Moral dilemmas in the practice of aspiration management: coping strategies among Swiss and Finnish street-level bureaucrats providing integration services to refugees and migrants

This paper examines the moral dilemmas faced by street-level bureaucrats (SLBs) as they engage in aspiration management while providing integration services to migrants and refugees. European integration policies prioritise rapid employment, often directing refugees toward low-skilled jobs, which may conflict with their higher professional and educational aspirations. Drawing on case studies from Switzerland and Finland, we investigate how SLBs navigate these moral dilemmas. Two primary coping strategies emerge: first, an “owning” (or paternalistic) strategy, where SLBs guide refugees to lower their ambitions and justify this as a way to protect them from failure; and second, a “disowning” strategy, where SLBs shift accountability to external policies or institutions. This study highlights the complexities of balancing policy requirements with refugee aspirations and calls for more nuanced approaches in integration programmes that better accommodate refugees' long-term goals.