Reform pathways for integrating employment assistance to marginalized groups

Abstract

Service integration—understood as cooperation and collaboration between sectors and organizations—is commonly employed in European countries as a response to internal fragmentation of social security systems. In this chapter, drawing on research from Europe, we show how countries differ on central dimensions regarding service integration aimed at the unemployed. Further, we discuss how service integration depends on countries’ historical and institutional conditions as they follow different reform pathways. We also show how service integration is not a “once and for all” decision but may change over time. We illustrate these points by comparing recent reforms in Norway and Sweden, which, despite being relatively similar welfare states, have developed very different levels of service integration. We conclude the chapter with some broader remarks about service integration and reform pathways.