The role of labour market integration in migrants’ decisions about family reunification: a comparative study of Polish migrants in Norway, Sweden, and the UK

Comparative Migration Studies

Table 5 Multivariate results: models 1–4 and separate models for Norway, Sweden, and the UK

	Dependent variable: odds ratios of family reunification
	Logistic, survey-weighted
	Model 1	Model 2	Model 3	Model 4	Norway	Sweden	UK
Constant	1.671^**	26.891^***	11.547^***	14.747^***	13.698^***	3.69	42.486^***
Independent variables
Unemployment	0.922	0.831^***	0.864^*	0.721^***	0.725^***	0.911	0.932
Contract: permanent	1.753^**	1.301	1.155	0.989	1.022	2.360^**	1.070
Control variables
Age, years		0.939^***	0.938^***	0.939^***	0.931^***	0.974^a	0.938^***
Gender: female		1.737^**	1.354	1.336	1.196	1.226	1.349
Education: university degree		1.410	1.430	1.418	1.815^*	1.089	1.340
Parenthood (ref: no children)		0.501^**	0.509^**	0.510^**	0.564	0.239^***	0.547
Residence length (ref: up to 5 years):
- From 5 to 9 years		3.054^***	3.254^***	3.278^***	4.508^***	2.670^***	2.898^***
- From 9 to 13 years		8.217^***	8.036^***	7.962^***	8.462^***	5.362^***	8.326^***
Urbanisation (ref: 50001–500,000 people):
- Up to 50,000 people		0.520^***	0.652^**	0.657^**	0.799	0.922	0.590^*
- Over 500,000 people		0.422^***	0.405^***	0.412^***	0.512	0.850	0.362^***
Residence (ref: Norway):
- Sweden			1.643^**	0.647
- UK			3.412^***	2.689^*
Interaction terms
Unemployment:
- In Sweden				1.252
- In UK				1.298
Permanent contract:
- In Sweden				2.478
- In UK				1.054
Observations	1153	1153	1153	1153	312	237	604
Nagelkerke R2	.010	.168	.200	.203	.179	.153	.150

^aWhen the interaction between age and parenthood in the Swedish subsample is taken into account, age is significantly negatively associated with the odds of family reunification, similarly to the other two contexts. The reason why parenthood is more significantly associated with lower odds of family reunification in Sweden is likely due to the Swedish sample being on average younger and less recent in terms of the length of residence compared to the other two subsamples
^*p < 0.1; ^**p < 0.05; ^***p < 0.01