Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of immigration on the labour market outcomes of low-educated natives (i.e. residents without a university diploma). Using the labour market competition theory, which argues that the labour market effects of natives depend on the skill set of immigrants, the paper addresses whether immigrants are complementary to or substitutes for native workers.

Design/methodology/approach

Longitudinal matched employer–employee data on Sweden are used to estimate how low-educated natives, in regions experiencing the greatest influx of refugees from the Balkan wars, responded to this supply shock with regard to real wages, employment and job mobility between 1990 and 2003.

Findings

First, the analysis shows that low-educated native workers respond to the arrival of immigrants with an increase in real wages. Second, although employment prospects in general worsened for low-skilled workers in most regions, this is not attributable to the regions experiencing the largest supply shock. Third, there are indications that low-skilled natives in immigration-rich regions are more likely to change workplace, particularly in combination with moving upwards in the wage distribution.

Originality/value

Rather than seeing an emergence of the commonly perceived displacement mechanism when an economy is subject to a supply shock, the regional findings suggest that high inflows of immigrants tend to induce a mechanism that pulls native workers upwards in the wage distribution. This is important, as the proportion of immigrants is seldom evenly distributed within a nation.

中文翻译：

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移民对低技能工人的区域劳动力市场影响：以瑞典为例1990–2003

目的

本文的目的是研究移民对低学历的原住民（即没有大学文凭的居民）的劳动力市场成果的影响。利用劳动力市场竞争理论，该理论认为本地人的劳动力市场效应取决于移民的技能，论文探讨了移民是对本地工人的补充还是替代。

设计/方法/方法

纵向匹配的雇主-雇员数据使用瑞典来估计在1990年至2003年间，在受巴尔干战争影响最大的难民涌入地区，低学历的当地人如何应对这种供应冲击，以应对实际供应，就业和工作流动性。

发现

首先，分析表明，受过低教育的本地工人对移民的到来作出反应，实际工资增加了。其次，尽管大多数地区低技能工人的就业前景普遍恶化，但这并不归因于遭受最大冲击的地区。第三，有迹象表明，移民密集地区的低技能原住民更有可能改变工作场所，特别是与工资分配上移结合在一起的情况。

创意/价值

该地区的发现并没有看到当经济受到供应冲击时通常会出现的流离失所机制的出现，而是表明移民的大量涌入倾向于诱发一种机制，该机制将本地工人的工资分配往上拉。这很重要，因为在一个国家中很少有移民的平均分布。