Income mortality paradox by immigrants' duration of residence in Sweden: a population register-based study

BACKGROUND

Studies have shown that, compared with the general native population, immigrants display weaker or absent income gradients in mortality. The aim of this study is to examine the extent to which the income gradient is modified by immigrants' duration of residence in Sweden.

METHODS

Swedish register data from 2004 to 2016 were used to study the association between individual income and all-cause mortality among foreign-born and Swedish-born individuals at ages 25-64 years. Based on relative indices of inequality (RIIs) and slope indices of inequality (SIIs) derived from Poisson regressions, we measured relative and absolute mortality differentials between the least and most advantaged income ranks. The analyses were stratified by sex, immigrants' European or non-European origin, and immigrants' duration of residence in Sweden.

RESULTS

The relative income inequality in mortality among immigrant men was less than half (RII: 2.32; 95% CI: 2.15 to 2.50) than that of Swedish-born men (RII: 6.25; 95% CI: 6.06 to 6.44). The corresponding RII among immigrant women was 1.23 (95% CI: 1.13 to 1.34) compared with an RII of 2.75 (95% CI: 2.65 to 2.86) among Swedish-born women. Inequalities in mortality were lowest among immigrants who resided for less than 10 years in Sweden, and most pronounced among immigrants who resided for more than 20 years in the country. Corresponding analyses of absolute income inequalities in mortality based on the SII were largely consistent with the observed relative inequalities in mortality.

CONCLUSIONS

Income inequalities in mortality among immigrants differ by duration of residence in Sweden, suggesting that health inequalities develop in the receiving context.

Horizontal Advantage: Choice of Postsecondary Field of Study Among Children of Immigrants

Educational expansion has raised the influence of sorting across postsecondary educational fields on children's future life chances. Yet, little is known about horizontal ethnic stratification in the choice of field of study among children of immigrant parents, whose parents often have moderate absolute levels of education relative to native-born parents but tend to be positively selected on education relative to nonmigrants in the origin country. Using rich administrative data from Norway, we study the educational careers of immigrant descendants relative to the careers of children of native-born parents. Our results show that children of immigrants from non-European countries have a higher likelihood of entering higher education and enrolling in high-paying fields of study compared with children of natives, despite having poorer school grades and disadvantaged family backgrounds. However, immigrant parents' positive selectivity provides limited insight into why children of immigrants exhibit high ambitions later in their postsecondary educational careers. These findings document a persistent pattern of horizontal ethnic advantage in postsecondary education in which ambitious children of immigrants are more likely to enter into more prestigious and economically rewarding fields of study than their fellow students with native-born parents.

Origin-country gender norms, individual work experience, and employment among immigrant women in Sweden

Many Western countries are built on a dual-earner model and have high levels of female labor force participation. Increasing the labor market activity of immigrant women is therefore seen as a key part of immigrant integration. However, female labor force participation (LFP) differs substantially between countries, reflecting differences in work-related gender norms that can continue to influence preferences and behaviors after migration. In this study, we investigate how origin-country gender norms and migrant selection interact to produce post-migration outcomes. Our data shows that immigrant women in Sweden have a higher level of pre-migration work experience than expected based on origin-country female LFP, indicating positive selection. Furthermore, the association between origin-country LFP and post-migration employment varied with work experience. For women without origin-country work experience, origin-country LFP was positively associated with employment in Sweden. For women with origin-country work experience, origin-country LFP however was not associated with higher likelihood of employment in Sweden. Though our focus is on immigrant women, we also include immigrant men in our analysis to test our prediction more thoroughly. For men without origin-country work experience, origin-country LFP was negatively associated with employment in Sweden, while we found no association for men with origin-country work experience. Our results show that migrant selection is a crucial factor in understanding the relationship between origin-country LFP and post-migration labor market outcomes, and that these patterns vary with gender. Policy interventions targeting immigrant women from countries with low female LFP should therefore not assume that women arrive socialized with gender-norms that hinder labor market activity.

Is Migration a Way Out from Ascription? The Status Attainment Process of Romanians in Western Europe

This article assesses the role of social origin for Romanian migrants in Western Europe, compared to stayers in their origin country. We propose a novel theoretical model of status attainment to account for the migration process, including the self-selection to migration on the basis of individual characteristics and the effect of the area/context on social mobility. Our sample (elaborated from the EUCROSS 2012 survey) includes 1772 working-age Romanian citizens who completed their education in Romania. Our results show that self-selection played a role in not only the Romanians’ decision to migrate but also the choice of destination (either Southern Europe or Central-Northern Europe), being migrants in Southern Europe negatively self-selected with respect to both social origin (men) and education (both men and, especially, women). We also found that the disadvantage of Romanian migrants (measured through the International Socio-Economic Index), compared to stayers, was reinforced by a higher influence of social origin for women, who, in addition, got even lower returns to education abroad. Contrary to the expectations of both academic scholars and the institutions supporting EU free movement, migration to Western Europe (at least in the case of Romanians) was not a way out, but rather reinforced ascription.

The mobility effects hypothesis: Methods and applications

We discuss hypotheses researchers have put forth to explain how outcomes of socially mobile and immobile individuals might differ and/or how mobility experiences are related to outcomes of interest. Next, we examine the methodological literature on this topic, culminating in the development of the diagonal mobility model (DMM, also called the diagonal reference model in some studies), the primary tool of use since the 1980's. We then discuss some of the many applications of the DMM. Although the model was proposed to examine the effects of social mobility on outcomes of interest, the estimated relationships between mobility and outcomes that researchers have called mobility effects are more appropriately regarded as partial associations. When mobility is not associated with outcomes, as is often found in empirical work, the outcomes of movers from origin o to destination d are a weighted average of the outcomes of individuals who remained in states o and d respectively, and the weights capture the relative salience of origins and destinations in the acculturation process. In light of this attractive feature of the model, we briefly develop several generalizations of the current DMM that future researchers should also find useful. Finally, we propose new estimands of mobility effects, based on the explicit notion that a unit effect of mobility is a comparison of an individual with herself under two conditions, one in which she is mobile, the other in which she is immobile, and we discuss some of the challenges in identifying such effects.

The hidden side of migration: Understanding sexuality as an aspiration to migrate

Sexuality is an understated yet increasingly important motive for migration. Motivation to migrate is often viewed from a polarized lens, either as the pursuit of economic security or as a desire to access to human rights, on which social policy on migration has been predicated. We introduce the notion of the toxic triangle to account for contexts that prove hostile to freedom of sexuality and trigger individuals to migrate. Drawing on insights from 25 interviews, we demonstrate how sexuality remains a silent yet significant contributor to individuals' decisions to migrate from an adversarial context. We illustrate how the participants fall into four archetypes of dreamers, climbers, escapists, and seekers, based on their endowments and experiences of sexuality and gender identity as salient sources of their motivation to migrate. Focusing on the hidden side of Turkish migration to the UK offers insights into how the pursuit of freedom of sexuality in terms of safety and security shapes motivations and experiences of migration across two cultures.

“I Will Return Strong”: The Role of Life Aspirations in Refugees’ Return Aspirations

This article studies how return migration aspirations are formed and realized in the context of protracted displacement. Drawing on a mixed-methods study that included survey research and in-depth interviews in Turkey, Lebanon, and Syria conducted, we study whether respondents aspired to return (i) currently, with the conflict still ongoing; and (ii) in the future, if the war were to end. Our analyses reveal how broader life aspirations play a crucial role in shaping return aspirations, and how current and future return aspirations are separate concepts. Current return aspirations were strongly stratified. For economically vulnerable respondents, current return considerations were often related to survival, whereas for respondents from the educated middle class, current return aspirations were part of their broader life aspirations. Aspirations to return after the war's end were largely driven by a wish to realize broader life goals. Future return aspirations often functioned as a mental coping strategy to keep hope for change in the future — including political change — alive. Return abilities favored those with higher socioeconomic status, those who had remained neutral in the conflict and those willing to take high risks. Overall, our analyses illustrate the usefulness of the aspirations-abilities framework, and the important role of life aspirations, in understanding return-migration decisions in a context of protracted displacement.

Does Educational Mismatch Affect Emigration Behaviour?

This paper uses linked Swiss administrative and survey data to examine the relationship between educational mismatch in the labour market and emigration decisions, carrying out the analysis for both Swiss native and previous immigrant workers. In turn, migrants’ decisions separate returning home from onward migration to a third country. We find that undereducation is positively associated with the probability of emigration and return to the country of origin. In contrast, the reverse relationship is found between overeducation and emigration, especially among non-European immigrant workers. According to the predictions of the traditional model of migration, based on self-selection, migrants returning home are positively selected relative to migrants emigrating to other countries. We also find that immigrants from a country outside the EU27/EFTA have little incentive to return home and generally accept jobs for which they are mismatched in Switzerland. These results highlight the relevance to understand emigration behaviours in relation to the type of migrant that is most integrated, and productive, in the Swiss market, hence enabling better migration and domestic labour market policy design.

Which Integration Policies Work? The Heterogeneous Impact of National Institutions on Immigrants’ Labor Market Attainment in Europe

Can specific policies support the economic integration of immigrants? Despite the crucial importance of this question, existing evidence is inconclusive. Using data from the European Social Survey, we estimate the effects of integration and anti-discrimination policies, alongside social expenditure and labor market regulation, on the labor market performance of 6,176 non-European immigrants across 23 European countries. We make three contributions: 1) we investigate the distinct role of discrete policy areas for labor market integration outcomes, 2) we allow for heterogeneous effects of policies on immigrants with different characteristics, and 3) we examine immigrants’ occupational attainment while accounting for their selection into employment. We find that immigrants’ employment chances are negatively associated with national levels of expenditure on welfare benefits but positively associated with policies facilitating immigrant access to social security. We also find that labor market rigidity is negatively associated with immigrants’ occupational attainment, but we find little evidence that policies aimed at supporting the transferability of immigrants’ qualifications promote their occupational success. Our results strongly suggest that anti-discrimination policies are important for immigrant economic integration. Yet while these policies are associated with greater occupational success for all female immigrants, they seem to be only positively associated with the occupational attainment of higher-skilled and non-Muslim immigrant men. As this article suggests, anti-discrimination policies can foster immigrants’ labor market success, yet these policies currently fail to reach those who face the strongest anti-immigrant sentiments — that is, unskilled male immigrants and Muslim immigrant men.