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In this paper, we analyse how a migrant population that is both expanding and changing in composition has affected the composition of Swedish neighbourhoods at different scales. The analysis is based on Swedish geocoded individual-level register data for the years 1990, 1997, 2005, and 2012. This allows us to compute and analyse the demographic composition of neighbourhoods that range in size from encompassing the nearest 100 individuals to the nearest 409,600 individuals. First, the results confirm earlier findings that migrants, especially those from non-European countries, face high levels of segregation in Sweden. Second, large increases in the non-European populations in combination with high levels of segregation have increased the proportion of non-European migrants living in neighbourhoods that already have high proportions of non-European migrants. Third, in contrast to what has been the established image of segregation trends in Sweden, and in an apparent contrast to the finding that non-European migrants increasingly live in migrant-dense neighbourhoods, our results show that segregation, when defined as an uneven distribution of different populations across residential contexts, is not increasing. On the contrary, for both European migrants from 1990 and non-European migrants from 1997, there is a downward trend in unevenness as measured by the dissimilarity index at all scale levels. However, if segregation is measured as differences in the neighbourhood concentration of migrants, segregation has increased.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1007/s10680-018-9478-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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The neighbourhood effects literature indicates that a person's place of residence may affect their socio-economic situation. This study examines the association between the initial settlement and immigrants' employment and income. Previous studies mostly used administratively defined geographical units of study, which may have led to an underestimation of neighbourhood effects. The current study uses individualized neighbourhoods, where neighbourhoods are constructed based on each individual's closest neighbours using geocoded register data, on different scales. In this way, more of the individual's actual neighbourhood is captured. The longitudinal study follows three cohorts of migrants and examines the relationship between the initial neighbourhoods that migrants settle in and their employment and income, in the short and medium-long term. The results show clear associations between neighbourhoods of initial settlement and labour market integration. Starting off in neighbourhoods with high levels of deprivation is associated with lower levels of employment while settling in affluent neighbourhoods is associated with higher incomes. Findings are stable for different migrant cohorts and in the short and long term. Neighbourhood effects are substantial especially for those settling in the most deprived or the most affluent neighbourhoods.