This paper addresses two major challenges of 21st century education systems; the shortage of teachers in general and the lack of diversity in the teaching force. Similar to other European countries, Sweden has lately not only experienced international immigration connected to globalization, but also due to the recent refugee crisis. In addition to an increasingly diversified student population, large numbers of highly educated and qualified teachers were eager to enter the labor market in their new home. However, these teachers are usually confronted with language-related issues and experience a difficult intergration into the Swedish school system. Consequently, the challenges of teacher shortage and lack of teacher diversity should be understood as language (in) education phenomena.

The guiding question of this qualitative case study is: What are the lived experiences of recently migrated teachers to Sweden? Ten teachers' responses from to an open-ended questionnaire and in-depth follow-up interviews were analyzed based on Bourdieu’s sociological concepts of habitus and capital. Teachers were asked to reflect on a) their teaching competence, b) differences between school leaders’ expectations of them in Sweden and in their home countries and c) what teacher education, school leaders and teachers could do to improve their situation as recently migrated teachers. All interviews were transcribed and hand-coded.

Findings show that recently migrated teachers’ professional integration in Sweden is in fact problematic. Unless they are teachers of their native language, participating teachers report a lack of trust by and belonging to a community of practice involving colleagues and school leaders. The fact that they are often viewed as incompetent teachers due to their non-nativeness in Swedish is critically discussed. Implications for teacher education are presented, as a culturally diverse teaching force might contribute to a much needed culturally responsive teaching practice in a predominantly monolingual education system.