The position of (long term) job-seekers in society has changed from being a passive beneficiary to playing an active role as a co-producer in becoming job-ready (Alford, 2009). This can be seen most clerly in the development of different sorts of active labor market policies (ALMPs) in all modern welfare states since the 1980s, which are highly reliant on the contributions of efforts by clients. Looking at the literature of coproduction, this process of involvement would promote face-to-face interactions with professionals and other service users and gives users more control over their own life-politics (Pestoff, 2009). It is believed that co-production can decrease the gap between citizens and government or even between citizens (Levine & Fisher, 1984; Ostrom, 1996). Yet, we know little about the characteristics of jobseekers who enter ALMPs. It is possible that there is a (self or organizational) selection of people who are already close to government (in terms of trust) and who are in control over their lives? The main question addressed in the paper is: what are the characteristics of participants of activation programs?
A recently introduced reemployment program in the municipality of Nijmegen, the Netherlands, will be used as a case. This program includes several organizations – so called ‘work corporations’ - which offer work-learning programs to social assistance beneficiaries. Interviews with ten managers of different work corporations provide information whether the organizations select on motivation or not. A survey conducted among participants of the work corporations (an estimated sample of 60) includes questions on central concepts. A small control group exists of non-participants (people who did apply for the program, but did not enter for some reason). Additional in-depth interviews with participants will provide more detailed information.
