2006
2006:1 Equal Opportunities for Equal Education
Published in Journal of Immigrant and Refugee Studies as "Do Host Country Educations Even Out the Playing Field? Immigrant-Native Labor Market Gaps in Sweden". The Transition from School to Work. There are significant differences in labour market outcomes between natives and first and second-generation immigrants. The focus of this study is to analyse to what degree these differences can be explained by differences in educational choices and educational outcomes post compulsory school. Using data on a sample of natives and the population of students with immigrant backgrounds who graduated from compulsory school in 1988, this project aims to analyze whether immigrants and natives with similar Swedish educational backgrounds have similar outcomes in terms of labour market status. In addition, the study aims to follow up the educational choices made after compulsory school and analyze if there are systematic differences between immigrants and natives in educational investment, both in terms of educational outcomes and in terms of choices for higher education. Participating researchers: Lena Nekby and Gülay Özcan. Working Paper: Do Domestic Educations Even Out the Playing Field? Ethnic Labor Market Gaps in Sweden.
2006:7 Acculturation Identity and Labor Market Outcomes Two publication: "Acculturation Identity and Employment among Second and Middle Generation Immigrants" in Journal of Economic Psychology and "Acculturation Identity and Higher Education. Is There a Trade-off Between Ethnic Identity and Education?" in International Migration Review.
Using survey data from 1995 on a cohort of students with immigrant backgrounds who graduated from Swedish compulsory school in 1988, matched to register data from 1995-2002, this study explores the identity formation of these individuals and its consequences for subsequent labor market outcomes. Unique for this study is that identity is defined according to a two-dimensional acculturation framework based on both strength of identity to the (ethnic) minority and the majority culture. Results indicate that what matters for labor market outcomes is strength of identification with the majority culture regardless of strength of (ethnic) minority identity. Labor market outcomes vary little between the assimilated and the integrated who have in common a strong majority identity but varying minority identity. Correlations between identity and labor market outcomes are however, an entirely male phenomenon. Participating researchers: Lena Nekby and Magnus Rödin. Working Paper: Acculturation Identity and Labor Market Outcomes
2006:8 Labour Mobility and Segregation
Within a city, residential areas with high levels of foreign born persons tend to constitute spatial pockets of entrenched joblessness. Labour markets in segregated areas can thus be imagined as rather static units. But these labour markets are characterized by high mobility, both socially and geographically, and are thus rather dynamic units. This project aims to analyse the mobility processes of the foreign born population in particularly distressed residential areas in the city regions of Stockholm and Malmö. Specifically, the project will investigate how individuals enter the labour market from positions of vulnerability, such as unemployment and social benefits, and how this act is connected with internal migration. The project will use the longitudinal database PLACE, which covers all individuals in Sweden with respect to both housing and labour markets. Furthermore, the project conducts a qualitative interview study with both residents in distressed neighbourhoods, and migrants who previously lived in these areas. Participating Researchers: Charlotta Hedberg and Tiit Tammaru (University of Tartu)
2006:10 Immigrant Introduction Programs – A Randomized Experiment
Forthcoming in Scandinavian Journal of Economics as "Intensive Coaching of New Immigrants: An Evaluation Based on Random Program Assignment".
This project, set up in conjunction with the Ministry of Industry and the Swedish Employment Service (AMS), aims to measure the effect of a trialintroduction program for newly arrived immigrants on a number of labor market outcomes. The purpose of the trial program is to minimize the time from immigration to entry into the regular labor market. In order to evaluate this new introduction program, an experimental set-up was implemented in three Swedish counties, Stockholm, Skåne and Kronoberg. Newly arrived immigrants in these counties are randomised either into a control group or a treatment group. The control group receives the regular introduction program for immigrants while the treatment group receives the new trial program. The trial program differs from the regular introduction program in several ways. For example, the trial program aims to considerably shorten waiting times from granted residency permit to commencement of activities within the introduction programs such as language instruction and AMS activities. It also aims to decreases the caseload of AMS counsellors in order to offer intensified counselling to newly arrived immigrants. Finally, the trial program promotes the use of combined language instruction with other AMS activities. The regular introduction program normally requires satisfactory completion of language courses before introducing other AMS labor market activities. Participating researchers: Pernilla Andersson Joona and Lena Nekby.
2006:11 Mobility in the Segregated Labour Market? Possibilities and Limitations of Entrepreneurship
The health care sector is an important arena for groups with a weak position in the labour market in Sweden. This project aims to investigate if immigrant women take part in the entrepreneurial process that is now evolving in this sector. It maps and analyses the mobility between public and private sectors from an entrepreneurial and gender perspective. It particularly investigates if entrepreneurship is a desirable way to promote immigrant careers and integration on the labour market and if restrictions are perceived for the mobility of this group. The project is expected to increase the knowledge of employment possibilities for distressed groups in the labour market, and also to improve regional development. It highlights new aspects on immigrant women’s labour market and entrepreneurship, such as possibilities of self-improvement and the potential to develop the sector in an innovative way. A combination of quantitative and qualitative methods will be used within this project. A statistic survey will be done by use of a longitudinal database. Also, an interview study will be conducted with people from both private and public sectors. Participating researchers: Charlotta Hedberg and Katarina Pettersson (Nordregio).
2008
2008:3 Evaluation of a Trial Recruitment Project for Newly Arrived Immigrants: “Newly Arrived Immigrants - Construction Firms”
This project, commissioned by the Swedish Employment Service (AMS), aims to evaluate the employment outcomes of a trial introduction program for newly arrived immigrants. The trial program is implemented by AMS and covers a number of nationwide construction firms. The purpose of the trial program is to speed up the recruitment process for the newly arrived immigrants by establishing new recruitment channels between AMS and participating firms. In addition, the trial program aims to promote non-traditional, in terms of gender, occupational choices. In the project we aim to analyse both the requirement process and the outcome of the trial program. More specifically, the following questions will be posed: What are the characteristics of the individuals who succeed in the different steps of the requirement process? How is recruitment success affected by the caseworkers and personnel managers involved in the process? During the recruitment process, participating employers and the AMS caseworkers have continually answered survey questions regarding the decision process. Focus in the survey is on characteristics often difficult to measure with register data, such as the motivation, social competence and communication skills of applicants. The trial project was initiated in the autumn of 2007 and will continue until august 2008. Participating researchers: Magnus Rödin and Gülay Özcan.
2008:4 Commuting and Migration Between the Nordic Countries
The project is a survey of statistics and research on the extent and effects of commuting and migration between the Nordic countries. The common Nordic labour market was founded in 1954 but the extent of the migration and commuting between countries is much smaller than that within countries even if account is taken of the distances between municipalities. Questions dealt with in the study are: What are the effects of migration for incomes and regional development? What are the macroeconomics effects of migration and commuting? What are the effects on wages and unemployment of an integration of labour markets? Has the migration had any effects on the amplitude of the business cycles? What are the remaining obstacles for a further integration of the labour markets of the Nordic countries? The project has received economic support from the Swedish Ministry of Finance. The results has been published by the Nordic Council, Arbetskraftens rörlighet i Norden - Drivkrafter och effekter, TemaNord 2008:524. Participating researchers: Pernilla Andersson Joona and Eskil Wadensjö.
2008:8 Immigration to Sweden from the New EU member Countries
In May 2004, the European Union was enlarged by ten new member countries. Sweden was the only country to open up the labour market at the day of entry and that did not impose any special restrictions for the immigrated labour concerning access to the welfare system. The purpose of the project is to describe and analyse the immigration flows from the new member countries into Sweden between 2004 and 2007. From what countries did the first immigrants come, what was their level of education, which age groups dominated etc.? The project also aims at analysing effects of immigration on wages and employment for some well defined native worker groups for which there is substitutability with the immigrated workers. Participating researcher: Per Lundborg.
2010
2010:4 Recruitment of foreign labor: Their work environment and labor market position in the Nordic countries
This is a joint Nordic project funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers. Researchers at the National Research Center for Working Environment in Denmark manage the project. Each of the Nordic countries contributes a country report that discusses the situation in their country. The primary purpose of the project is to describe if and how labor migration is regulated and whether these regulations have changed in recent years. We also summarize what we know so far about how foreign workers are recruited, the extent to which foreign workers come to the Nordic countries, and what their working environment and labor market association in the host countries looks like. The motivation for the project is that there is a demographic trend in the Nordic countries toward an increasingly aging population, a development that the Nordic countries share with other western economies and even other economies. One way to try to deal with the problem is precisely through increased labor migration.
Publication: "Rekrytering av utländsk arbetskraft: Invandrares arbetsmiljö och anknytning till den svenska arbetsmarknaden" (Recruitment of foreign workers: Their work environment and labor market position in Sweden), www.arbejdsmiljoforskning.dk.
Participating researchers: Pernilla Andersson Joona and Eskil Wadensjö