Disability pension among immigrants in Sweden

Using large samples, disability pensions among foreign-born and native-born women and men living in Sweden is studied here for the period 1981–1999. The results show foreign-born individuals having higher rates of disability pension. The risk of being on disability pension is very low for newly arrived immigrants, but increases rapidly on a yearly basis after immigration. Higher rates of disability pension are reported for persons born in Greece, Yugoslavia, Turkey and Finland. Results from multivariate analysis indicate that factors such as education, country of residence and marital status cannot fully explain the high rates of disability pension observed among many immigrant groups. Future research needs to address which possible causes are most important for policies to address.