The Impact of Immigration on the Swedish Workforce
(2025) EOSK12 20251Department of Economic History
- Abstract
- As Sweden’s population continues to age, concerns about regional labor shortages and the long-term sustainability of the welfare state have gained increased attention. This thesis investigates whether immigration has helped mitigate unemployment at the regional level, focusing on Sweden’s 21 regions over the period 2010–2020. Using data from Statistics Sweden, a panel dataset was constructed to analyze the relationship between immigration and unemployment, while controlling for demographic pressures through the elderly dependency ratio. A series of fixed effects regression models were estimated to assess whether immigration was associated with lower unemployment, suggesting complementarity between immigrants and the existing workforce. The... (More)
- As Sweden’s population continues to age, concerns about regional labor shortages and the long-term sustainability of the welfare state have gained increased attention. This thesis investigates whether immigration has helped mitigate unemployment at the regional level, focusing on Sweden’s 21 regions over the period 2010–2020. Using data from Statistics Sweden, a panel dataset was constructed to analyze the relationship between immigration and unemployment, while controlling for demographic pressures through the elderly dependency ratio. A series of fixed effects regression models were estimated to assess whether immigration was associated with lower unemployment, suggesting complementarity between immigrants and the existing workforce. The results show a statistically significant negative effect of immigration on unemployment rates in simpler models; however, once fixed effects are applied, the effect is no longer significant. While immigration does not appear to reduce unemployment in a robust or causal manner, it also shows no evidence of increasing it. This research contributes to ongoing debates on how immigration can serve as a response to demographic decline and labor shortages. It concludes with policy recommendations aimed at improving the alignment between migration inflows and regional labor market needs. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9208693
- author
- Tamás, Krisztina LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- EOSK12 20251
- year
- 2025
- type
- M2 - Bachelor Degree
- subject
- keywords
- immigration, aging population, Sweden, unemployment rate.
- language
- English
- id
- 9208693
- date added to LUP
- 2025-08-18 10:52:10
- date last changed
- 2025-08-18 10:52:10
@misc{9208693,
abstract = {{As Sweden’s population continues to age, concerns about regional labor shortages and the long-term sustainability of the welfare state have gained increased attention. This thesis investigates whether immigration has helped mitigate unemployment at the regional level, focusing on Sweden’s 21 regions over the period 2010–2020. Using data from Statistics Sweden, a panel dataset was constructed to analyze the relationship between immigration and unemployment, while controlling for demographic pressures through the elderly dependency ratio. A series of fixed effects regression models were estimated to assess whether immigration was associated with lower unemployment, suggesting complementarity between immigrants and the existing workforce. The results show a statistically significant negative effect of immigration on unemployment rates in simpler models; however, once fixed effects are applied, the effect is no longer significant. While immigration does not appear to reduce unemployment in a robust or causal manner, it also shows no evidence of increasing it. This research contributes to ongoing debates on how immigration can serve as a response to demographic decline and labor shortages. It concludes with policy recommendations aimed at improving the alignment between migration inflows and regional labor market needs.}},
author = {{Tamás, Krisztina}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{The Impact of Immigration on the Swedish Workforce}},
year = {{2025}},
}