The Emigration of Immigrants, Return vs. Onward Migration: Evidence from Sweden

Using data on registered emigration from Sweden from 1991-2000, this study analyzes emigration propensities for natives and immigrants delineating among immigrant emigrants between return and onward migration. Return migration is defined as migration back to source countries and onward migration as emigration to third country destinations. Onward migration constitutes an increasing proportion of emigration from Sweden and is the more common form of emigration among immigrants from Africa and Asia. Results indicate that emigrants in general are positively selected in terms of upper education, a result driven by the positive association between upper education and emigration among onward migrants. Predicted age-income profiles show that although emigrants in general have higher adjusted mean income levels, up to the age of 35-40, than non-emigrants, onward migrants have lower predicted income levels across the age distribution due to this groups relatively low employment levels in Sweden.