Integrating immigrants for labour market success
Research indicates that the economic outcomes of both first- and second-generation immigrants are much inferior to those of native-born individuals across Europe. Much of the literature on economics focuses on the role of immigrant characteristics as a determining factor in their success in the labour market. Some studies point to variations in immigrant outcomes across host countries possibly as a result of differences in country of origin, as well as different institutional structures and integration policies of receiving countries. The latter have received relatively little attention in the literature. The EU-funded project 'The impact of integration policies on immigrant outcomes: Cross-country evidence from EU' (Integration-Policy) was set up to examine how different integration policies work to impact labour market outcomes of first-generation immigrants and educational outcomes of the second generation. The study will use a natural experiment to identify the impact of integration, independent of selection effects. This involves the mass recruitment of Turkish workers by European countries during the 1960s and 1970s. This movement dispersed individuals with similar characteristics across various countries. As project work continues, efforts will focus on providing evidence on the educational outcomes of second-generation immigrants from the same source country. Using an internationally comparable data set of 15-year-old students will support an assessment of the extent of upward mobility in these countries. As such, Integration-Policy will explore integration with a multigenerational perspective, and highlight differences in outcomes across host countries for individuals with similar backgrounds. Results will also offer insight regarding intergenerational transmission among immigrants of socioeconomic status through education. Surveys from five European countries were used to study adult labour market outcomes. An interesting result among the many that were delivered through data analysis is that students enjoy relatively better outcomes in destination countries where relatively worse labour market outcomes are observed among the adults. Given that labour market success of immigrants is a key aspect of integration in host countries, project results will be able to highlight the role of host country-specific factors and best practices that could positively affect related outcomes. Study results will also prove valuable to the debate on how to manage worker flows, taking into account an ever-growing ageing population at a time of growing demand for a highly skilled work force.
