Labour Market Transition Differences between Natives and Immigrants in EU Economies

Abstract

Abstract: The recent economic crisis has had an adverse effect on the labour markets of European economies and certain population groups have been disproportionally affected by it. Increased migration flows may very well have created further pressures on the labour markets of host countries. The focus of the analysis here is on differences in transitions from unemployment to employment and vice versa between native and immigrant populations in European economies during the 1998-2015 period. The analysis reveals different outcomes to transitions from unemployment to employment, where in certain countries and years, the unemployed natives find proportionally more jobs, while in other countries and years, it is the immigrants. In most of the countries, however, employed immigrants are more likely to lose a job than natives. In addition to identifying the immigrant-native gap, the characteristics of individuals as potential contributing factors to the gap have also been assessed. The results of this analysis show that similar individual characteristics exert a different influence on the immigrant-native gap in labour market outcomes in different countries. Thus, similar individual characteristics are rewarded differently in different countries, i.e., their labour markets.