Parental leave now or later? Immigrant women’s use of parental leave benefit

Sweden is a welfare state with a family policy that strongly emphasizes equality without distinction according to place of birth or gender. In this study, we investigate the di erences in uptake of parental leave between native and immigrant women, and the connection to labour-market attachment. Sweden represents a unique case study, not only because of the strong e ort to combine work and family for all women and men, the high level of fertility and the large presence of immigrants in the country; it also enables a detailed and sophisticated analysis based on the high-quality data derived from its population registers. We nd that immigrant mothers use more parental leave bene t the rst year after their child’s birth, but then fewer in the second year compared to native women. e di erences diminish when labour-market status is controlled for. Additionally, after some time in Sweden, immigrant mothers use leave more similarly to how native mothers do. We conclude that labour-market status is the most decisive factor for parental leave use and we point out the relationship between labour market and family policy.