Determinants of the Spatial Mobility of Immigrants in Sweden

Foreign-born residents constitute approximately eleven percent of the Swedish population. This level has been reached after steady immigration during the post-war years and has been accompanied in recent decades with proportionately more non-European immigrants. Immigration has implications for Swedish regional economic development for two reasons examined here. First, immigrant settlement patterns are somewhat different from those of native Swedes. Second, immigrant internal migration behaviour, after arriving in Sweden, differs from native Swedes. This paper focuses on this second consequence of immigration. It examines the migration decisions of immigrants after initial settlement and the demographic, socio-economic, and cultural variables that influence them. It finds that immigrants differ from natives in migration behaviour, mainly because of the role that the size of immigrant communities plays in the decision to migrate and choice of destination. The implications of these results for regional economic-demographic modelling and regional economic growth are discussed.