Abstract:-

We examine how exposure to recent migrants and asylum seekers affects the academic performance of incumbent students in Sweden between 2008 and 2022, a period characterized by large migration inflows. To identify the effect, we exploit variation in contemporaneous and cumulative exposure to recent migrants between siblings and across cohorts within schools. We find a small but statistically significant positive effect on native students’ test scores from cumulative exposure to recent migrants. However, immigrant background students do not experience similar benefits. A closer look at the more acute 2015 refugee crisis corroborates our main findings.