Regional developments, integration, and internal migration patterns among foreign-born individuals

The proposed research explores critical and unanswered questions: whether positive changes in regional economic conditions can improve the labor market integration of newly arrived immigrants, encourage their long-term settlement in sparsely populated areas, and shift political sentiments in these regions.

This project builds on existing research that has highlighted the challenges of labor market integration for immigrants, especially in countries with limited low-skilled job opportunities, the mobility patterns of immigrants to metropolitan areas, and the growing political discontent in regions facing economic decline.

However, much of the previous literature has focused on negative regional trends and their detrimental effects on populations, labor markets, and political content.

By shifting the focus to positive economic changes, such as regional booms in low-skilled sectors, this project offers a novel perspective on how improving economic trajectories might reshape integration, settlement decisions, and political dynamics in rural or declining areas.

In this project, that will span 18 months, including at least 12 months at LSE, UK, I will employ longitudinal geogoded register data from Statistics Sweden, voting data from the Election Authority, and survey data from the SOM-Institute, to conduct a comprehensive quantitative investigation, using spatial econometrics techniques and regression analyses.