According to University of Lund researcher Davor Vuleta, young migrant-background men are heavily overrepresented among those who owe money to Sweden’s government debt collection agency.
Mr Vuleta said that his doctoral forensic sociology research, which looks at people who have debts registered with Sweden’s government debt collection agency Kronofogden, has revealed that young migration-background men aged 18 to 25 account for 47 per cent of debtors, SVT reports.
Two-thirds of these men are said to have both low education levels and low rates of personal income as well.
Vuleta explained that the data reveals signs that the young men are becoming segregated from the rest of Swedish society, saying, “If you live in segregated areas, you are more likely to end up in social exclusion, which in turn can lead to financial exclusion.”
The average debt for those in the 18 to 25 age group currently sits at 42,000 Swedish Krona (£3,416/4,438), up by 40 per cent since 2010.
Debts will be less likely to be collected from migration-background young men, on average, due to the much higher unemployment rate for such individuals in Sweden.
A report in 2019 noted that 90 per cent of the migrants who came to Sweden during the height of the 2015 migrant crisis and received permanent residency were also unemployed.
Professor and economist Per Lundborg floated the idea of creating more jobs that do not require advanced education or training to help get migrants into the labour force.
“Sweden is one of the most high-tech countries in the world, where we streamline simpler jobs. Therefore, the knowledge gap is too large for many of the refugee immigrants who come here,” he said.
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