Some Swedish businesses are reporting great success in their efforts to diversify staff. This might not sound unusual, especially from an American perspective. In the United States, promoting diversity in the work place has been part of business planning for years. Many big companies even have a chief diversity officer. But in Sweden, as in much of Europe, this has simply not been the case. Most of the workers companies are now looking to engage have immigrant backgrounds. Despite the fact that most immigrants to Sweden have comparatively high education levels, only 54 percent of immigrants are part of the work force, compared with 80 percent for native Swedes.
See "The Workplace: Profiting from diversity", Ivar Ekman, International Herald Tribune, April 15, 2007