Linking Migration Reasons and Origins to Labour Market Outcomes: Recent Evidence from Europe

Abstract

[eng] This paper aims to understand how the labour market integration of migrants in Europe is affected, in an interrelated fashion, by their reason for migration and their region of origin. Using recent data from the European Labour Force Survey, we distinguish immigrants to Europe between four migration motives: economic, education, family reasons, or international protection. We compare labour market outcomes of these categories of immigrants through earnings, controlling for a variety of individual factors (including language skills and age at migration), and we also investigate the role of selection into employment. Our results suggest that an economic reason for migration together with already having a job upon arrival is positively associated with higher earnings, while, other things equal, refugees and family migrants are more likely to end up with lower earnings. However, when estimating full interaction models, we find that these results are highly dependent on where migrants come from.