Economic progress of immigrants in Sweden from 1970 to 1990: a longitudinal study

Abstract

This article presents a longitudinal study of immigrants' adaptation to the Swedish labour market. The study is based on data from the 1970, 1975, 1980, 1985 and 1990 censuses. It demonstrates large differences in economic success between different immigrant groups compared with corresponding native‐born Swedish groups. There are differences in both socioeconomic trends and income trends. Some of the results tend to support the corresponding studies made in the United States, but there are also results that differ from the findings in the United States. It is necessary to understand the economic progress among immigrants in a very broad perspective. The economic and the political circumstances, both in the emigrant and the immigrant countries must be added to a traditional human capital model.