The value of immigrants' human capital for labour market integration

Sammanfattning: This dissertation focuses on the productive knowledge and skills, i.e., human capital, that immigrants bring from before immigration, as well as new human capital acquired in the destination country. The four studies included use registry and survey data to consider different aspects of labour market integration in Sweden, analysing how immigrants’ human capital is used and valued in the Swedish labour market, and how this affects labour market outcomes.Study I, co-authored with Carina Hellgren, analyses the effects of formal recognition of foreign higher education on employment and earnings.Study II focuses on the value that domestic employers assign to immigrants’ labour market experience from both before and after immigration.Study III examines the link between experience of self-employment before immigration and the propensity to enter self-employment in the destination country.Study IV explores immigrants’ occupational mobility, testing whether there is a trade-off between finding employment quickly and attaining a better position.Overall, the results indicate that origin-country human capital is devalued in the Swedish labour market. Immigrants can, however, get their previous knowledge and skills recognized, complemented with domestic human capital, and put to productive use after immigration. Nevertheless, achieving labour market outcomes either on par with the pre-immigration level or with comparable natives appears difficult for most.