Re-emigration of foreign-born residents from Sweden: 1990–2015

Abstract

This paper is an analysis of patterns and determinants of return and onward migration among foreign-born individuals residing in Sweden from 1990 to 2015. Who is emigrating, and where do they go? What are the determinants of return and onward migration? Increased diversity in international migration flows includes an increase in repeat migration. However, studies of re-emigration have often failed to appropriately distinguish emigration types and have traditionally been limited to economic analysis of labour migrants. Using high-quality register data from Sweden, this paper analyses re-emigration through the conditions upon first immigration and evolving social and economic integration in the host country. Although return migration is found to be the main form of remigration type, onward migration is more prominent among specific migrant groups such as forced migrants. Additionally, various determinants of return and onward migration stress the importance of treating them as distinct phenomena within the migration literature.