment dynamics and the factors influencing entry and exit rates from self-employment. Using a large panel data set for Sweden, this paper investigates variations in recruitment to self-employment and in self-employment performance by gender and by employment status prior to entering self-employment. As performance measures we use income from self-employment, number of employees, exit rates and destination after self-employment. We find that the probability of becoming self-employed is highest among men who are economically inactive and lowest among women who are wage-earners. Analysing self-employment performance, we find that men have higher incomes than women. Self-employed women more often than self-employed men have employees. For both men and women those who enter from unemployment or inactivity are less successful in terms of income and the probability of having employees than those who enter from paid employment. When exits are divided into paid employment and other employment status, we find that those who entered from unemployment or inactivity face a higher risk of returning to one of these states.self-employment, unemployment, income, occupational mobility, gender differences

The Swedish Welfare State: The Role of Supplementary Compensations

The Swedish welfare state has a social security system that covers many forms of income losses and gives a high compensation. Compensation is given for loss of income due to sick leave, parental leave, disability, work injury, unemployment and retirement at old age. But there are also complementing compensation systems. The most important ones are those decided by collective agreements between unions and employer associations. They are sometimes organized as an insurance, in other cases as an agreement that the employer should pay the compensation. There are also other forms of complements than those based on collective agreements, for example complementing unemployment insurances for members of unions. Even if the complements are organized in different ways, they add to the social insurances in more or less the same way. They give an addition under the ceiling in the social insurance systems, they give compensation over the ceiling so that they more or less eliminate the effects of the ceiling, and they lengthen the compensation period in some cases. This means that the consolidated welfare state differs in a systematic way from that which is determined by the Parliament. In this paper we describe the differences and discuss the factors that determine the differences between the two welfare states – the traditional one and the consolidated one.-

The Impact of a Phased Retirement Program: A Case Study

Phased retirement has been discussed as a means for increasing labour supply for people of older active age. The idea is that instead of leaving a full-time job early for full-time retirement, an employee should reduce the working time either in the same job or by changing jobs, and stay on in the labour market. In this paper we analyze the factors that influence the decision to take up a part-time pension and continue working at the same work place at reduced hours. We do this by using a unique data set from one employer in the governmental sector in Sweden, Stockholm University. The pension scheme is a special part-time pension scheme introduced for state employees in 2003. Employees 61 years and older can apply for a part-time pension up to the age of 65. The employers decide if they will accept or reject the application. They may also encourage employees to apply or discourage them from doing so. We have a data set covering all employees of the age groups who are eligible and a rich data set with information on the employees and also on the units (departments) who in practice decide if an application should be accepted or not. We find that both the effects on pension wealth of taking a part-time pension, and the economic situation of the department are important for the propensity for becoming a part-time pensioner. Also individual characteristics such as gender, age, earnings and occupation are important.part-time work, part-time pension, older workers, labour supply

Dialogue Interpreting and the Distribution of Responsibility

The sense-making work carried out by anyone in interaction can be described as based on different aspects of meaning, basically the propositional meaning of talk and the interactional or situated meaning of words spoken. Moreover, in a conversation involving three or more persons, sense is arguably made also on the basis of the participation framework (Goffman, 1981), continuously negotiated in and by talk. This composes a theoretical platform for the analysis of the distribution of responsibility in an interpreter-mediated encounter; responsibility for the substance and for the progression of talk. The paper suggests an interactionistic, non-normative, dialogical approach to studies of interpreter-mediated talk for a deepened, developed understanding of the interpreter’s role in face-to-face interaction

In and Off the Show: Co-constructing ‘invisibility’ in an Interpreter-Mediated Talk Show Interview

This paper examines how participants in an interpreter-mediated televised interview communicate involvement in a shared event. It takes as a case in point an interview where Michail Gorbachev, accompanied by his interpreter Pavel Palazchenko, appear on the ALL TALK show, hosted by the BBC journalist Clive Anderson. Detailed analysis of the interview demonstrates how the interpreter’s physical presence helps shape a shared image of him as someone “just translating.” It is suggested, that the efficiency by which his translation work is communicated, apart from owing to the interpreter’s fluency in English and Russian, is due to the others’ communicative behaviour. While addressing one another as conversational partners and interacting with the studio audience and the viewer, they cast him variably as sharing and not fully sharing their ongoing exchange. Moreover, his efficiency as interpreter is shown to be a result of his ability to anticipate grammatical and pragmatic features of turn composition. Overall, the study demonstrates how detailed analyses of real-life interpreter-mediated interaction can assist in explaining and teasing apart the illusive “invisibility” of interpreters.Cet article examine comment les participants à une interview télévisée assistée par un interprète signalent leur engagement dans un événement partagé. Un exemple est fourni par l’interview où Mikhaïl Gorbatchev, accompagné de son interprète Pavel Palazchenko, intervient dans le ALL TALK show, animé par le journaliste de la BBC Clive Anderson. Une analyse fouillée de l’interview montre comment la présence physique de l’interprète aide à modeler une image partagée de sa personne en tant que « simple interprète ». L’analyse montre que l’efficacité de son travail de traduction est due non seulement à sa parfaite connaissance de l’anglais et du russe mais aussi au comportement communicatif des autres. Tout en discutant ensemble comme des partenaires de conversation et interagissant avec l’auditoire du studio et le téléspectateur, ils lui attribuent à la fois un rôle de participant et de non-participant à leurs échanges. De plus, son efficacité d’interprète semble résulter de sa capacité à anticiper les dispositifs grammaticaux et pragmatiques de la composition des tours de paroles. Plus généralement, cette étude montre comment des analyses détaillées en temps réel des interactions assistées par un interprète peuvent aider à démêler et mieux comprendre l’invisibilité illusoire de l’interprète

Statistik om bemanningsbranschen. Presentation och jämförelser av två nya databaser.

Bemanningsbranschen är en ny och expanderande bransch i Sverige och i andra länder. Ett problem vid en analys av branschen både i Sverige och i andra länder är att det saknats bra officiell statistik. Vi har i samarbete med SCB skapat två internationellt sett unika databaser över arbetsställen och anställda i branschen. I denna artikel presenterar vi de båda databasernas information om antal arbetsställen och sysselsatta. Databaserna innehåller ytterligare information, bl a om egenföretagare, som vi dock inte presenterar här. Den första databasen bygger på en inventering år 2000 av arbetsställen i bemanningsbranschen verksamma år 1999. Med hjälp av SCB kopplades sedan arbetsställena till de sysselsatta i branschen år 1999 men också 1998 och 2000. Den andra databasen bygger på att SCB från och med 2002 års statistik har infört en egen SNI-kod för bemanningsbranschen. Det går på så sätt få uppgifter om de anställda i branschen. Genom en kombination med den första databasen blir täckningen än bättre och vi kan också följa branschens utveckling mellan 1998 och 2002.-