Labor force participation, unemployment and occupational attainment among immigrants in West European countries

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.

本研究探讨了移民融入欧洲社会劳动力市场（labor market incorporation）的模式，重点考察移民身份（即第一代移民（first-generation immigrants）、移民后代以及无移民背景的本土出生者）、原籍地区与性别所发挥的作用。本研究数据取自2008年欧盟劳动力调查（European Union Labour Forces Survey）专项模块，涵盖法国、比利时、英国与瑞典四国。为补充国别分析的结果，我们还整合了2002至2010年间开展的五轮欧洲社会调查（European Social Survey）的合并数据集，针对九个老牌移民接收西欧国家开展了重复分析。本次分析聚焦劳动力市场融入的两大维度：劳动力参与状态与职业层级。我们构建了多项Logistic回归（Multinominal Logistic）、二元Logistic回归（binary logistic）以及线性概率回归模型（linear probability regression）进行估计。研究结果显示，在所有样本国家中，非欧洲原籍群体在求职过程中面临的劣势更为显著，这一现象不仅存在于第一代移民群体中，也同样出现在移民子女（即第二代移民（second-generation immigrants））群体中。此外，非欧洲原籍的第二代移民男性群体所面临的相对就业劣势尤为突出。获得高阶职业的概率主要受移民身份影响，与原籍地区及性别无关。本研究结果表明，不同原籍群体与不同代际群体的劳动力市场融入模式存在显著差异；尽管各国在福利国家制度、移民融合政策以及移民流动构成方面存在国别差异，但劳动力市场融入模式在国家间的差异却并不显著。