Diversity preferences, diversity-motivated behaviors and their consequences: a study of foreign-born residents in Sweden at the intersection between country of birth and reason for migration

Research problem and specific questions: Responses to international immigration are almost exclusively studied from the point of view of the majority population.

Through its central research question – How do different immigrant groups value, respond to, and get shaped by ethnically-diverse neighborhoods? – this project aims to fill this gap and learn about the relationship between diversity preferences, diversity-motivated mobility, and their consequences for different foreign-born groups in Sweden.Data and method: An accurate interpretation of diversity preferences involves the study of both behaviors and attitudes in a harmonized approach.

The combination of modern survey methodology and advanced quantitative methods will facilitate this goal, using the strength of both methods.

Survey experiments are useful for capturing stated and revealed preferences towards fellow immigrants, net of economic constraints, while the objective nature of the Swedish population registers makes it an ideal platform for testing how these preferences manifest in real-life behaviors and for quantifying the impact of local area diversity on the long-term adaptation of foreign-born nationals.Societal relevance and utilization: Examining interethnic relations within immigrant communities is essential for evaluating social cohesion in increasingly diverse societies.

This project helps map a complex understanding of diversity preferences which in turn can be used by decision-makers when developing and evaluating immigrant allocation schemes, or when responding to inter-ethnic tensions and conflicts.

I expect the results to be of great interest to policymakers, civil society, and researchers in the field of immigration and ethnic conflict.Plan for project realization: To cover all three areas of interest – diversity preferences, behaviors, and consequences – I propose a three-year project.

The first two years will be devoted to studying preferences and behaviors by collecting and analyzing the survey data, while simultaneously using population registers to inform recruitment strategies and measure how deviations from the ideal diversity levels affect the propensity of different migrant groups to relocate.

In the final year, I will look at how local area diversity shapes the adaptation trajectories of different immigrant groups.