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Young immigrants more ambitious than Swedes

TT/Adam Ewing
TT/Adam Ewing - [email protected]
Young immigrants more ambitious than Swedes

Young people with immigrant backgrounds in Sweden are more ambitious than their ethnic Swedish contemporaries, according to a new study.

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Nearly 42 percent of immigrant youths are sure they will continue studying after high-school, while only 28 percent of ethnic Swedes say they are as likely to keep studying, the survey by media company Cosmos study found, according to Dagens Nyheter.

“Immigrant youth are substantially more ambitious and have stronger material drives than Swedish youth,” said Karin Geiger, and analyst who worked on the study at Cosmos. “They are aiming high and it will work out for them.”

Immigrant youths are more likely to become dentists, business school graduates, civil engineers, doctors, or architects. Ethnic Swedish youth are more likely to aim for more artistic-type careers and work as journalists, psychologists, or in healthcare, the study said.

Some 16 percent of young immigrants are not at all interested in continuing studying, while 13 percent of young ethnic Swedes gave the same answer. About 43 percent of Swedes in the study believe they will have problems passing their school tests, while 30 percent young immigrants think they might have a problem.

The study also said Swedes place a higher priority on a balance between work and free time, where as immigrant youth believe it more important to focus on work.

The study questioned 6,000 youths from between the ages of 15 to 25-years-old. The study defined an immigrant youth as either born outside of Sweden or having at least one parent born out of the country.

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