Periodic Reporting for period 3 - OrgMIGRANT (How Work Organizations Shape Ethnic Stratification across Immigrant Generations: Assimilation, Segregation, and Workplace Contexts)
Période du rapport: 2023-09-01 au 2025-02-28
Large-scale immigration has introduced new and salient dimensions of ethnic stratification in Europe’s affluent liberal democracies. Successfully incorporating disadvantaged, newly arrived immigrant minorities represents a critical societal challenge for the 21st century. Despite a vast literature on labor market inequalities between immigrants and natives, the majority of existing research relies exclusively on data about individual workers, yielding limited insights into the role of firms and workplace contexts. To date, no systematic effort has exploited linked employer–employee data to assess how organizational contexts shape economic assimilation across immigrant generations. ORGMIGRANT fills this gap by focusing on workplaces as key sites where contemporary processes of ethnic stratification and immigrant assimilation unfold at the micro level. From a policy perspective, understanding the specific organizational mechanisms behind workplace inequalities will facilitate targeted interventions to enhance the labor market incorporation of immigrant minorities.
The distinguishing feature of ORGMIGRANT is its organizational approach to ethnic stratification in the labor market, emphasizing how economic assimilation evolves across immigrant generations. The primary objective is to demonstrate how work organizations both shape and reflect evolving patterns of ethnic stratification from one generation to the next. An additional goal is to advance broader social-scientific theories of immigrant assimilation. These objectives are operationalized through three intermediary aims: (1) applying organizational theories to immigrant assimilation research; (2) methodological innovation through advanced analytical techniques for linked employer–employee data; and (3) generating policy-relevant knowledge on organizational sources of immigrant assimilation.
ORGMIGRANT investigates workplace segregation and explores how and why inequality and ethnic boundary salience between immigrant-background and native-majority workers vary by organizational context. Thus, we not only assess whether immigrant minorities are assimilating, but also extend existing theories by identifying specific organizational conditions under which assimilation is promoted or constrained. To achieve theoretical advancement, we conduct empirical studies of Norwegian workplaces combined with comparative analyses across several high-income countries (Canada, Denmark, Germany, France, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and the United States). Leveraging economy-wide linked employer–employee data and state-of-the-art statistical methods, our analyses precisely situate workers within their workplace contexts, enabling an in-depth understanding of immigrant–native labor market inequalities.
The distinguishing feature of ORGMIGRANT is its organizational approach to ethnic stratification in the labor market, emphasizing how economic assimilation evolves across immigrant generations. The primary objective is to demonstrate how work organizations both shape and reflect evolving patterns of ethnic stratification from one generation to the next. An additional goal is to advance broader social-scientific theories of immigrant assimilation. These objectives are operationalized through three intermediary aims: (1) applying organizational theories to immigrant assimilation research; (2) methodological innovation through advanced analytical techniques for linked employer–employee data; and (3) generating policy-relevant knowledge on organizational sources of immigrant assimilation.
ORGMIGRANT investigates workplace segregation and explores how and why inequality and ethnic boundary salience between immigrant-background and native-majority workers vary by organizational context. Thus, we not only assess whether immigrant minorities are assimilating, but also extend existing theories by identifying specific organizational conditions under which assimilation is promoted or constrained. To achieve theoretical advancement, we conduct empirical studies of Norwegian workplaces combined with comparative analyses across several high-income countries (Canada, Denmark, Germany, France, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and the United States). Leveraging economy-wide linked employer–employee data and state-of-the-art statistical methods, our analyses precisely situate workers within their workplace contexts, enabling an in-depth understanding of immigrant–native labor market inequalities.
A core aim of the project is to understand why immigrant-background and native-majority workers are concentrated in different workplaces, and how these patterns change across immigrant generations. While prior research has mainly focused on first-generation immigrants, our work extends to their native-born children and explores the mechanisms driving workplace integration.
Using comprehensive Norwegian register data, we document a clear pattern of intergenerational assimilation: native-born children of immigrants are more likely to work in better-paying and less immigrant-dense workplaces than the immigrant generation, reflecting notable progress into the mainstream economy. However, workplace segregation persists for second-generation individuals in lower-status jobs. Decomposition analyses show that occupation, earnings, industry, the presence of immigrant managers, and the immigrant share in residential neighborhoods are key drivers of segregation relative to natives for both generations. These findings underscore how both productivity-based sorting and ethnically shaped job networks contribute to workplace inequality.
We also examine how residential networks influence labor market outcomes. Immigrants are significantly more likely to work with neighbors—particularly coethnic ones—than natives, reinforcing ethnic clustering across workplaces. This residential network effect is far weaker for the second generation, who rely less on local ties and experience no wage penalties for working with immigrant-background neighbors. This suggests a shift toward broader and more merit-based labor market integration across generations.
We have also shown that immigrants are less likely to leave their jobs when surrounded by more immigrant-background coworkers, especially when coworkers share skills or national origin. For children of immigrants, these effects are notably weaker, supporting theories of generational assimilation and a declining need for coethnic support to maintain workplace attachment.
Another major objective has been to examine wage disparities. We find that most of the immigrant–native pay gap reflects sorting into lower-paid jobs (including occupations and workplaces), and is less due to within-job pay disparities. About one-fifth of the gap results from within-job pay inequality, where immigrants earn less than natives in the same occupation for the same employer. For children of immigrants, overall pay gaps are considerably smaller—often two-thirds lower than for immigrants—and within-job disparities are minimal, indicating substantial economic progress and a reduced role for employer-driven inequality.
Finally, in a large comparative study across nine high-income countries, we find consistent results: between-job segregation is the dominant source of immigrant–native earnings gaps, while within-job inequality remains meaningful—particularly for immigrants. These patterns hold across diverse national contexts and world regions of origin.
Using comprehensive Norwegian register data, we document a clear pattern of intergenerational assimilation: native-born children of immigrants are more likely to work in better-paying and less immigrant-dense workplaces than the immigrant generation, reflecting notable progress into the mainstream economy. However, workplace segregation persists for second-generation individuals in lower-status jobs. Decomposition analyses show that occupation, earnings, industry, the presence of immigrant managers, and the immigrant share in residential neighborhoods are key drivers of segregation relative to natives for both generations. These findings underscore how both productivity-based sorting and ethnically shaped job networks contribute to workplace inequality.
We also examine how residential networks influence labor market outcomes. Immigrants are significantly more likely to work with neighbors—particularly coethnic ones—than natives, reinforcing ethnic clustering across workplaces. This residential network effect is far weaker for the second generation, who rely less on local ties and experience no wage penalties for working with immigrant-background neighbors. This suggests a shift toward broader and more merit-based labor market integration across generations.
We have also shown that immigrants are less likely to leave their jobs when surrounded by more immigrant-background coworkers, especially when coworkers share skills or national origin. For children of immigrants, these effects are notably weaker, supporting theories of generational assimilation and a declining need for coethnic support to maintain workplace attachment.
Another major objective has been to examine wage disparities. We find that most of the immigrant–native pay gap reflects sorting into lower-paid jobs (including occupations and workplaces), and is less due to within-job pay disparities. About one-fifth of the gap results from within-job pay inequality, where immigrants earn less than natives in the same occupation for the same employer. For children of immigrants, overall pay gaps are considerably smaller—often two-thirds lower than for immigrants—and within-job disparities are minimal, indicating substantial economic progress and a reduced role for employer-driven inequality.
Finally, in a large comparative study across nine high-income countries, we find consistent results: between-job segregation is the dominant source of immigrant–native earnings gaps, while within-job inequality remains meaningful—particularly for immigrants. These patterns hold across diverse national contexts and world regions of origin.
ORGMIGRANT has advanced the state of the art through its innovative focus on how organizational contexts shape intergenerational labor market inequalities. By showing that workplace segregation and wage disparities decline sharply from immigrants to their native-born children, our results highlight significant economic and social assimilation in the second generation. Native-born children of immigrants increasingly resemble natives in workplace characteristics, wages, reliance on residential networks, and job stability, indicating reduced ethnic boundaries and improved mainstream integration.
Our large-scale comparative analysis across nine institutionally and demographically diverse high-income countries provides groundbreaking evidence of a new stylized finding: immigrant–native wage gaps primarily result from between-job segregation rather than within-job unequal pay, establishing a robust pattern across national contexts.
Future work will deepen our understanding of how organizational processes both reflect and shape evolving patterns of immigrant assimilation.
Our large-scale comparative analysis across nine institutionally and demographically diverse high-income countries provides groundbreaking evidence of a new stylized finding: immigrant–native wage gaps primarily result from between-job segregation rather than within-job unequal pay, establishing a robust pattern across national contexts.
Future work will deepen our understanding of how organizational processes both reflect and shape evolving patterns of immigrant assimilation.