Immigrants and occupational accidents: A comparative study of the frequency and types of accidents encountered by foreign and Swedish citizens at an engineering plant in Sweden

Abstract

The study concerns the relationship between citizenship and accidents, broken down by workshop, occupational group, age and experience, at a Swedish automobile and truck factory. It covers 537 accidents among personnel employed under collective agreement over the years 1986–1987. Comparisons between average annual frequency rates for Swedish and foreign citizens are made. The study offers no support for the view that immigrants are at greater risk than nationals for occupational accidents. In fact, most of the comparisons showed a higher accident frequency among workers of Swedish nationality, although statistically significant differences between groups were obtained in only a few cases. There was, however, a higher accident frequency for young and less experienced foreign citizens than for young Swedish nationals. In an analysis of the 178 accidents that occurred at the company's engine workshops, attention was also paid to the relationships between type of accident situation on the one hand and citizenship and country of birth on the other. These shops had a high proportion of immigrants and a relatively high accident frequency. A multivariate method of analysis was employed, involving the application of cross-tabulations and Chi-square tests to previously factored/clustered data. No significant difference between foreign and Swedish citizens emerged with respect to type of accident situation. This study does not indicate that there is a need for immigrants as a group to be specifically targeted in work designed to prevent occupational accidents.