Labor market integration of immigrants over multiple generations

This project aims to analyze the socio-economic integration of immigrants and their descendants across multiple generations.

We approach the topic from several different perspectives, intended to give complementary insights.The project comprises five work packages (WPs), all based on empirical analyses of detailed, individual-level, population-wide register data.First, WP 1 studies group-level convergence — i.e., the rate at which children and grandchildren of immigrants approach natives in terms of education and income — by looking at the relative importance of the parents, the extended family, the ethnic (or country of origin) group, and the neighborhood.WP 2 examines the extent to which differences in intergenerational mobility (i.e., the correlation between parents´ and children´s labor market outcomes) between natives and immigrants can be explained by observable characteristics, in particular relating to socio-economic deprivation.WP 3 is a comparative study of intergenerational mobility among second-generation immigrants between Sweden, Norway, and Denmark.

The similarity in both institutions, economic development, and data quality between these countries facilitates a detailed comparison of differences in integration outcomes, and of which factors drive these differences.In WP 4, we widen the perspective further by comparing intergenerational mobility across a set of fourteen countries in Western Europe, North America, and Australia.

While data limitations will necessitate a simpler analysis than in WP 3, this is counteracted by the larger and more heterogeneous set of countries, which will enable an analysis of more fundamental differences in institutions and policies.Finally, WP 5 studies outmigration — i.e., which immigrants leave Sweden, which stay, and what can explain these patterns.

Selective outmigration has a crucial impact on the composition of families who stay in Sweden for multiple generations, and is thus an important input to the general analysis of intergenerational mobility among immigrants.We also plan to write a synthesis which draws on findings from all five WPs in order to give a comprehensive summary of all aspects of the wider research question.While this might seem highly ambitious for a three-year project, it should be noted that several of the WPs are already underway.

We therefore feel confident that the project is feasible in the time allotted.