Labour market integration of FRY refugees in Sweden vs. Denmark
| Published date | 01 April 2023 |
| Author | Pernilla Andersson Joona,Nabanita Datta Gupta |
| Date | 01 April 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/imig.13007 |
International Migration. 2023;61:241–259.
|
241
wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/imig
Received: 17 Septe mber 2021
|
Revised: 31 Januar y 2022
|
Accepted: 22 March 2 022
DOI: 10 .1111/imig .13007
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Labour market integration of FRY refugees in
Sweden vs. Denmark
Pernilla Andersson Joona1 | Nabanita Datta Gupta2,3
This is an open ac cess article und er the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial- NoDerivs License, which
permits us e and distributio n in any medium, provid ed the original wor k is properly cited , the use is non- commercial and no
modificat ions or adaptatio ns are made.
© 2022 The Auth ors. International Migration published by John W iley & Sons Ltd on behalf o f International Or ganization for
Migration
Andersso n Joona and Datt a Gupta contri buted in equal m easure to this pap er.
1Swedish Insti tute for Social Rese arch
(SOFI), Stockho lm University, Stock holm,
Sweden
2Departm ent of Economics and Bu siness
Economics, B usiness and Socia l Sciences,
Aarhus Unive rsity, Aarhus V, Denma rk
3IZA, Bon n, Germany
Correspondence
Nabanita Dat ta Gupta, Dep artment of
Economics an d Business Economic s,
Business and S ocial Sciences, A arhus
Universit y, Aarhus V, Denmark.
Email: ndg@econ.au.dk
Abstract
We compare the long- run labour m arket integration of the
Former Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) refugees who arrived
in the 1990s to the Scandinavian countries in the settings
of Sweden and Denmark, respectively. These otherwise
similar countries faced different economic conditions at the
time of arrival and over the observation period. They al so
differed in terms of the res trictiveness of asylum poli cies
and i n attitudes towards immigr ation. Using register data
from Statistics Sweden and St atistics Denm ark, we show
that FRY refugees, in both child and adult gene rations at
arrival, are better integrated 12– 15 years later in Sweden
than in Denmark, even though Sweden exp erienced a
higher level of unemployment than Denma rk throughout
the perio d. Our finding s suggest that asylum policies pro-
moting ea rly labour ma rket entry a nd early exp osure to a
host country's school ing system, as well as access to dis-
ability pensio n and social assistance, are i mportant factors
affecting refu gee labour market integration.
242
|
ANDERS SON JOONA AND DATTA GUPTA
INTRODUCTION
Incomple te immigrant integ ration in host cou ntry labour ma rkets is a lingerin g policy issue in ad vanced countri es.
Refugees, due to the unplanne d and of ten traumatic circumstance s around their displace ment, tend to be l ess
positively selec ted than immigrants and face even worse economic outcomes relative to natives (Brell et al., 2020).
Host cou ntry labour market condi tions affect the econom ic integration of refugees as their labour market out-
comes (like those of immigra nts) tend to be procyclical and more stro ngly affected by business cycl es fluctuations
than tho se of natives, even within skill groups (Dustmann et al., 2010 ; Orreni us & Zavody, 2 010). Fur thermore,
similar to immigrants , host- country percep tions and attitudes matter for refugee s’ economic integration but this is
still an under- researched area.1 An emerging issue wh en considering refugee m igration is the struc ture of asylum
policy and th e role it plays in facilitat ing the integration pro cess (Dustmann et al., 2 010). Refugee s’ human capital
depreciates and the ir credentials lose their value during the as ylum period making labour market integ ration more
difficult afterwards (Bevelander, 2020).
Few compar ative studies exist on t he long- r un labour o utcomes of th e same group of refugees observed in
different settings. Even fewer make use of natu ral experiment s such as wars, civil conflicts or natural disasters
that g ive rise to unexpected refugee flows when estimating long- run effects.2 When such natural experiments
have been exploited in the previous literature, the main focus ha s been to id entify causa l effects of refugee in-
flows on native out comes (Tumen, 2015). When the ef fects on refugees th emselves are considered , it is typically
only the outcome s of the adult generation which i s in focus (Marbach et al., 2018). In t his paper, we focus on how
the same group of refugees displaced due to the war, both child and adult generations , fare later on in the labour
market in otherwise similar set tings that differ wit h respect to certai n key insti tutional para meters. We aim to
identify whether differences in countries’ welfare or asylum systems either aid or hamper refugee labour market
integration. Fur thermore, in contrast to the previo us literature, we suggest a simple theor etical framework linking
work incentives to institutio nal features such as asylum duration, wages, and the age at arrival. Finally, unlike other
studies we also empirica lly test whether hostile attitudes towards im migrants is a potential a lternative f actor
hindering integration.
Exploiting the natural experiment of the large and exogenous influx of Fo rmer Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY )
refugees3 in the 1990s to the Scandinavia n countries, we co mpare refugee integ ration in Sweden a nd Denmark.
The two otherwise similar sett ings faced different economic condition s at the time of arrival of this group and over
the obser vation period. Th ey also differed in te rms of public attitu des towards immigra nts over this time per iod.4
Furthermor e, they differed in the re lative restrictivene ss of their asylum policie s.
When the republic of Yugoslavia split up in the early 1990s after intense war and brutal ethnic strife, 1.3 mil-
lion peopl e became intern ally displaced w hile 900,00 0 persons bec ame refugees to neighbouring cou ntries and
Western Europe (Cutt s, 1999). The principl e of distribution was that of ‘burden sharing ’ across Western European
countries. Between 1992 and 1995, Germany, Austria, Swed en, the Netherlands and Denm ark took in around
½ mill ion refugees from FRY, mainly Bosnia and Herzegovina. While G ermany accep ted the bulk of this infl ux
(320,000 refugees; 0 .4% of its population), Sweden and Denmark regis tered, respec tively, 58,700 (0.7% of t he
population) and 17,000 refugees (0.3% of the population), cf., Barslund et al. (2016). The same study repo rts that
while on average the refugees wer e less educated than the native population in all receiving countries, there
were differ ences in relative e ducational attai nments. FRY refugee s to Austria and Denmark were dispr oportion-
ately lower- educated compared to nati ves relative to th e FRY refugees ar riving in Sweden and the Nethe rlands.
On the other hand, as Sweden accepted a l arger number of refugees (both in ab solute and relative terms) than
Denmark, the labour marke t attainment success of this group in Sweden, all else constant, should be lower relative
to Den mark acco rding to th e selec tion mod el prese nted in Laz ear (2021). However, to account for any differences
at the outset , we will control for educatio n in all our analyses.
Get this document and AI-powered insights with a free trial of vLex and Vincent AI
Get Started for FreeStart Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting