Labor market participation of African immigrants in Sweden, 1995-2008

This study examines the pattern of unemployment duration of African immigrants in Sweden as well as the effect of emigration origin, age, gender, level of education and family characteristics on the probability of getting a job upon arrival. The study is based on PLACE-database; the dataset is restricted to individuals born in Africa who immigrated to Sweden during the period of 1994-2008. Results from the Kaplan–Meier estimators and Proportional Hazard Models indicate that unemployment duration and the relative risk of getting a job upon arrival vary according to emigration origin and gender differences. In fact, immigrants from Somalia experience longer unemployment duration than Sub Saharan and North African immigrants. Additionally, African women are more likely to experience longer unemployment duration in comparison to men. Women from Sub Saharan Africa experience shorter unemployment duration in comparison to Somalis and North African ones. On the contrary, there are North African men who experience shorter unemployment duration than men from Sub- Saharan African and Somalia. The results also indicate that the relative risk of leaving unemployment upon arrival also differ by gender and region of emigration. In fact, men experience higher relative risk of leaving unemployment in comparison to women. In addition, the gender gap is found to be much more remarkable among the North African immigrants in comparison to Somalis and Sub Saharan ones. Furthermore, the possibility of leaving unemployment upon arrival decreases with age and childbearing, moreover holding university education increases the relative risk of leaving unemployment upon arrival