Economic Outcomes of Immigrants with Different Migration Motives: The Role of Labour Market Policies

Abstract

This paper studies the role of labour market policies for economic outcomes of immigrants with different migration motives. Using two recent European Union Labour Force Surveys ad hoc modules and applying country fixed-effects models, we examine if labour market policies can alleviate the economic disadvantage of family reunification and refugee immigrants in comparison to economic immigrants. In line with previous studies, we find that even after controlling for differences in human capital and socio-demographic characteristics, family reunification, and particularly refugee immigrants have considerably lower labour force participation and employment rates, and when employed, work fewer hours and have a lower occupational status than economic immigrants. However, we also find that the economic disadvantage of family reunification and refugee immigrants is significantly smaller in countries with more extensive labour market policies. These findings hold for the overall labour market mobility index as well as its specific sub-dimensions: general and targeted support and workers’ rights.

Labor market situation of refugees in Europe: The role of individual and contextual factors

“…At the individual level, resources that are crucial to the labor market situation of newcomers are human capital (e.g., education, training, labor market experience), cognitive and non-cognitive skills (e.g., motivational factors), health prerequisites, cultural knowledge and language proficiency, and social capital (Feller, 2005;Phillimore, 2011;Bakker et al, 2014;FitzGerald and Arar, 2018;Kogan and Kalter, 2020). The institutional characteristics of the host countries-particularly immigrant integration policies, labor markets and welfare regimes-are likely to influence immigrants' labor market prospects (Reitz, 1998;Kogan, 2007;Kanas and Steinmetz, 2021). Since refugees enter heterogeneous receiving societies, countries' existing ethno-racial hierarchies might contribute to the perpetuation of ethnic and racial stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination.…”

Immigrant Women’s Economic Outcomes in Europe: The Importance of Religion and Traditional Gender Roles

“…While some immigrant women may choose their destination, for many, entry to the European labor markets is restricted by visa requirements (European Union 2011). Thus, immigrant women’s destination country is not necessarily their preferred one but rather a preferred country among those with lower visa restrictions (Cohen, Haberfeld, and Kogan 2011; Kanas and Steinmetz 2020). Another reason is that immigrant women often migrate for family reasons, with a small number of immigrant women seeking international protection (European Union 2011).…”

“…Another reason is that immigrant women often migrate for family reasons, with a small number of immigrant women seeking international protection (European Union 2011). As such, their immigration decision is influenced by existing ties in the destination country rather than by the country’s cultural norms and values (Kanas and Steinmetz 2020). Second, controlling for immigrant women’s preferences regarding gender roles, we show that, contrary to selectivity arguments, residing in a religious and gender-traditional country had a weaker influence on religious and gender-traditional than nonreligious and gender-egalitarian women.…”

“…We additionally control for a nonlinear effect of age by including the age-squared term. While the length of residence is related to higher levels of host-country specific resources such as language skills, social contacts with natives, and cultural capital (Kanas, Van Tubergen, and Van der Lippe 2011), age is often used as an indirect measure of immigrants' work experience (Chiswick and Miller 2007).…”

The value of immigrants' human capital for labour market integration

“…Third, that general institutional arrangements surrounding the labour market and welfare system do not matter very much for immigrants' labour market success Platt et al, 2021), but integration support systems can favour those in most need, i.e. family migrants and refugees (Kanas & Steinmetz, 2020).…”