PLoS ONE
Volume 12, Issue 5, 2017

Labor force participation, unemployment and occupational attainment among immigrants in West European countries (Review) (Open Access)

Gorodzeisky A. , Semyonov M.
  • a Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
  • b Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel, Department of Sociology, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States

Abstract

The present paper examines modes of immigrants' labor market incorporation into European societies with specific emphasis on the role played by immigrant status (i.e. first-generation immigrants, immigrant descendants and native born without migrant background), region of origin, and gender. The data were obtained from the European Union Labour Forces Survey 2008 Ad-Hoc Module for France, Belgium, UK and Sweden. In order to supplement the results from the country-specific analysis, we replicated the analysis using pooled data from the five rounds of the European Social Survey conducted between 2002 and 2010, for nine 'old immigration' Western European countries together. The analysis centered on two aspects of incorporation: labor force status and occupation. Multinominal, binary logistic as well as linear probability regression models were estimated. The findings suggest that in all countries non-European origin is associated with greater disadvantage in finding employment not only among first-generation immigrants, but also among sons and daughters of immigrants (i.e. second-generation). Moreover, the relative employment disadvantage among immigrant men of non-European origin is especially pronounced in the second-generation. The likelihood of attaining a high-status job is influenced mostly by immigrant status, regardless of region of origin and gender. The results of the study reveal that patterns of labor force incorporation vary considerably across origin groups and across generations. The patterns do not vary as much across countries, despite cross-country differences in welfare state regimes, migration integration policy and composition of migration flows. © 2017 Gorodzeisky, Semyonov. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Author Keywords

[No Keywords available]

Index Keywords

unemployment immigrant indigenous people France human immigration probability organization Western European meta analysis Sweden Occupations migrant male Emigrants and Immigrants occupation female welfare European Union Belgium gender United Kingdom market statistical model mental capacity employment

Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85019161454&doi=10.1371%2fjournal.pone.0176856&partnerID=40&md5=e7ea85956623c4dd5647cb5facdb6f2e

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0176856
ISSN: 19326203
Cited by: 7
Original Language: English