Abstract
<div class="abstractSection abstractInFull"> The article discusses the difficulties faced by disabled people to enter the ordinary labour market. Despite increasing political emphasis on employment integration, and a gradual integration on most other areas of society, statistics indicate stagnation and even decline in labor market participation among disabled people in the majority of EOCD countries. Several studies also report that many disabled people experience a disinterest from employment authorities in helping them find employment. Drawing on a biographical study from Norway based on life-history interviews with 66 disabled people, the article discusses possible explanations to the meagre results of disability employment policies. The article suggests a number of feasible explanations: Parts of the explanation must be sought in the early institutionalization of waged labor. Defining the ‘ability to work’ was the primary criterion used to define who is disabled and, subsequently, entitled to public support. The article suggest that the increasing emphasis on workfare policies makes labor authorities inclined to focus more on the ‘suspicious cases’, i.e. those suspected unwilling to work, than on those who per definition is excerpted from the duty of work. </div>
Highlights
The Scandinavian welfare states, known as the social democratic type of welfare state regimes (Esping Andersen 1990), are characterized by their comprehensiveness, their universalness and their emphasis on equality and solidarity (Kolberg and Esping Andersen 1992; Hanssen, Sandvin, and Soder 1996), i.e. by their inclusiveness
Accounts given by three generations of disabled people growing up in different phases of the welfare state draw a picture of the gradual equalization of opportunities in terms of education
It would be reasonable to expect that this would lead to a corresponding equalization in terms of labour market participation
Summary
The Scandinavian welfare states, known as the social democratic type of welfare state regimes (Esping Andersen 1990), are characterized by their comprehensiveness, their universalness and their emphasis on equality and solidarity (Kolberg and Esping Andersen 1992; Hanssen, Sandvin, and Soder 1996), i.e. by their inclusiveness. The Scandinavian countries have been pioneers with respect to disability rights (Priestley 2003) This role may not be as obvious today as it once was, we have witnessed a gradual inclusion of disabled people into virtually all parts of society over the past decades, with one important exception: the labour market. Even if the qualitative study is limited to Norway, we believe that some of the experiences revealed may have a more general relevance, at least within a Scandinavian context
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