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Immigrant School Segregation in Sweden

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Abstract

Recent research has shown that there is a substantial skill difference in Sweden between natives and second-generation immigrants. The objective of this study is to find out whether there exists a relationship between immigrant school segregation and the individual’s human capital. The variation in immigrant concentration rate between cohorts within a school generally does not affect the individual’s human capital outcome. However when estimating specific peer influences between different immigrant groups (first-generation immigrants, second-generation immigrants with two foreign-born parent and second-generation immigrants with one foreign-born parent) the study shows three major findings. First, for men (both natives and second-generation immigrants) there is a general negative effect of having a large share of first-generation immigrant schoolmates. Second, for both men and women a large share of schoolmates with a completely foreign background (non-native parents) has a negative influence on the Swedish grades of second-generation immigrants with two foreign-born parents. Third, for men there seem to exist specific and positive peer influences within the groups of second-generation immigrants with either one or two foreign-born parents.

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Notes

  1. According to Hoxby, peer variation between schools and between classrooms within a school is not a satisfactory type of variation. See Hoxby (2000) for a further discussion.

  2. For more information on (positive) peer effects and social interactions see Manski (2000).

  3. Other studies focusing on neighbourhood segregation are for example Borjas (1995) and Cutler and Gleaser (1997).

  4. Since the academic year 1992/93 every Swedish pupil has had a right to choose to attend a school outside the local school district. This is after our cohorts started the upper-secondary level of compulsory school. However, it is not true for those aged 20 in 1999, but since some time passed before people started choosing a school outside the local school district, it is practically also true for this group of individuals. Thus, since our cohorts had no right to choose to attend a school outside the local school district, school and school district are identical.

  5. The Commission, whose task is to monitor and evaluate national metropolitan policy, is a drafting body in the Government Offices.

  6. Information regarding home municipality and school attendance is missing for 8 per cent of the first-generation immigrants. By excluding these individuals, the actual concentration rate of first- and second-generation immigrants is in fact higher than that calculated by us, particularly because most first-generation immigrants decide to live in the metropolitan areas.

  7. The average school-specific immigrant concentration rate for the entire time period 1988-1995 is also calculated.

  8. The results in the paper do not change when excluding schools with a large or a small within-school variation in the immigrant concentration rate, which shows that it is not particular segments of the school segregation distribution that drives the result.

  9. Our cognitive measure is the general intelligence factor, G. For more information about the G factor, see Carroll (1993).

  10. There are those who do not enlist because of legitimate health reasons. In 2000 (the latest year for which this information is available), 7 per cent of the cohort did not have to enlist because of health reasons. Of the second-generation immigrants we lose around 20 per cent, mostly because of foreign citizenship. Because the share with a foreign citizenship is rather constant over the time period, a within-school immigrant effect should not be biased due to this (as long as the characteristics of those with a foreign citizenship remain the same over the time period).

  11. The measure is a revision of the former SUN classification adjusted to fit the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED97).

  12. One per cent of the individuals attend a school with only one course in mathematics.

  13. The difference in test score results is even larger than in Nordin and Rooth (2009). This is mostly because we restrict the sample to the metropolitan areas and include younger cohorts (since they estimated income equations, they restricted the sample to those aged 28 or older). They also excluded the group (a relatively low-scoring group) with missing values for the separate test scores.

  14. Thus, by interacting the three different concentration rates with dummy variables for natives, second-generation immigrants with two foreign-born parents and second-generation immigrants with one foreign-born parent we estimate nine separate immigrant school effects.

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Correspondence to Martin Nordin.

Appendix

Appendix

The Enlistment Battery has been used for the assessment of intelligence in the Swedish military since the middle of the forties. The test results from the Enlistment Battery principally measure a general ability, but to a certain extent also more specific abilities. The information from the test is then used to allocate the individuals into different branches of the military, and to select those who are capable of performing more qualified jobs. The Enlistment Battery includes four tests, Instructions, Synonyms, Metal folding and Technical comprehension. The aim of the Instruction test is to measure the individual’s ability to make inductions, while the Synonym test captures verbal ability. Verbal skills are also needed for performing well in the Instruction test. Metal Folding is a spatial test, and the fourth test measures Technical comprehension. Each test is normalised into a nine-point scale. The values are then, in accordance with the method of factor analysis, summed up and transformed into a new nine-point scale. Using the nine-point scale or the actual test score as our cognitive ability measure makes little difference to the results in this study. Since there are more missing values for the separate tests, we prefer the nine-point scale (see Table 6).

Table 6 The variation in the concentration rates of immigrants

An estimate of average earnings, based on more than one year, is a less “noisy” measure than one based on a single year and therefore the mother’s and father’s average incomes for the years 1970, 1975 and 1980 (all earnings are in 1980 prices) are computed. If any of the incomes for the three years are zero, an average of the remaining positive incomes is computed. We then add the mother’s and father’s average incomes and obtain a measure for the family income.

The reported education level is the highest education attained by the parent. Four dummy variables indicate if the education levels of the mother and the father are upper secondary, short university, long university or a graduate degree. Missing values for the father’s and the mother’s education levels are reported in 9 per cent and 3 per cent of the cases, respectively. The reference group has missing values for the mother’s and father’s education level.

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Nordin, M. Immigrant School Segregation in Sweden. Popul Res Policy Rev 32, 415–435 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11113-013-9271-z

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