My dissertation examines the educational outcomes of the Swedish-born children of refugees, using longitudinal Swedish population register data. Across three papers, it traces how the conditions under which refugee families are received - where they are settled, the legal status they hold, and parental mental health - reach into children's school performance.

Paper I - Behind the Grade Gap: Neighbourhood Context and Educational Outcomes of Swedish-born Children of Refugees

Using whole-population register data on pupils completing compulsory school between 2005 and 2020, this paper examines how neighbourhood context relates to the grades of Swedish-born children of refugees, distinguishing socioeconomic from ethnic-composition dimensions. The raw grade gap with the majority population reverses once neighbourhood clustering is accounted for: within the same neighbourhood, these children outperform their majority peers. The grade gap is largely a neighbourhood phenomenon rather than a marker of group underperformance, though neighbourhood conditions operate differently across origin groups. (Manuscript Under Review)

Paper II - Arriving Under Uncertainty: Residence Status and Educational Outcomes for Syrian Refugee Children

In July 2016, Sweden replaced near-automatic permanent residence for recognised refugees with a temporary-permit regime. Drawing on full-population register data for 18,524 Syrian-born children who arrived aged 10-15 between 2012 and 2019, this paper asks whether this shift in the legal environment at arrival is associated with grade 9 outcomes. A large unadjusted gap between pre- and post-reform arrivals disappears once compositional differences are accounted for, with accumulated years of Swedish schooling and parental education emerging as the dominant predictors of performance. (Working paper.)

Paper III - Parental Mental Illness and School Performance in Swedish-born Children of Refugees

Refugees carry elevated rates of PTSD and psychotic disorders, yet their independent association with children's schooling has not been studied nationally. Using linked national registers for 122,980 Swedish-born children of refugees completing compulsory school between 1998 and 2022, this paper estimates associations between parental PTSD and psychosis and children's grades and upper-secondary eligibility. Both diagnoses are associated with lower attainment; socioeconomic factors account for roughly 80% of the association, indicating that household disadvantage explains most, though not all, of the gap. (Working paper.)