Periodic Reporting for period 4 - REFU-GEN (A Better Life for the Children of Exile: Intergenerational Adaptation of the Descendants of Refugees)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2025-07-01 do 2025-12-31
Millions of refugees have been granted residence in Europe over the last few decades and their long-run adaptation to life in a new destination is a fundamental societal challenge. Adaptation can only be evaluated over the long-run by making intergenerational comparisons between immigrants and their descendants, yet research has almost entirely overlooked this topic for refugees, not least because most countries lack both data and significant numbers of descendants of refugees. This project represents the first comprehensive intergenerational study of refugees and their descendants. It uses quantitative research methods to analyse longitudinal register data for the whole population of Sweden. Our aim is to compare and contrast four domains of life: socio-economic status, health, family formation and residential context. We examine inequalities within and between each of these domains, and the factors that determine the existence and magnitude of these inequalities. We focus on inequalities that are experienced by refugees, their children, and their grandchildren. In order to compare, contextualise, generalise and understand our findings, we also study non-refugee immigrants and their descendants, as well as the Swedish-born population and their children and grandchildren. The project establishes a holistic evidence base that focuses on the long-run adaptation of refugees and their descendants. In doing so, it develops theories and evidence that are relevant for many other European countries.
Over the entire project, we have carried out a range of scientific activities that have developed new knowledge about the lives of refugees and their descendants. Our research has been facilitated by one of our most important achievements, which has been to establish—via collaboration with Swedish government agencies—the most comprehensive collection of longitudinal data on refugees and their descendants that exists for any refugee-receiving country in the world. Using these whole-population data, we have studied the inequalities that are experienced by children of refugees—both those born in Sweden and those born abroad—as compared with Swedish-born children of non-refugee immigrants and Swedish-born children of Swedish-born parents.
Our results show that inequalities are extremely heterogeneous, by age, sex, parental background, and domain of life. For example, children of refugees often experience inequalities during childhood in terms of their education, residential segregation, health and poverty, relative to Swedish-born children with Swedish-born parents. In mid-adulthood, they typically experience inequalities in earnings, unemployment and housing support, despite lower levels of childbearing. However, patterns of inequality vary considerably by parental country of birth. Contrary to theoretical expectations, we also show that those with two refugee parents are less likely to experience inequality as compared with those with one refugee parent and one Swedish-born parent, suggesting that a native-born parent is not necessarily protective against inequality.
We have also gone beyond the state-of-the-art by studying inequality for the grandchildren of refugees, with surprising findings. Not only do we reveal some signs of entrenched socioeconomic inequalities, but we also show that these inequalities are determined to a large extent by parental socioeconomic inequality. As such, it appears that the grandchildren of refugees have yet to achieve parity with descendants of the Swedish-born, at least for some groups in some domains of life.
Overall, we find clear evidence that adaptation is not a uniform process for the descendants of refugees, with some groups much more likely to experience disparities, and these disparities varying across the domains of health, socioeconomics, residential context, and family dynamics. At the same time, we show across a range of studies that the children of refugees often exhibit patterns of adaptation, and that these patterns are similar to children of non-refugee immigrants, for example with respect to childbearing and partnership behaviour. These studies include international collaborations that have helped us to establish that some of our findings appear to generalise to other contexts.
Our results show that inequalities are extremely heterogeneous, by age, sex, parental background, and domain of life. For example, children of refugees often experience inequalities during childhood in terms of their education, residential segregation, health and poverty, relative to Swedish-born children with Swedish-born parents. In mid-adulthood, they typically experience inequalities in earnings, unemployment and housing support, despite lower levels of childbearing. However, patterns of inequality vary considerably by parental country of birth. Contrary to theoretical expectations, we also show that those with two refugee parents are less likely to experience inequality as compared with those with one refugee parent and one Swedish-born parent, suggesting that a native-born parent is not necessarily protective against inequality.
We have also gone beyond the state-of-the-art by studying inequality for the grandchildren of refugees, with surprising findings. Not only do we reveal some signs of entrenched socioeconomic inequalities, but we also show that these inequalities are determined to a large extent by parental socioeconomic inequality. As such, it appears that the grandchildren of refugees have yet to achieve parity with descendants of the Swedish-born, at least for some groups in some domains of life.
Overall, we find clear evidence that adaptation is not a uniform process for the descendants of refugees, with some groups much more likely to experience disparities, and these disparities varying across the domains of health, socioeconomics, residential context, and family dynamics. At the same time, we show across a range of studies that the children of refugees often exhibit patterns of adaptation, and that these patterns are similar to children of non-refugee immigrants, for example with respect to childbearing and partnership behaviour. These studies include international collaborations that have helped us to establish that some of our findings appear to generalise to other contexts.
Almost all of this project’s scientific output has advanced the field beyond the state of the art. Prior quantitative studies of refugees’ descendants have focussed on isolated domains of life, and been limited by small-samples, methodological weaknesses, and a failure to compare the descendants of refugees and non-refugees. All of these issues have been addressed in this project. One of its most novel aspects has been its interdisciplinary scope, including studies that examine how intergenerational adaptation varies across multiple domains of life. Our research has used longitudinal data on the whole population of Sweden, which has enabled us to surmount many of the limitations in prior research. For example, these data have enabled us to reveal the inequalities experienced by children of refugees across multiple domains of life. They have also allowed us to use multiple comparison groups, not only distinguishing between the descendants of refugees and non-refugees but also between those whose parents were born abroad and those whose parents were born in Sweden, as well as those who have one parent who is a refugee and one who is not.
The project’s results have informed the development of more nuanced theories of integration and adaptation for refugees and their descendants, and this has been helped by several unexpected discoveries. According to several theories, adaptation is more likely for the descendants of immigrants because they are less likely to face the series of barriers toward adaptation—such as linguistic and cultural barriers—that are faced by their parents. The same theories predict that those with two foreign-born parents are more likely to face these barriers as compared with those with one foreign-born parent and one native-born parent. However, contrary to these theoretical expectations, we show that in some cases those with one refugee parent and one Swedish-born parent are more likely to experience inequality as compared with those with two refugee parents, suggesting that a native-born parent can be associated with experiencing disadvantage. This finding is further supported by similar results in separate research that examines educational inequalities experienced by the grandchildren of refugees.
The knowledge that we have generated and disseminated also includes knowledge about data and methods that we have invested considerable resources in understanding and developing. We have provided expert tuition in the use of Swedish register data to a wide range of scholars, as well as publishing guidance for future users of these data. We have also laid the foundations for future research, including by developing a broad network of collaborators, and by disseminating our research across a range of different disciplines. All of these activities have helped to transfer the knowledge and experience gained during REFU-GEN to the next generation of scholars, including those working on similar administrative data, as well as those studying the same or related topics.
The project’s results have informed the development of more nuanced theories of integration and adaptation for refugees and their descendants, and this has been helped by several unexpected discoveries. According to several theories, adaptation is more likely for the descendants of immigrants because they are less likely to face the series of barriers toward adaptation—such as linguistic and cultural barriers—that are faced by their parents. The same theories predict that those with two foreign-born parents are more likely to face these barriers as compared with those with one foreign-born parent and one native-born parent. However, contrary to these theoretical expectations, we show that in some cases those with one refugee parent and one Swedish-born parent are more likely to experience inequality as compared with those with two refugee parents, suggesting that a native-born parent can be associated with experiencing disadvantage. This finding is further supported by similar results in separate research that examines educational inequalities experienced by the grandchildren of refugees.
The knowledge that we have generated and disseminated also includes knowledge about data and methods that we have invested considerable resources in understanding and developing. We have provided expert tuition in the use of Swedish register data to a wide range of scholars, as well as publishing guidance for future users of these data. We have also laid the foundations for future research, including by developing a broad network of collaborators, and by disseminating our research across a range of different disciplines. All of these activities have helped to transfer the knowledge and experience gained during REFU-GEN to the next generation of scholars, including those working on similar administrative data, as well as those studying the same or related topics.