As population diversifies, Swedish firms start to as well

They hope it will help them tap into the rising buying power of immigrants, who now spend $30 billion a year on goods and services.

By Karin Rives | Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor

from the May 2, 2007 edition

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RINKEBY, SWEDEN - Like many European enterprises, Svensk Bilprovning faces a major labor problem as the country's graying population reaches retirement age: Over the next five years, it will lose nearly a quarter of its employees.

Magnus Ehrenstråhle, chief executive of the company, which conducts all vehicle inspections in Sweden, knows it will be tough to fill those positions with native Swedes.

"We have difficulty recruiting Swedes with the right background. Not enough people want to do this kind of greasy, messy work anymore," he says. "At the same time, we have people from other countries who can't find work even though they have technical experience. We won't make it unless we turn to these groups."

So Svensk Bilprovning has done something highly unusual for a Swedish company: It has crafted a diversity plan that requires all its regional offices to hire at least one non-Nordic trainee each year.

While American employers have long touted the idea that diversity is good for business, it's still a novel concept for many European companies. But Swedish employers, many labor-market observers here say, are waking up to the fact that first- and second-generation immigrants spend big money on goods and services – more than $30 billion a year, according to a recent study by Timbro, a Stockholm think tank founded and supported by an employer association.

Between 2001 and 2004, immigrants' buying power rose 9 percent, said the study, released last October. Consumption among immigrants from the Middle East and Africa – regions that will account for most of Sweden's population growth over the next decade – rose 30 percent.

"Employers want to capture this market, and they finally realize that they can't do so unless they diversify their workforce," says Ivan Daza, founder of an employment agency that helps immigrants find jobs. "There is still prejudice out there, but it doesn't weigh as heavily as business profits do."

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