Initial residential patterns of immigrants across the urban hierarchy in Sweden: The role of education

While a rich body of literature has examined the role of regional attributes in the initial sorting of immigrants, only a handful of studies have investigated the diverging residential patterns differentiated by immigrants' characteristics, mostly due to a scarcity of such data shortly after immigrants’ arrival. With the availability of Swedish register data containing information about immigrants’ educational level and other socioeconomic and demographic variables upon their arrival, this paper examines and characterises the initial sorting patterns of migrants who arrived in Sweden in the period 2000-2014 based on their personal characteristics. Employing multinomial logistic regression, the results indicate different settlement patterns depending on immigrants’ educational level, region of origin, purpose of migration, age, and family composition. Highly educated immigrants mainly reside in metropolitan areas, whereas rural and sparsely populated areas are the main destinations of lower educated newly arrived immigrants. Nordic and African immigrants, quota refugees, older immigrants and families with younger children are among the groups of immigrants who are most pronounced in sparsely populated areas. The rural settlement of some groups of immigrants has significant socioeconomic and demographic policy implications.