Transforming Biographical Experience Into Occupational Accountability: Paraprofessional Integration Workers’ Efforts to Professionalise Integration Support in Sweden

Abstract

Integration support is a rather new professional field, and it is common for paraprofessionals (PPs) with personal migration experiences as their main qualification to perform the work without having a job description, education or ethical principles to follow. In previous research, migration experiences have been contested as a professional competence and criticism has been raised about a lack of professionalism. Organisational professionalisation directed from above – such as education, guidelines and standardisation – has been requested. This study raises questions about occupational professionalisation from within, from the working group itself. Based on workplace learning theory, the study explores how a working group of 30 PP integration workers in Civic Orientation are enhancing occupational capacities jointly. They identified a lack of client responsiveness as a problem and developed an explanatory model where their own biographical experience of migration (themselves as former migrants or their family members and recollections of their former ‘home country’) play a crucial role. Thus, the results indicate that one’s own migration experience can be a part of and a motivator for occupational professionalism of PPs if it is allowed to be collectively reflected on, critically scrutinised and contextualised.