THE REGIONAL SETTLEMENT PATTERNS OF IMMIGRANTS TO SWEDEN 1967-2005 BY SEX AND AGE.

Studies on immigration to Sweden show, in general, three marked traits: (1) they analyse the migration flows at a national level, and (2) they assume that the immigrants are distributed relatively even all over Sweden. However, different regions attract a different number of immigrants if immigration is studied at a regional level over time. This implies (3) that immigrants are often incorrectly considered as a homogenous group. Instead, four major groups of immigrants can be identified: returning Swedish citizens, tied-movers, refugees and labour immigrants. This paper focuses on the two latter groups. The aim of this study is to analyse the initial allocation of immigrants to Sweden 1967-2005 by sex and age in a regional perspective. Vacancies, unemployment and labour market participation as well as the stock of immigrants in different regions are included in the analysis as pull-factors. A multivariate cross-section OLS regression model will be used for estimating the relative initial regional distribution of immigrants in Sweden in 1967, 1975, 1990 and 2005 by sex and age. The method that has been chosen enables to control for a subset of explanatory variables and examine the effect of a selected independent variable when estimating the regional pull-factors to immigration. This study uses data collected from Statistics Sweden (SCB) and the National Labour Market Board (AMS). The data used is regional macro data, which exclude information on single individuals.