The Varying Impact of Early Parenthood on the Socioeconomic Outcomes of Childhood Refugees

Siddartha Aradhya , Lund University
Ben Wilson, Stockholm University
Alice Goisis, University College London

Compared to immigrants from high-income countries, those from lower income origins exhibit slower and less successful integration on a range of important outcomes. Moreover, the role of parenthood in this process has received very little attention. We respond by carrying out a case study of Sweden. Our main research questions are: (1) What are the effects of early childbearing on integration outcomes of childhood refugees? and (2) How do these effects vary by sex and over the life course? We use register-based data that cover entire population of immigrants to Sweden who were born from 1971-1980 and arrived in Sweden aged under 19. Our results show that childhood refugees who become parents early in life will experience constraints upon their acquisition of education and income, but that these constraints are much larger for female refugees. This result holds after controlling for various sources of confounding, including controlling for family-fixed effects.

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 Presented in Session 241. Migration, Inequality, and Social Mobility