Integrationens betydelse för Sveriges ekonomiska tillväxt

This thesis concerns the current highly debated issue on the Swedish labour market, regarding the prevailing lack of integration of immigrants. Firstly, it is common that highly educated individuals find themselves at work positions where they are overly qualified in terms of education and experience, for example, when an engineer works as a taxi driver. Secondly, there is a higher rate of unemployment for those born abroad. Earlier research shows that there is a correlation between labour integration and economic growth. Therefore, this thesis seeks to analyse what impact different scenarios and measure implementations have on Sweden’s future economic growth as well as on the human capital. Using current data in conjunction with the creation of a modified growth model, including integration as a depending variable in the production function, data simulations will generate different forecasts of the economic growth development due to different assumptions. When working with a growth model it is possible to estimate and actually quantify how great the possible effects of integration might be in terms of economic growth and future GDP per capita. The results from the forecasts show that the suggested actions made to increase integration on the labour market have significant positive effects on the economic growth in the long run. Even actions in terms of education for immigrants are of importance in order to reduce the initial differences in human capital between immigrants and natives, which also have a substantial impact on the economic growth. This shows how important it is that the society is aware of these facts and that early actions are taken concerning integration in order to avoid increasing costs in the long term and stimulate the economic growth