The double disadvantage effect for immigrant women : Is there an earnings differential between native women and immigrant women with similar education and human capital in the Swedish labour market?

Abstract: The migration has increased substantially during the last years and most countries struggle to integrate immigrants into the labour market. Since we also know from previous research that women are discriminated against due to their gender we want to investigate if immigrant women are facing an additional earnings differential because of their ethnicity. We study women with similar human capital and occupation in order to see if the initial earnings differential can be explained by these variables. Results indicate that there is no earnings differential remaining after controlling for human capital and occupation. However, there are differences in the results from the different fields of education and occupations. In some fields part of the earnings gap remain even after controlling for the explanatory variables.