IDENTITY AND LABOR MARKET OUTCOMES OF IMMIGRANTS (original) (raw)

Social identity and labor market outcomes of immigrants

Journal of Population Economics

This paper explores the relationship between social identity and labor market outcomes of immigrants. Using survey data from Italy, we provide robust evidence that integrated immigrants, who state they have strong feelings of belonging to the societies of both the host and home country, have higher employment rates than do assimilated immigrants, who identify exclusively with the host country culture. Unlike previous literature, our findings indicate that assimilation does not necessarily provide a clear labor market advantage over immigrants who identify only with their original ethnic group. The positive labor market effect of integration is especially large for women, low-skilled, and immigrants with a brief experience in Italy and arriving in Italy at older ages, who generally face stronger barriers to entry into the labor market. The main mechanism driving the positive effect of multiple social identities points to belonging to local networks that ensure in-group favoritism and...

Ethnic identity and labour market outcomes of immigrants in Italy

2016

The paper explores the relationship between ethnic identity and labour market outcomes of immigrants in Italy. Using an IV strategy to deal with endogeneity concerns, we find that the probability of being employed, both regularly or irregularly, is higher for integrated immigrants. Interestingly, our analysis shows that assimilated foreigners have no better chances of being employed than separated ones. Therefore, these results seem to suggest that public policies supporting foreigners' assimilation to the majorities' culture might not be effective if not combined with policies aimed at maintaining the customs and traditions of the minorities.

Ethnic Identity and Labor-Market Outcomes of Immigrants in Europe

2011

Using data from the European Social Survey on most European countries, we look at the relationship between ethnic identity and employment prospects for immigrants from non-European countries. We find that a strong attachment to religion is associated with a lower probability of being employed. When we differentiate between first and second generations of immigrants, our evidence reveals signs of a cultural and economic integration of immigrants in Europe. However, when an extreme ethnic sentiment is preserved, the employment penalty is amplified. Our results also suggest that the strength of a person’s ethnic identity and its relationship with employment prospects may depend on the type of integration policy performed in the country where the immigrant lives. In particular, labor-market policies and family-reunion policies seem to facilitate the labor-market access to immigrants coming from non-European countries.

Ethnic identity and labour market outcomes of immigrants in Europe

Economic Policy, 2011

We study the relationship between ethnic identity and labour market outcomes of non-EU immigrants in Europe. Using the European Social Survey, we find that there is a penalty to be paid for immigrants with a strong identity. Being a first generation immigrant leads to a penalty of about 17% while secondgeneration immigrants have a probability of being employed that is not statistically different from that of natives. However, when they have a strong identity, second-generation immigrants have a lower chance of finding a job than natives. Our analysis also reveals that the relationship between ethnic identity and employment prospects may depend on the type of integration and labour market policies implemented in the country where the immigrant lives. More flexible labour markets help immigrants to access the labour market but do not protect those who have a strong ethnic identity.

Ethnic Identity and Immigrants' Labour Market Outcomes

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2021

The objective of this paper is to analyse how immigrants' ethnic identity correlates with their labour market outcomes. More precisely, we estimate the role of ethnic identity in employment, wages, under-employment (i.e., they would prefer to work more hours but are not given the opportunity), three measures of job satisfaction, overeducation and wages. We further explore whether economic downturn has a differentiated impact on our measures. Using Australian longitudinal data, we find that ethnic identity strongly is associated with employment and wages as well a number of job satisfaction measures. We then split our data and repeat the estimations for before and after the Great Financial Crisis of 2008-09. We find important differences in the way ethnic identity is associated with different measures of labour market outcomes under different economic conditions. Finally, we explore the mechanisms through which some of results could be explained.

Are Foreign Migrants More Assimilated Than Native Ones

2009

The paper compares the pattern of wage assimilation of foreigners with both native immigrants and local natives in Italy, a country with large internal and international migration. This comparison, not yet exploited, yields understanding of the role played by language and knowledge of social capital. We use the administrative dataset on dependent employment (WHIP), to estimate a fixed effect model of the weekly wages of males aged 18-45 with controls for selection in return migration and unobserved heterogeneity. The three groups of workers start their careers at the same wage level but, as experience increases, the wage profiles of foreigners and natives, both immigrants and locals, diverge. A positive selection in the returns prevails, so that the foreign workers with lower wages are the most likely to stay in Italy. Also an "ethnic" skill differential emerges and a negative status dependence for those entering at low wage level.

Ethnic identity and the labour market

2005

We examine the consequences of ethnic identity on getting a job. We define ethnic identity as the attachment to the group who shares one's ancestral heritage, and use a direct measure of the depth of ethnic identity based on a survey question which asks "is your ethnic origin very important to you, somewhat important, not very important or not at all important". This measure is used to explore how ethnic identity affects two labour market processes often presumed to depend on it: the use of informal networks to find jobs, and the quality of jobs found. We find that for European ethnic minorities, the depth of ethnic identity is positively correlated with the propensity to use informal methods to find jobs. This is consistent with ethnic identity playing a role in ethnically based job-finding networks. We find also that for visible minority men, ethnic identity is correlated with much lower occupational prestige. This is consistent with ethnic identity being correlated with behaviour that serves to separate ethnic minorities from majority populations.

Migrant and Satisfied? The Ethnic Gap in Job Satisfaction in the Italian Labor Market

Migration Letters, 2023

Job satisfaction is a desirable outcome both at the organizational and at the individual level. Anyway, little is known about the gap between natives' and migrants' job satisfaction, which represents a critical issue in the light of the increasing presence of foreigner workers in the Western labor markets. In order to shed light on this issue, we estimate a number of OLS models to quantify sex-specific natives' and migrants' job satisfaction, by exploiting a particularly detailed Italian source of data (the Survey of Social Condition and Integration of Foreign Citizens). We find that being a migrant is not associated per se with any premium or penalty in job satisfaction. When we control for the different socio-demographic features and job characteristics of natives and migrants, it turns out that migrants are more satisfied than natives. Hence, it emerges in Italy a job satisfaction paradox based on the worker's migratory status.

Drivers of cultural participation of immigrants: evidence from an Italian survey

Journal of Cultural Economics

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