General Versus Vocational Education and Employment Integration of Immigrants in Sweden

Abstract

This article investigates the effect of human capital on the employment acquisition of foreign-born men and women in Sweden. Besides categorizing different levels of education, a distinction is made between type of education, general and vocational, and where education is obtained, home or host country. The data used is based on register data for the year 2003 held by Statistics Sweden. The population under consideration is the total population subdivided by the following countries of birth: Sweden, Former Yugoslavia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Poland, Romania, Chile, Germany, Iraq, Iran, and Lebanon. The analysis shows that foreign-born individuals have a higher probability of employment with a vocational and host country education as opposed to a general and home country education.