Immigrants' Relative Earnings in Sweden — A Cohort Analysis.

This paper examines the earnings assimilation of immigrants in Sweden by applying a quantile regression approach on pooled data during the period 1990–99. Immigrants from Nordic and Western European countries have a smaller entry earnings disadvantage and slower rate of assimilation than other groups of immigrants. For some cohorts of immigrants from European countries the initial earnings disadvantage disappears after 15–20 years in Sweden, but as non-European immigrants suffered from very large entry earnings disadvantages, their earnings will not catch up with the earnings of natives during their first 20 years in Sweden. More recent non-European immigrant cohorts had a larger entry earnings disadvantage than previous ones. The immigration policy, discrimination, and the economic conditions may have contributed to the decline in the earnings assimilation of non-European immigrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]