We examine peer effects in welfare use among immigrants to Sweden by exploiting a governmental refugee placement policy. We distinguish between the quantity of contacts—the number of individuals of the same ethnicity—and the quality of contacts – welfare use among members of the ethnic...

Recent immigrants tend to locate in ethnic ‘enclaves’ within metropolitan areas. The economic consequence of living in such enclaves is still an unresolved issue. We use an immigrant policy initiative in Sweden, when government authorities distributed refugee immigrants across locales in a...