Increasing rates of refugee and family reunion immigration have led to rising concern about integration in Europe. Previous studies point to the importance of social contacts for migrants’ labour market integration but suggest that they play different roles for men and women. Yet, less attention has been paid to the potential factors shaping gender differences. Using the Swedish Level of Living Survey of foreign-born and their children, this study (1) establishes the gender-specific role of contacts at entry into employment among refugee and family reunion migrants, and (2) analyses how educational attainment and region of origin shape gender differences. Results reveal that social contacts promote entry into employment among migrant men. In contrast, contacts are not related to a shorter time to first job among migrant women. Findings further point towards gender differences in the role of social contacts by educational attainment and region of origin. In particular, migrant men appear to benefit from their contacts largely because social contacts assist low-educated men in securing work. Among women, the role of social contacts does not differ across educational attainment. Instead, educational attainment is directly associated with time to first job, suggesting that women rely more heavily on their formal education. The returns to social contacts are heterogeneous across regions of origin, and especially so among women.

Research in several advanced economies has found that the descendants of immigrants tend to experience persistent difficulties in entering the labour market. This article tests whether social capital contributes to the disadvantage of descendants of immigrants in the school-to-work transition when compared to their native-background peers in Sweden. The study uses the CILS4EU survey, which provides information on friendship ties measured at age 15 and labour market outcomes at age 19. This allows for an analysis of networks formed before labour market entrance, an extensive control setup, and a comparison of measures of outgoing, incoming, and reciprocated friendship ties. The results show that the descendants of immigrants have access to less social capital measured as employed friends, but that they are as likely as natives to use their contacts to obtain a job. The returns to social capital are similar in terms of unemployment risk, but descendants of immigrants have a lower payoff when it comes to earnings. The study concludes that social capital contributes to, but is not the main driver of their labour market disadvantage in the school-to-work transition.

Prior research has found that immigrants are often overeducated: their educational attainment is higher than required or commonly observed in their occupation. Yet, less is known about the education–occupation mismatch among immigrants’ children and grandchildren (the second and third generations). Using the French Trajectories and Origins 2 (TeO2, 2019–2020) survey, we test theoretically grounded hypotheses on the level of vertical (educational attainment) and horizontal (field of study) mismatch in the first, second, and third generations as well as on the mechanisms underlying the mismatch. Results indicate that vertical mismatch is substantially lower in the second and third generations than in the first, supporting the hypothesis that vertical mismatch is largely the result of imperfect international transferability of credentials. By contrast, higher levels of horizontal mismatch persist in the second and third generations among men of non-European descent. Differences in horizontal mismatch between immigrants’ and natives’ descendants are largely accounted for by initial sorting into fields of study.

Beginning in the 1990s and intensifying after the events of September 11, deportations in the United States increased to record levels under President Obama and continued at high levels under President Trump. Although a growing literature addresses how migrants respond to the shifting context of reception, empirical evidence on how migrants’ remitting and saving behavior changed as a result of immigration enforcement remains limited. Using detailed individual-level data from the Mexican Migration Project (MMP, N = 6787) for the years 1970–2019, this study examines how deportations relate to Mexican migrants’ joint decisions to remit and/or save, and how this relationship differs by documentation status. Results from multinomial logistic regressions reveal that rising deportations are associated with an increase in the transnational economic engagement of undocumented migrants. This is largely due to an increase in remittances; savings brought back decrease with rising deportations, likely because keeping savings in the United States is riskier than sending money back directly. Among documented migrants, the remitting and saving behavior does not appear to change as deportations rise. Analyzing these behaviors together is important to gain a more complete understanding of migrants’ transnational economic ties and links to the country of destination. 

Migrant integration is theoretically conceived as a multidimensional process where integration in one lifedomain does not necessarily imply integration in another domain. An expanding literature analyses severalaspects of the lives of migrants and their children. However, to date research has mainly assessed how attainmentin one life domain influences attainment in another domain. This study analyses the extent to which attainmentacross multiple life domains–socioeconomic, social and residential–coincides among second-generation migrants.Using Swedish register data, we compare 10,450 children of migrants from six regions of origin, who were aged30–40 in 2015, to individuals born in Sweden with two Swedish-born parents. Multigenerational linkagesmoreover allow us to control for parental socioeconomic status as well as residential characteristics whengrowing up. Our analyses reveal considerable disparities in social and residential outcomes between second-generation migrants and the Swedish majority group, as well as across origin groups. Differences in socioeco-nomic attainment are comparatively small once we account for parental characteristics and residential back-ground. Second-generation Turkish and Middle Eastern migrants differ in terms of their social and residentialoutcomes when compared to the Swedish majority group, but have commensurate socioeconomic attainment. Incontrast, we find overall consistency across domains for Polish, ex-Yugoslav and Latin American second-generation migrants. Our findings underline the importance of studying outcomes in multiple domains inorder to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the life situation of second-generation migrants.

The establishment of free mobility in Europe has lowered barriers to movement and given rise to diversity in migration and integration patterns. However, in part due to data constraints, it is difficult to study migration motives, integration and return migration together. Using linked Finnish and Swedish register data covering the period 1988–2005, we address these processes within the same framework and study how the reason for migration and trajectories at the destination relate to return migration. In particular, we assess the migration motives of 13,948 Finnish migrants in Sweden using pre- and post-migration information. Finland and Sweden have been part of the common Nordic labour market since 1954, which has allowed Nordic citizens to move without barriers between the two countries. We also study how income trajectories and trajectories of family formation differ across the assessed motives, and analyse how return migration risks are shaped by the motive and by trajectories of income and family formation. Results reveal that labour and tied migrants are initially more likely to have family abroad than student migrants. Student migrants instead continue their education and experience a steeper income increase. The income of student migrants eventually catches up and surpasses that of labour migrants. Return migration risks are shaped by trajectories at the destination, but also by the initial migration motive. These findings underline the importance of assessing diversity across migrants to gain a better understanding of how different migrant groups fare in the destination country and how this relates to subsequent moves. 

Prior research suggests that disruptive events, such as shocks induced by family instability, neighborhood violence, or relocation, tend to be detrimental for children’s educational outcomes, but findings are heterogeneous depending on the type of event. Limited evidence is available on how shocks resulting from immigration enforcement impact educational outcomes among targeted minority groups. This study contributes to the literature by assessing how a policy implementation in the US–Secure Communities–is related to the school district level achievement of Hispanic students. The Secure Communities program is a national level immigration enforcement policy that was rolled out on a county-by-county basis. The program has increased the risk of deportation and led to rising apprehension and insecurity among undocumented migrants and the wider Hispanic community. Using detailed information on the implementation of Secure Communities, data from the Stanford Education Data Archive, and the Current Population Survey, this study estimates dynamic difference in differences exploiting regional variation in the timing of the policy change to assess its impact on educational outcomes. Results show that the activation of Secure Communities is negatively associated with Hispanic students’ subsequent English language arts achievement, while white and black students’ achievement does not change. Findings further suggest that Hispanic students living in the South, rural areas, and areas with high proportions of likely undocumented migrants are disproportionately impacted by the program’s activation. Whereas, Hispanic students in sanctuary jurisdictions, which reduce the likelihood of deportation, are not impacted. These findings indicate that immigration enforcement can have negative consequences for educational and social inequalities in the United States.

International migration engages large numbers of people. Men, women and children break up from their homes and move to another country temporarily or permanently. Depending on the country of origin and the destination, this comes with varying degrees of uncertainties about where to settle, how much to invest in building a new life abroad and how to retain ties to the country of origin. In recent years, policies have become increasingly salient for migrants’ experiences. They impact entry possibilities and the ease of travelling back home. Increased policing of migrants can interfere in the building of a new life abroad and contribute to stress and apprehension felt among both migrants and their children. To some extent counteracting this, family and friends may provide newly arrived migrants with information on job opportunities and facilitate the transition into the new country.

This dissertation analyses the links between migration and integration patterns and migrants’ ties to the home and destination country. It does this in two ultimately distinct settings when it comes to the borders and barriers that migrants face: the Nordic and Mexico-U.S. settings. Until recently, Swedish migration policy was among the most welcoming to migrants from different parts of the world. Migration within the Nordic countries, in particular, is characterised by open borders. By contrast, Mexico and the U.S. are separated by an increasingly militarised border and internal policing of migrants has risen dramatically. Consequently, these settings provide contrasting and interesting examples of the relationship between the policy context and migrants’ experiences.

Study 1 shows that many moves are temporary and short term in the Nordic setting of free mobility. Still, the threshold to the first move is notably higher than for subsequent moves. Study 2 reveals that rising deportations of Mexican migrants in the U.S. are associated with a shift from savings brought home to the sending of remittances. Afraid of a sudden arrest or deportation, migrants maintain transnational ties by sending remittances back to Mexico rather than carrying savings across the border. Study 3 investigates the different roles that social contacts play for male and female migrants’ integration into the Swedish labour market. Whereas friends provide men with benefits in the labour market, women’s job search is often constrained by factors linked to having family in Sweden. Study 4 shows that the implementation of local level immigration enforcement in the U.S. has a negative impact on district level average educational achievement among Hispanic students. This indicates that integration and resulting ethnic achievement gaps are shaped by increased policing and surveillance of migrants.

This dissertation reveals a series of complex relationships between migration, integration and policies. Family and kin influence migration decisions also when barriers to movement are low. In the new country, kin can assist migrants’ job search or slow it down when newly arrived migrants are expected to care for them. Policing of migrants makes it more difficult to return and may affect migrants’ abilities to invest in building a new life, as indicated by negative effects for educational outcomes among groups targeted by immigration enforcement. Taken together, these factors shape the experiences and life chances of both migrants and their children in the new country.

This paper provides an in-depth analysis of the links between financial knowledge, attitude and behavior, based on the Austrian contribution to the OECD/INFE survey on financial literacy. Our analysis gives evidence of causal effects of financial knowledge on financial behavior, using a new instrument based on respondents' newspaper reading habits. We confirm that the selection bias is likely negative, i.e. we would underestimate the causal effect of knowledge on behavior in a classical regression setting. Furthermore, we provide mediation analyses, showing that about 13% of the causal effect of knowledge on behavior is mediated through financial attitude.

Circular migration in settings of free mobility has received increasing policy attention. However, due to data constraints, little is known about the mechanisms underlying it. Using linked Finnish and Swedish register data that allow us to follow Finnish migrants across national borders, we analyse whether the determinants of circular migration differ from those of the first and return move. People move freely between Sweden and Finland, as they are in the common Nordic labour market. Event history analysis shows that many moves are temporary and short term. Moreover, the patterns of circular migration reflect those of the first emigration and first return, respectively. Swedish speakers and individuals who are not married are more prone to emigrate for the first and second time, whereas Finnish speakers and married individuals have a higher risk of return migration. This implies that circular migration may amplify demographic features related to emigration and return migration.