Entrance, Exit and Exclusion Labour Market Flows of Foreign Born Adults in Swedish “Divided Cities” Charlotta Hedberg Department of Human Geography Stockholm University, Sweden Paper presented at the 4th International Conference on Population Geographies July 2007, Hong Kong

”Divided cities” and labour markets Segregation and ”neighbourhood effects” –Less affluent areas hamper socio-economic careers Foreign born in the labour market

Vulnerable labour markets Labour markets as fluid, but highly segmented spaces –Constituted by multiple flows –Embedded in the individual life course Study, parental leave, unemployment International migration –Structures Discrimination, social capital, segmentation LM EntranceExit Exclusion

Aim to investigate social mobility patterns of the foreign born population in urban areas in Sweden Hypotheses The foreign born population has –a higher degree of exclusion than native born –a higher labour turnover (entrance and exit) The population of ”distressed” neighbourhoods have a less favourable labour mobility

Data PLACE – the longitudinal database –All individuals –Annual data –Geocoded –Income tax return Design of the study –Foreign & Swedish born –Adult cohort (25-40 year-olds) –Period of economic recovery ( ) –”Distressed” areas & surrounding city regions –Stockholm and Malmö 8 main categories

Classification of livelihood positions 1.Employment 2.Vulnerable positions –Unemployment –Social allowance –Other vulnerable positions 3.Other life course events –Student –Parental leave –Age-pension –Death –Emigration –Other events

Employment

Vulnerable positions

Livelihood positiosn

Transitions matrix Example Employ- ment Vulnerable positions Life course events Total Foreign born, ”distr. areas”, Sthlm Employment 86,79,83,4100 Vulnerable positions 17,473,49,2100 Life course events 15,719,864,5100 Total 52,433,813,8100

Unequal ”pace” towards the labour market

Unequal ”pace” towards vulnerability

Stability between positions Increasing employment stability Decreasing stability on vulnerable positions among foreign born

Out-migration

Small neigihbourhood effects in Stockholm

Conclusions – foreign born in the labour market Entrance –General improvement –Growing stability –Slower ”pace” Regional vulnerability: ”distressed” areas in Malmö Exit –High turnover –Higher pace of exit Exclusion –25 %

Conclusions cont. Convergence –between foreign and native born groups Polarisation –within the group of foreign born No ”neighbourhood effects” –No socio-economic selectivity in out-migration from Stockholm Segregation in the labour market –Fluid but segmented space

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