INCREASING OUR KNOWLEDGE ON MIGRATION AND SOCIETY
Uppsala Immigration Lab performs research on economic and social issues shaping our future. Collaborations across fields and interactions with the surrounding society provide opportunities for contributions to science and policy development.
NEWS
Migration Facts
RESEARCH
Forskarsamtal om integrationsprojekt
Ongoing research
Is language skills in Swedish the key to success in the labor market for immigrants?
How important is language skills for immigrants’ chance of getting a job in the Swedish labor market? The project uses an experimental approach to investigate how different levels of knowledge in Swedish affect a foreign-born jobseeker's chance of being recruited for an advertised job.
Read more about Is language skills in Swedish the key to success in the labor market for immigrants?
Optimizing placement to improve refugees’ outcomes
Is it possible to improve the matching between refugees and municipalities in order to increase refugees’ employment prospects? Using machine learning we will estimate each family’s probability of employment in each municipality, in order to predict where they will be most successful. We will also compare how assigning individuals to achieve the highest employment rate affects other outcomes, such as language training and study participation.
Read more about Optimizing placement to improve refugees’ outcomes here
The Cultural Assimilation of Individualism and Preferences for Redistribution
The project analyzes the relationship between individualism and preferences for redistribution, using variation in immigrants’ countries of origin to capture the impact of cultural values and beliefs on personal attitudes towards income redistribution and equality.
The Swedish Income Distribution,1968-2016
We provide new evidence on income inequality levels and trends in Sweden from 1968 to 2016. By combining data from tax and population registers, we construct a new dataset that includes the distribution of pre-tax total, post-tax disposable, labor and capital incomes for the full Swedish population since 1968. As such, we can also compare income inequality for both individuals and various household concepts. Our estimates extend Statistics Sweden's official inequality series based on full-population registers (2011-) by more than four decades.
Who gets asylum? The impact of traits and biases on bureaucrats' decision making
To what extent are asylum applications affected by traits and biases among the bureaucrats? Earlier research provides insights about the causes and consequences of migration, but according to the researchers, less attention has been directed to the intermediate bureaucratic process deciding who gets asylum.
Read more about Who gets asylum? The impact of traits and biases on bureaucrats' decision making
Low-skilled jobs, language proficiency and labor market prospects for immigrants
What role does labor market experience from low-skilled jobs and Swedish language proficiency play for the integration of refugee immigrants in the Swedish labour market? Using public register data provided by Statistics Sweden, the long-term labour market outcomes for African and Middle Eastern immigrants initially employed in low-skilled jobs are examined.
Read more about Low-skilled jobs, language proficiency and labor market prospects for immigrants
The social mobility of refugee children
What happened to the refugee children that came to Sweden from former Yugoslavia during the 1990’s? We follow refugee children and children of refugees through the education system and into the labor market and social insurance systems.
Heterogeneous responses to family formation
What role does family formation play in accounting for the differences in labor market outcomes between natives and immigrants? We look at the size and persistence of the motherhood penalty among immigrants and how it relates to source country characteristics, age at migration, and the length of residence in Sweden.
Aging migrants, labor market transitions and the welfare state
How is the immigrant exit from the labor market different from that of the native population and why? This research program increases the knowledge about the working life of older migrants and how this interacts with the welfare state and other factors.
Read more about Aging migrants, labor market transitions and the welfare state.
Social networks and immigrant integration
What is the effect of informal meetings between established and new Swedes on the integration of immigrants in terms of self-perceived inclusion, labor market outcomes, housing, economy, health and attitudes? The purpose of this project is to provide causal evidence on the effects of social networks on immigrant integration in collaboration with the non-profit organization Nya Kompisbyrån.
The effect of obtaining a driver’s license on labour market outcomes
What is the effect of obtaining a driver’s license on labour market outcomes, such as income and employment? This research project examines whether a driver's license is something that opens up a larger labor market for individuals and whether it promotes integration.
Read more about The effect of obtaining a driver’s license on labour market outcomes
Evaluation of an ambitious integration programme for newly arrived refugees
What effect does language teaching, in-depth community introduction and job training / practice have on low-skilled newly arrived immigrants who are looking for a job or education? The project evaluates an effort in Gothenburg where low-skilled new arrivals within the Employment Agency's establishment program participate in this kind of efforts and are then matched to training or employers who need to recruit staff.
Read more about Evaluation of an ambitious integration programme for newly arrived refugees
Does asylum waiting time affect labor market integration and health?
Does asylum case processing time affect labor market integration and health? This research project investigates these questions and if so what effects longer waiting times have.
Read more about Does asylum waiting time affect labor market integration and health?
Aptitude assessment for labor market integration
How do our psychological traits and abilities affect individual labor market prospects? This project combines labor market economics perspectives with modern psychological methods to enhance the ways of measuring the importance of different factors and their relation to the potential for integration and adaptation.
Read more about Aptitude assessment for labor market integration
The role of firms in explaining immigrant and native labour market outcomes
What role do firm-specific salary premiums play in explaining wage- and income differences between immigrants and natives? This research project studies the role of firms in explaining wage differences between immigrants and natives. In a broader perspective, the project examines how structural change and labour market institutions affect immigration, integration and labour market outcomes of immigrants and natives.
Read more about The role of firms in explaining immigrant and native labour market outcomes
The performance gap between native and foreign-born pupils
What are the explanations behind the performance gap between domestic and foreign-born pupils? This research examines why foreign-born pupils perform significantly worse in school compared to pupils born in Sweden. The research is trying to answer the question of why the so-called performance gap has widened in recent years, and what can be done to counteract this development.
Read more about The performance gap between native and foreign-born pupils
Voluntary return of refugees: policies and incentives
Do the "Voluntary return programs" increase the proportion of refugees who return to their home countries voluntarily and how quickly do individuals return? The number of refugees increased sharply in the EU in 2015 and since then many applications have been rejected. This research project examines the effect of the programs aimed at increasing the proportion of people who return voluntarily.
Read more about Voluntary return of refugees: policies and incentives
Workplace contact and support for anti-immigration parties
Does the probability of voting for an anti-immigration party increase if you have immigrants in your workplace? The results of this study indicate a negative relationship between an increased proportion of non-Europeans in the workplace and support for the Sweden Democrats and support the contact hypothesis; that increased interaction with minorities (foreign-born) reduces prejudice or other negative attitudes toward minorities among domestic-born voters, leading to lower support for anti-immigration parties.
Read more about Workplace contact and support for anti-immigration parties
Immigrants returns to host country labor market experience
How important is Swedish work experience for foreign-born individuals and how has it developed over five decades? This project aims at gaining new insights on long-term developments in the labor market, patterns affecting the current situation and factors for improving the future labor market outcomes of marginalized groups.
Read more about Immigrants returns to host country labor market experience
Residential Segregation and Long-Run Outcomes
What are the effects of childhood exposure to residential segregation on long-run criminal behavior? We examine this by studying refugee children assigned to their initial neighborhood under the “Whole of Sweden Strategy”.
Read more about Residential Segregation and Long-Run Outcomes