Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/142382 
Year of Publication: 
2016
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 9943
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
Despite having one of the most celebrated labor market integration policies, the native-immigrant employment gap in Sweden is one of the largest among the OECD countries. In this study, we use unique Swedish register data to try to explain the employment gap between male immigrants and natives. The results show that the traditional human capital theory only explains a small share of the immigrant-native gap. After controlling for human capital, demographic and contextual factors, large unexplained employment gaps still persists between immigrants and natives and between migrant categories. Our analysis indicates that admission category is an important determinant of employment integration, and that humanitarian and family migrants suffer from low transferability of their country specific human capital. The article highlights the need to consider migrant categories in integration research, and take into account international human capital transferability when explaining employment outcomes for immigrants.
Subjects: 
human capital
Sweden
labour market integration
migration categories
employment gaps
JEL: 
F22
J61
J68
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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