How do immigrants use parental leave in Sweden?

Sweden is a universalistic welfare state with a system of social policies directed towards working parents and a strong emphasis on gender equality without any distinction by citizenship. However dramatic differences persist in the use of parental leave between immigrants and Swedish-born, even when the main socio-demographic characteristics are taken into account. In this study, we hypothesize that there are persisting differences in the uptake of parental leave between native and foreign-born women. We also hypothesize that a large part of these differences is connected to labor market situation. The results will be of importance not least as they will give insights to how different dimensions of integration may be related to each other. To address our research question we use data from the population registers which cover the entire population living in Sweden including new-born children and newly arrived immigrants.