Bevelander observes that economic and structural changes in the European economy have led to a gradual increase in the low-skilled service sector, as well as an increased demand for educated workers in the production of high-tech content. The increase in the number of humanitarian migrants being received by European states, as well as the subsequent family reunion migration, has further weakened the economic integration of migrants in Europe. In addition to this, these migrants have to overcome a number of thresholds to be successful in the labor market. Policies addressing this problem have primarily focused on an individual migrant's shortcomings but have not addressed the structural barriers individual migrants face, which hamper their economic integration. Continuation of this state of affairs will both increase marginalization and segregation of immigrants and contribute to growing anti-immigrant sentiment, thus undermining the legitimacy of migration and welfare states. 

This paper offers an overview of immigration to Sweden in the last decades of the twentieth century, including the labour market integration and residential segregation of immigrants. The character of immigration has gradually changed from primarily labour migration up to the middle of the 1970s to refugee immigration and family reunification during the last decades of the twentieth century. Since the 1970s economic integration of immigrants has gradually decreased while residential segregation has increased. This development reached its peak in the early 1990s, when refugee immigration increased considerably at the same time as the economy deteriorated. Integration policies have not blocked this negative process.

For the first time since the Second World War, the total number of refugees amounts to more than 50 million people. Only a minority of these refugees seek asylum, and even fewer resettle in developed countries. At the same time, politicians, the media, and the public are worried about a lack of economic integration. Refugees start at a lower employment and income level, but subsequently “catch up” to the level of family unification migrants. However, both refugees and family migrants do not “catch up” to the economic integration levels of labor migrants. A faster integration process would significantly benefit refugees and their new host countries.

This chapter highlights the consequences of naturalisation for the social inclusion of immigrants in three areas: socio-economic, political and social. It focuses in particular on political integration by evaluating results of naturalisation and voting in Sweden – where non-citizens are allowed to vote in regional and local elections – as indicators of social inclusion.

Immigration to Sweden in the last three decades consists mainly of refugees and family reunion migrants. The increasing numbers of asylum seekers in the world together with a relatively liberal admission policy toward refugees and family reunion implied an increased population for Sweden due to net immigration. In the same period, various integration policies have been implemented to increase both labor market integration and political participation. Settlement policies toward newly arrived immigrants have been shifting over time according to the political and labor market context. Citizenship policies have over time changed and today include both the possibility of dual citizenship and the right to vote by noncitizens in local and provincial elections. Although intentions are good, both the employment integration and the voting participation by immigrants are substantially lower than for native Swedes and this questions the effectiveness of integration policies.

The employment integration of immigrants and in particular refugees in Swedish society has been the subject of many debates and constitutes one of the major political challenges faced in the last two decades. Like in many European countries, refugees are more likely to be unemployed, have temporary jobs and lower income. Most studies of immigrant economic integration have been undertaken at the national level, taking into account place of birth, but not by admission status. This study focuses on the employment integration by admission status by looking at the outcomes for resettled refugees, asylum claimants (asylum-seekers who may subsequently obtain a residence permit), and immigrants who arrive via family reunion migration. Using logistic regression methods we estimate the probability of having a job after controlling for a set of personal and immigrant intake characteristics as well as contextual factors. The results of the analysis indicate that family reunion immigrants have a faster employment attachment than asylum claimants which in turn have faster employment integration than resettled refugees in the Swedish labour market. The understanding of the results of the analysis is that selection processes (self-selection as well as selection through policy mechanisms) and networks are important factors explaining the employment integration of immigrants.

Labour market integration of immigrants, the extent to which and the pace with which immigrants reach (close) parity with natives regarding labour force participation, employment and earnings is a major public concern. Human capital theory suggest labour immigrants are positively selected and that the disadvantage at arrival are expected to diminish as they learn new valuable skills. However, a growing diaspora at destination and migration for non-economic reasons reduces the selection.

Empirical studies show the importance of accounting for differences between cohorts of migrants; early cohorts typically perform better than later ones. Another important thing to note is the large and highly persistent differences in integration between labour migrants, family re-union migrants and refugees. The two latter categories, which never catch up with the labour migrants have been increasing over time. Their difficulties to reach same levels are not well understood, however.

Three decades ago, Sweden extended municipal and provincial voting privileges to non-citizen residents on the grounds that this would increase political influence, interest and self-esteem among this group of immigrants. Three decades later, in the political and public debate, electoral participation on the part of immigrants is perceived as being substantially lower than for native-born citizens. As a result, questions have arisen regarding the degree to which this may be symptomatic of a larger integration issue. The aim of this paper is to explore the determinants of voting in municipal elections for immigrants—both naturalised and non-citizens, in Sweden, by controlling for a number of socio-economic and demographic and immigrant specific characteristics. More specifically, using cohort analysis, the idea is to study the impact of time spent in the country on the voting behaviour of immigrants, foreign citizens and naturalised over time. Two unique sets of data were used in the research. The 2002, 2006 and 2010 electoral surveys (participation study) all contain information about individual electoral participation in municipal elections. This information is matched to registry data from Statistics Sweden, which also contains information relating to every Swedish resident. From these two sources of information, a database is created that matches voting to individual characteristics. This study analyses 60 thousand immigrants of which 43 thousand are non-citizens. After controlling for demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, the results show that the acquisition of citizenship makes a real difference in the voting odds. Immigrants who obtain citizenship are far more likely to vote than those who do not. Country of birth also makes a difference: Compared to immigrants from the Nordic countries, Europeans and North American immigrants are equal or less likely to vote, whereas immigrants from Asia, Africa and Latin America are more likely to vote. Finally, immigrants’ odds of voting increase as their length of stay in the country does.

Higher-level skills are increasingly demanded by the knowledge-based economy. But with rising mobility and demographic change, it is no longer so simple to invest in a skilled workforce for the future. Actions are needed on a variety of fronts, including attracting and retaining talent, better integrating disadvantaged groups into the labour force, and upgrading the skills of low-paid workers. Much of the responsibility for these actions falls squarely on the shoulders of local policy makers. Drawing from a wide array of case studies, this book analyses best-practice local strategies for increasing workforce skills. And it also takes a close look at the opportunities and challenges presented by international migration. The in-depth case studies in this report range from Shanghai’s “Highland of Talent Strategy” to new “career ladders” which help immigrants escape low-skilled, low-paid employment in New York. National and local-level recommendations on local skills development are provided, for both OECD and non-OECD countries.

This report deals with the integration of individuals originating from the six non-western immigrant countries of Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Somalia, Turkey and Vietnam and their descendants in Sweden in the ten-year period 1998-2008. The central aim of the report is to analyse the integration patterns of these groups in three important areas: demographic behaviour, educational enrolment and labour market integration. This research has three objectives. The first is to determine when the groups came into being and how they have developed, with a focus on key features of population change, i.e. the overall growth, components of growth and age-sex-structure shifts. The second objective is to analyse two specific aspects: the groups’ integration and participation in the educational system, i.e. educational enrolment, and their integration patterns in the labour market, with a main focus on employment and unemployment. In order to provide a bridge between the analyses of population change and integration, compositions of the groups by selected traits, such as immigrant generation and duration of residence, are also examined. The third objective is to study, where feasible, the impact of selected public policies and practices, particularly those pertaining to immigration and integration. Over the last six decades the size of Sweden’s immigrant population (immigrants and their descendants) has steadily increased. Migration flows into the country have been associated with societal phenomena such as labour demand in the growing economy, family reunions and refugee streams due to wars and political conflicts. Although earlier migration streams appear to have integrated relatively well, concern about the current streams is high on the political agenda. It is thought that more in-depth knowledge about the integration patterns of the demographic, educational and labour market domains could lead to improved integration policies. In 2010, almost one fifth of Sweden’s population consisted of immigrants or descendants of immigrants. To be more exact, 14.7 per cent of the country’s 9,415,570 inhabitants are immigrants in Sweden. Descendants of immigrants amount to 412,960 persons, or 4.4 per cent of the total population. In other words, immigrants from the countries that are in focus in this report and their descendants constitute 20 per cent of the immigrant population in Sweden, with individuals from Iraq making up the largest immigrant group and people from Pakistan the smallest. Since the end of the 1960s Sweden has made use of a number of integration strategies to accommodate immigrants into several areas of society. Of these, Swedish language proficiency and integration into the economic domain have been the most important. According to The Migrant Integration Policy Index (2007), Sweden scores very highly when it comes to granting immigrants access to and rights in the labour market. To summarise the most important results and at the same time return to the first objective of this study, namely the demographic integration in the period 1998-2008, we can see that all six immigrant groups have grown. In particular, the Iraqi and Somali groups have experienced a substantial increase in number. For Iran, Iraq, Somalia and Vietnam the growth is due to both net migration and an increasing number of descendants. For Pakistan, the main reason for the increase is net migration. Overall, the population growth in Sweden in this period is mainly a result of net migration and higher birth rates among immigrants and to a somewhat lower degree their descendants. As might be expected, “older” immigrant groups that have been in Sweden for a longer period of time have more descendants than “younger” immigrant groups. Iran, Turkey and Vietnam can be depicted as “older” groups and Iraq, Pakistan and Somalia as “younger” ones. With the exception of Iran, all the immigrant groups show a higher crude birth rate than that for native Swedes. The immigrant groups are still younger than the native population and have a far lower crude death rate than natives. In general, immigrants are married to individuals from the same group, whereas their descendants tend to be married to natives or individuals from other immigrant groups. The total fertility rate is higher among most of the immigrant groups compared to that for natives. Again, Iranian women are the exception, where descendants show a lower fertility rate than their immigrant parents. The second objective of the study – to analyse two specific aspects of the integration of the groups – includes participation in the educational system, i.e. educational enrolment, and integration patterns in the labour market, with a focus on employment and unemployment. When it comes to enrolment in education, the immigrant groups show a variation. Iraqi and Iranian men and women, as well as males from Pakistan and females from Vietnam, match the enrolment levels of native men and women in the age group 16-19. Moreover, the descendants of immigrants generally show a higher enrolment level than their immigrant counterparts. A positive development is visible over time. Both immigrants and descendants have higher enrolment levels in education at the end of the period compared to the beginning, i.e. 2008 versus 1998. However, Somali men and women have a lower enrolment level at the end of the period compared to the start. Major migration to Sweden and difficulties of entering the regular educational system could be reasons for this result. Descendant females show a higher enrolment level than descendant males. The pattern is similar for immigrants, but at a lower level. For higher education, the results indicate a gender gap with more female than male students. The employment integration of individuals in the core labour market ages of 25-54 is relatively low. However, a positive trend is visible over time. Both females and males from the six immigrant groups have higher employment rates at the end of the period. The gender gap shows that males have higher employment levels than females. The largest gap is detected for Pakistan and Turkey. The employment rates for young immigrants aged 16-24 are lower than those for natives. For women we see no positive development over time, but for males an increasing employment rate is visible. Male and female descendants in this age group have lower employment rates than natives, but higher employment rates than their immigrant counterparts. Following the cohort of 25-39 year-old immigrants over time from 1998 to 2003 to 2008, increasing employment levels can be observed for both females and males. The exceptions are Pakistani and Somali males, which show no increasing employment levels between 2003 and 2008. The unemployment rate for both immigrant females and males drops during the ten-year period, with the exception of Iraqi and Somali immigrants. Female youth unemployment also drops over time for most immigrant groups, again with the exception of Somali immigrants. For males, youth unemployment also decreases. The exceptions here are Iraqi, Somali and native males. Descendant unemployment levels are mainly in parity with or lower than native levels. Inactivity is higher for all immigrant groups compared to natives. However, the inactivity rate drops substantially over the period. With regard to the third objective of the study – to provide insights into the impact of selected public policies and practices, particularly those pertaining to immigration and integration on the chosen aspects of change and integration – we can highlight the following issues. No particular integration policy aimed at immigrant groups deals with demographic aspects. The observed change in the demographic behaviour of the descendants of the six immigrant groups, albeit to differing degrees, is voluntary and shows an adaption to the behaviour of the population in general. Integration policies have a strong focus on educational and labour market integration in Sweden. In addition to the general positive economic business cycle, the economic integration of six immigrant groups and their descendents shows a gradual positive development. Integration policies aimed at immigrants and education policies aimed at the population in general have also had an effect on the successive larger educational enrolment of immigrants and their descendents.

With the exception of economists, social scientists have a long and detailed history of analyzing the political and social implications of citizenship acquisition by immigrants. Economists, on the other hand, have occasionally entered the field in an ad hoc manner with limited speculations about the possible earnings or employment effects that may derive from immigrant citizenship ascension. This book goes one step further by providing an economic model to predict immigrant citizenship and its impact in the labour market and the public finance spheres in a comparative framework. Five countries – Canada, the United States, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Norway – with five different immigrant selection and citizenship-granting procedures are analyzed to test the robustness of the economic model. The results indicate that the immigrant selection process in turn influences a given country’s citizenship-granting process and affects the size of the economic premium derived from citizenship. Thus, the authors conclude that the design of a country’s immigration and citizenship policies influences the degree of economic integration of its potential citizens.

The study sets out to provide a better understanding of the emerging challenges in policy targeting the labour-market integration of refugees. What are the strategies and practices implemented in different EU Member States to facilitate access into employment? What do we know about their effectiveness? What are good practices and lessons learned in different countries? The study is based on nine detailed country case studies of the following EU Member States: Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

This thematic paper deals with integration policies concerning persons who aregranted international protection in EU Member States. It acknowledges that there are two general trends in integration policies - a civic turn and a local turn. The civic turn implies more integration requirements for migrants, decided upon by the state, that have an impact on the legal status of migrant newcomers. On the other hand, the local turn implies less national involvement with cities instead handling more of the integration policies, including funding and policy measures.

The paper then describes four different models for the integration of beneficiaries of international protection: a national government-led model, a project based/multilevel governance model, a laissez-faire model, and a NGO-led model.

Labour market integration of ethnic minority women is central for economic integration, as they may experience a double disadvantage: both as a woman and as a migrant. This presumed double disadvantage has recently become the focus of both Dutch integration and emancipation policy. To test several assumptions underlying this, we analyse to what extent labour market participation of different groups of women and the hours they work are influenced by human capital and household characteristics.Our results show some remarkable differences in employment patterns. Controlling for educational level, partnership and the presence of children, it was found that native women more often work in part-time jobs than ethnic minority women. For native Dutch women, the number of children influences both the employment decision and the number of hours worked, whereas for ethnic minority women, this only effects full-time employment.

Sweden has resettled refugees in partnership with the UNHCR since 1950 and it is one of the countries that receives the largest number of resettled refugees every year. Despite this fact, our knowledge of the labour market integration of this particular category of refugees has been limited. This volume is an outcome of the project Labour Market Integration of Resettled Refugees in Sweden. It includes a mapping of the labour market integration of resettled refugees in Sweden and it covers different facets of the reception and integration of this group such as the institutional framework, the integration of resettled refugees from Bosnia and Vietnam, resettlement policy and its consequences, the health of refugees in the reception process, and the effects of admission status on immigrants’ access to the labour market. In addition, this book contains a more general chapter on resettlement in Canada to provide some contrast to the Swedish case.

Den här studien undersöker två separata, men relaterade, frågor om naturalisering bland utrikes födda i Danmark, Norge och Sverige. Avsikten är såväl att belysa likheter som skillnader mellan de skandinaviska länderna vad gäller bestämningsfaktorerna för och konsekvenserna av naturalisering. I den första delen ställer vi frågan om varför utrikesfödda personer blir medborgare i ett nytt land. Detta gör vi genom att undersöka i vilken grad utrikes födda personer erhåller medborgarskap och i vilken utsträckning kontextuella faktorer i ursprungs- och destinationslandet påverkar individens benägenhet att naturalisera. I rapportens andra del ställer vi istället frågan om huruvida förvärvet av det nya medborgarskapet påverkar utrikesföddas ekonomiska integration. Data för studien är både på individ- och landnivå, det vill säga på kontextuell nivå. Våra individdata består av registerdata från respektive lands statistiska centralbyrå, där individer kontinuerligt följs under sin vistelse i respektive land, från mitten av 1980-talet och framöver. Resultaten visar, å ena sidan, tydliga skillnader i naturaliseringsfrekvens mellan Danmark, Norge och Sverige. I Sverige observeras en högre naturaliseringsfrekvens för samtliga grupper av ursprungsländer än i Norge och Danmark. Med undantag för utrikesfödda från Västeuropa och Norden, har Norge en högre naturaliseringsgrad för samtliga grupper migranter än Danmark har. Å andra sidan visar resultaten i alla tre länder att personer från Norden och Västeuropa har en relativt låg benägenhet att bli naturaliserade i sitt nya hemland medan Asien, Afrika och Östeuropa, har en mycket högre naturaliseringsgrad. Individer från Latinamerika placerar sig någonstans i mitten. Granskningen av kontextuella faktorer – som rör såväl sociala och ekonomiska förhållanden samt naturaliseringsregelverk i både ursprungslandet och destinationslandet – visar att skillnader mellan ursprungslandets och destinationslandets ekonomiska utveckling har ett genomgående samband med människors benägenhet att söka medborgarskap i det nya landet. Om en migrant kommer från ett land med en lägre ekonomisk utvecklingsnivå, är sannolikheten för naturalisering i Sverige, Norge och Danmark högre. Ett annat mönster som dock enbart framgår i Sverige är att migranter vars hemländer tillåter dubbelt medborgarskap mer eller mindre genomgående observeras med en förhöjd sannolikhet att naturaliseras. Att detta mönster enbart kan observeras i Sverige tolkas som ett resultat av att det formella förbud mot dubbelt medborgarskap som före 2001 existerade i Sverige tillämpades i mycket liten utsträckning. Detta till skillnad från Norge och Danmark som har sådana förbud som också efterlevs. I detta samband är det vidare en viktig observation att den nya lagstiftning som ägde laga kraft i Sverige 2001, som innebar ett formellt tillåtande av dubbelt medborgarskap, hade en överlag positiv effekt på migranters naturaliseringsgrad. I synnerhet är detta fallet för migranter från länder som typiskt kännetecknas av en låg naturaliseringsgrad. Analysen visar även att personer från mer ofria länder söker medborgarskap Bevelander, Helgertz, Bratsberg, Tegunimataka vi i sitt nya land i högre grad än andra. Även i Sverige finns detta samband, om än mindre tydligt. Vad gäller analysen av medborgarskapets effekter på sysselsättning och inkomster, är det främst bland migranter från länder som överlag präglas av sämre arbetsmarknadsintegration i Danmark, Norge och Sverige, där ett samband mellan naturalisering och bättre integration på arbetsmarknaden kan observeras. Naturaliserade individer från dessa länder är klart bättre integrerade på arbetsmarknaden än vad de icke-naturaliserade är. Det är dock endast i ett fåtal fall där det förbättrade utfallet på arbetsmarknaden direkt kan kopplas till naturaliseringstillfället. Därför finns det skäl att avstå från att dra slutsatsen att det finns ett kausalt orsakssamband mellan naturalisering och förbättrad arbetsmarknadsintegration för migrantgruppen i stort. Analysen har dock indikerat vissa undantag till denna mer generella slutsats, i Sveriges fall bland mer marginaliserade grupper på arbetsmarknaden. Den avslutande delen av rapporten diskuterar resultaten både i förhållande till tidigare nationella och internationella studier och i förhållande till dagens medborgarskapslagstiftningar i Danmark, Norge och Sverige.

This chapter describes current changes in migration flows and politics in Sweden, before presenting and discussing the reactions to these changes in civil society – the mobilization of both pro- and anti-migration sentiments – which reflect the polarized sentiments towards immigration in Swedish society.First, this report conveys information about migration flows to Sweden before, during and after the refugee reception crisis of 2015. In 2016 in particular, Sweden had a major intake of asylum seekers, which prompted new legislative measures to manage this. Second, we emphasize transformations in the party-political landscape before, during and after the refugee reception crisis of 2015. In this period there was also a rhetorical shift in mainstream politics, heralding an emphasis on security in order to protect the Swedish model. The mainstream-right bloc was also split in two. Third, we study the actions and reactions in response to these changes in civil society. The everyday experiences of problems with integration stand in contrast with international norms of solidarity. We conclude that the crisis enabled a window of opportunity for the mobilization of both pro- and anti-migration sentiments in civil society.

In September 2010 the anti-immigration party, the Sweden Democrats (SD), crossed the electoral threshold to the Swedish parliament (Riksdagen) for the first time with 5.7 percent of the total votes. The aim of this article is to analyze the effect of the media exposure on fluctuations in opinion polls for political parties; i.e. the media effect. In particular to what extent this can explain the electoral fortunes of the SD. We correlate the number of articles published in the print media with the results of the SD opinion polls as well as the opinion poll results of all the other parliamentary parties during a 48 month period, from the month after the 2006 elections (October 2006) up to September 2010. Our results show that the media effect is more important for the SD compared to the other parliamentary parties, similar in size. The media effect also differs between the six newspapers put into scrutiny in this study, the leading daily Dagens Nyheter (DN) had a considerably stronger effect on the opinion fluctuations, compared to the other five newspapers. To conclude, media exposure sometimes matters, especially for 'new parties', but neither to the same degree everywhere nor at the same time. Ultimately, our findings show that the threshold of relevance does not perfectly match with the crossing of the electoral threshold to the national parliament, as suggested in the literature to explain the electoral fortunes of new anti-immigration parties prior to their entry into parliament.

Democratic theory seldom meets democratic practice and fluctuations in public opinion and media representations of the same political actor do not easily converge. In September 2010, Sweden’s anti-immigration party, the Sweden Democrats (SD), crossed the electoral threshold to participate in Sweden’s parliament and it has continued to grow. In this article, we analyze the effect of media exposure on fluctuations in opinion polls for political parties, or the media effect. Our results show the media effect is more important for SD than for other parliamentary parties. Media exposure sometimes matters, but not to the same degree everywhere and not necessarily at the same time.

Not only Swedish studies, but also several international studies, claim an increase in anti-Semitic attitudes in recent decades. As prejudice is acquired in the early years of socialization, and/or is innate and fairly stable over the life cycle, examining adolescents’ attitudes is vitally important. Hence, by controlling for individual demographic and socio-economic background factors, we study two interrelated questions: Has anti-Semitism among Swedish secondary school-age youths changed between 2003 and 2009? Are changes equal across groups, with a specific focus on religious groups? Using two unique cross-section surveys of secondary school-age students in Sweden for the years 2003 and 2009, we try to address the above questions. Our analysis shows, in contrast to the views of the general public and other related studies, that anti-Semitism has decreased slightly during the examined period. Moreover, the study finds a variation in anti-Semitism by religious affiliation: it has increased among Muslim youth, but remains stable in other groups.

This chapter provides an overview of migration trends in the principal welfare states with a focus on (1) employment of migrants - as a key indicator of integration - and (2) the factors that affect labor market integration of immigrants in the host societies. We look next at (3) the fiscal impact of first-generation immigrants before (4) developing a comparison of labor market and social inclusion programs designed to enhance the integration of immigrants. Finally, (5) we explore four national models of migration management to illustrate the policy dilemmas that welfare states face, including the challenge of delivering public services to asylum seekers. We argue that there is not a single policy that encapsulates best practice for managing migration in welfare states, but that granting rights to immigrants up front is the key to integration and to long-term positive outcomes for the immigrants, the economy, and the welfare state.

We still know remarkably little about the voting behavior of immigrant populations, and in particular, the children of immigrants – who grow up in the same society as their contemporaries, but may be subject to different patterns of socialization. This article uses verified voting behavior in Swedish municipal elections to offer at least two new perspectives on these questions. First, we are able to separate out the impacts of family socialization, general societal socialization, and citizenship acquisition on electoral participation. Second, we are also able to add to our knowledge of the differences in political participation levels between different groups of foreign-background voters.

Knowledge about electoral participation of people with foreign background helps us understand how political engagement in immigrant countries can develop in the long term. The current study focues on Sweden. We conduct multigeneration study at the individual level of people born abroad or with foreign background, based on records of their actual participation. With the municipal elections in 2014 as a case study, we confirm previous research on immigrant voting behavior, and explore differences between how foreign-born and Swedish-born with at least one foreign-born parent exercise their democratic rights. Differences between groups with a foreign background are also studied.

This article seeks to fill a research gap by analysing refugees’ voting behavior, using Sweden (known for high refugee immigration, relatively liberal enfranchisement rules, and comprehensive electoral data) as a case study. Relying on register data on turnout from Swedish municipal elections, the article sheds new light on how the political integration of refugees varies. We test theories of resocialization and examine the extent to which a refugee’s political integration is affected by the surrounding environment, focusing on the political culture of the areas surrounding their neighborhoods. The results show that two major factors strongly affect refugee turnout rates: the acquisition of citizenship, and the degree of diversity of nationality in the districts in which refugees live, based on different experiences of “bonding” and “bridging” with the surrounding environment.

The considerable diversity among Sweden's immigrants reflects a humanitarian migration policy. Refugees have arrived in the country since the 1970s and 1980s, with their countries of origin shifting according to the ethnic and political conflicts of any given period. Sweden is also a longstanding magnet for labor migration from surrounding Scandinavia, and has attracted mobile EU citizens since its entry into the European Union in 1995—and especially following the EU enlargements of 2004 and 2007. Sweden's immigration flows continue to change today, as policy reforms in 2008 allowed employers to bring non-EU labor migrants to the country for the first time in decades. This report assesses how new immigrants to Sweden fare in the country's labor market. It shows that employment rates during newcomers’ initial years in Sweden are relatively depressed for low-educated refugees and migrants who come based on family ties, in comparison to natives and labor migrants from EU countries. Since Sweden's refugees and family arrivals are not selected through employment-related criteria, they are likely to lack locally in-demand skills and are often out of work in the years immediately after arrival. The obstacles these groups face can be exacerbated by certain features of Sweden’s labor market, such as high minimum wages, a relatively small pool of low-skilled jobs, and stringent employment protection for permanent work.

Sweden, like many other European countries, has lower employment levels for the foreign-born compared to native-born Swedes. To some extent, this could be due to the country's relatively large intake of refugees. However, few studies have focused entirely on the employment integration of these refugees. In order to fill this gap, we use detailed longitudinal Swedish register data of three arrival cohorts (1998-2000). These data cover the employment of refugees from different countries of origin in Sweden in the first 12 years since their arrival. In line with related work and theoretical considerations and with respect to group characteristics, outmigration, and employment integration over time, we find differences between dissimilar groups of refugees. The findings concerning employment integration decrease to a small degree after rich regression adjustments. Moreover, maybe more surprisingly, we find a very similar result within the main groups of refugees from countries such as Bosnia, Ethiopia, and Eritrea. Women from these groups, in particular, have similar or higher employment probabilities than Swedish-born women after between 5 and 8 years in the country. Overall, each group managed to catch up to a non-negligible, yet varying, degree compared to related empirical evidence from other countries. The role of contextual factors in the refugee sending and receiving countries is highlighted.

This article studies the importance of local conditions for the employment integration of refugees in Sweden, this in contrast to most studies on immigrant economic integration primarily conducted on the national level or for the larger cities. The data used in the analysis is on male and female natives and twelve refugee groups for the year 2003. Besides monitoring the regional variation in employment integration of twelve refugee groups, this paper, with the use of logistic regressions, estimates the effect of individual and human capital characteristics, internal migration, municipality, local labour market and economic sector factors on the refugees’ odds of being employed. The local variations of refugees’ integration into the labour market were partly a result of internal migration, in most cases from less to more populated municipalities. The job opportunities were better in Stockholm than in other big cities like Malmö and Göteborg. The local unemployment and employment rates, a proxy for the local supply of jobs, significantly affected the individual refugees’ chances to obtain employment. This also applies to the size of the labour market through increased diversification in the supply of job openings. We also find that the structure of the local economy affected the refugees’ probability of obtaining employment. Areas with lower general education and skill levels were positively related, whereas, for example, university localities were negatively related to refugees’ employment chances. Refugees had higher probabilities of being employed in industry in less population-dense areas and in the private service sector in larger cities.