'Neighbourhood Effects' and 'City Effects': The Entry of Newly Arrived Immigrants into the Labour Market

An important debate in current research and policy focuses on the role of urban residential segregation on the social mobility of immigrants. Much focus has been on 'neighbourhood effects' and on how spatial variations within the city affect individual careers. This paper adds the analysis of variations of labour market incorporation between cities. The labour market careers of one migrant cohort to Sweden are analysed, where the analysis of 'neighbourhood effects' and 'city effects' are studied jointly, using a longitudinal database and discrete-time event history analysis. The results show that labour market participation increases slowly over time and there are large variations due to migrant origin, gender and education. Both 'neighbourhood effects' and 'city effects' were significant, but whereas the former decreased over time, the 'city effect' was robust. Accordingly, contextual aspects of the individual city need to be included in the analysis of neighbourhood effects.