Life Expectancy among Immigrants in Sweden pre and during COVID-19: A Consideration of Different Origins and Types of Residence Permits.

Daniela Foresta , Sapienza Università di Roma
Eleonora Mussino, Stockholm University
Matthew Wallace, Stockholm University

Unlike other destination countries, the overall impact of migrants on life expectancy in Sweden has not historically been positive. However, this varies depending on the country of origin of the migrants. The trend started to change in 2019. Immigrants began to positively contribute to the increase in life expectancy in Sweden, and researchers predicted that this trend would continue, except in 2020 the COVID-19 pandemic appeared. Sweden adopted a distinctive approach to the pandemic, leading to an overall increase in mortality and a decrease in life expectancy for males and females. Prior research indicates that immigrants are disproportionately likely to die from COVID-19 in several countries, especially those from non-Western nations. Our first aim is to understand whether the recent emergence of a positive impact of immigrants on national life expectancy in Sweden can be attributed to refugees. Swede has a diverse immigrant population in terms of country of origin and reasons for migration. As previously mentioned, life expectancy among migrants varies significantly based on country of origin, but it could change due to the reason for migration. Refugees are more likely than labour migrants to have been exposed to adverse situations. Such experiences can lead to negative health consequences. Our second aim is to understand how much the COVID-19 pandemic and its disproportionate impact upon international immigrants, interrupted the positive contribution that migrants started to make to life expectancy levels. We fulfil these two aims we will use Swedish register population data that allows very detailed information.

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 Presented in Session 69. Mortality Inequalities during the COVID-19 pandemic