Will I See You at Work? Ethnic Workplace Segregation in Sweden, 1985-2002

Abstract

We present evidence of substantial and increasing ethnic workplace segregation using linked employer-employee data covering the entire working-age Swedish population between 1985 and 2002. The analysis accounts for potential across-group differences in the distribution of human capital, geography and industrial allocation. Immigrants are particularly overexposed to workers from their own birth region but also to other immigrants. The degree and nature of segregation varies substantially across ethnic groups, and the patterns are quite persistent over time. There is ethnic sorting also among well-established groups, but segregation is generally negatively correlated with economic status. Groups with low employment rates are more segregated from natives, individuals with many immigrant colleagues earn less, and segregation is countercyclical at the local level. These observations all support the idea that the labor market is ethnically segmented