Abstract
ABSTRACTThis register-based study examined the importance of education on labour market participation among young refugees in Sweden. The study population consisted of unaccompanied (n = 1606) and accompanied refuges (n = 4142), aged 23–26 years in 2006–2010, after 7 years of residence in Sweden. Native Swedish, aged 24 years (n = 347,255) constituted the comparison population, with intercountry adoptees (n = 6689) as an alternative reference group. Gender-stratified multinomial regression models indicated that unaccompanied and accompanied male and female young refugees had higher risks of being in insecure work force and NEET compared to native Swedes with comparable levels of education. However, young refugees and intercountry adoptees with primary education had similar risks of poor labour market outcomes. The educational differences within each group concerning the risk of being in insecure work force were comparable. With the exception of unaccompanied females, secondary education seemed to be less protective against being in NEET among young refugees compared to native Swedes and intercountry adoptees. We conclude that while young refugees face employment disadvantages, education has the potential of mitigating poor labour market outcomes in this group.
Highlights
The socioeconomic integration of migrants has become a top priority of Swedish migration policy (Wiesbrock 2011)
The distribution of educational attainment showed that 90.1% of native Swedes and 85.5% of intercountry adoptees had secondary education
The current study shows that young refugees have much higher risks of poor labour market outcomes compared to native Swedes
Summary
The socioeconomic integration of migrants has become a top priority of Swedish migration policy (Wiesbrock 2011). Crossing the borders because of violence, conflict, or persecution, refugees constitute a vulnerable group within the migrant population. This may be even more applicable to young refugees – either unaccompanied or accompanied by their parents. These young refugees have received relatively little attention by scholars in the field of migration and working life. Based on population-based register data, we aim to extend the knowledge about young refugees’ working life and, whether education has the same ‘payoff’ in terms of labour market outcomes as compared to native Swedes
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