The Legacy of Exile for Descendants of Refugees: Inequality and Disparity across Multiple Domains of Life

Lisa Harber-Aschan, Stockholm University
Elena Pupaza, Stockholm University
Ben Wilson, Stockholm University

While much is known about the lives of refugees, less is known about the lives of their children, particularly concerning the inequalities that they may face in adulthood. Using longitudinal data for the whole population of Sweden, we study outcomes at age 30 across different domains of life, including education, earnings, family formation, health and the receipt of social support. We make comparisons between Swedish-born children of refugees, Swedish-born children of non-refugee immigrants, Swedish-born children of Swedish-born parents, and foreign-born refugees who arrived as children. Our results show that inequalities and disparities are extremely heterogeneous, by outcome, sex, and parental background. Despite lower fertility at age 30, Swedish-born children of refugees experience inequalities in earnings, unemployment and housing support. This is true for both women and men, but varies considerably by parental country of birth. Those with two refugee parents fare better than those with one refugee parent and one Swedish-born parent, suggesting that a native-born parent is not necessarily protective against inequality. We find clear evidence of segmented adaptation for the children of refugees. Still, our findings indicate that adaptation is not a uniform process, with a much richer picture emerging from a comparison across multiple domains of life.

Keywords: Migrant Populations and Refugees, Inequality, Disadvantage and Discrimination, Longitudinal studies

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