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Recruitment to Occupations with a Surplus of Workers: The Unexpected Outcomes of Swedish Demand‐Driven Labour Migration Policy
Author(s) -
Emilsson Henrik
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
international migration
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.681
H-Index - 64
eISSN - 1468-2435
pISSN - 0020-7985
DOI - 10.1111/imig.12222
Subject(s) - labour economics , economics , economic shortage , labour law , labour supply , position (finance) , demographic economics , linguistics , philosophy , finance , government (linguistics)
This article studies the outcomes of the 2008 labour‐migration policy change in Sweden, when most state control was abolished and an employer‐led selection was introduced. The main goal was to increase labour migration from third countries to occupational sectors experiencing labour shortages. The article compares the volume, composition and labour‐market status of labour migrants who arrived before the change in the law with those who arrived after. Labour migrants from EU countries are used as a control group to assess any eventual influence from non‐migration policy determinants. The main outcome of the policy change is that non‐ EU labour migration increased – an effect entirely due to the rise in labour migration to surplus occupations. Changes in the composition of the labour migrants explains why those who came after the law change have, on average, a worse labour market position.