Party penalty or party premium? ‘Party Swedes’ in Norway and their income before, during, and after migration

Abstract

Young adults moving between wealthy countries for work and adventure are an under-studied group of international migrants. We use a unique combination of full population register data from Sweden and Norway to explore the so-called ‘Party Swedes’: young Swedes who emigrated to Norway in 2010–12. We follow them and track their median incomes before they left Sweden, during their stay in Norway, and after their return to Sweden. Moreover, we model selection into migration and return, as well as individual income levels after return. Our results suggest that in economic terms, the ‘party penalty’ clearly seems larger than the ‘party premium’. Even though the young Swedes earned well in Norway, this did not translate into higher incomes after returning to Sweden than among their non-migrating peers. These results add to the literature on migrants’ income premiums after return, focusing on liquid youth migration.