Receiving Countries' Perspectives: The Case of Sweden

26 Pages Posted: 6 Sep 2014

See all articles by Christer Gerdes

Christer Gerdes

Stockholm University - Swedish Institute for Social Research (SOFI)

Eskil Wadensjo

Stockholm University - Swedish Institute for Social Research (SOFI); IZA Institute of Labor Economics; Stockholm University Linnaeus Center for Integration Studies (SULCIS)

Abstract

Sweden has made its labour market more open for labour immigration since the mid1990s: becoming member of the common labour market of EES/EU in 1994, no transitional rules introduced at the enlargement of European Union in 2004 and 2007, and opening up for labour migration from non-EES/EU countries in December 2008. The changes have led to increased labour immigration. The labour immigration expanded for example after the enlargement in 2004 but not so much as in for example the United Kingdom and Ireland. Other forms of immigration have been more important. On the other hand, the migration has been rather stable in the years after the crisis in 2008. The main explanation is most likely that the recession in Sweden was only for one year, 2009, and that it was concentrated to some parts of the manufacturing industry where few migrant workers were employed. If the present EMU crisis is spreading to Sweden the result may of course be different.

Keywords: immigration, wages, EU enlargement, Sweden

JEL Classification: F22, J15, J31, J61

Suggested Citation

Gerdes, Christer and Wadensjo, Eskil, Receiving Countries' Perspectives: The Case of Sweden. IZA Discussion Paper No. 8408, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2492435 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2492435

Christer Gerdes (Contact Author)

Stockholm University - Swedish Institute for Social Research (SOFI) ( email )

Kyrkgatan 43B
SE-106 91 Stockholm
Sweden

Eskil Wadensjo

Stockholm University - Swedish Institute for Social Research (SOFI) ( email )

Universitetsvägen 10F
SE-106 91 Stockholm
Sweden

IZA Institute of Labor Economics

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

Stockholm University Linnaeus Center for Integration Studies (SULCIS) ( email )

SE-106 91 Stockholm
Stockholm
Sweden

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