Immigrants economic situation and antiimmigrant sentiments in Europe

1
Immigrants economic situation and anti-immigrant
sentiments in Europe

• Irena Kogan
• MZES, University of Mannheim

2
Agenda

• Inflow of low-skilled illegal immigrants
• Persistently high unemployment and lower labour
  force participation rates among immigrants
• Welfare dependency
• Labour market segmentation
• Threat to cultural uniformity
• Anti-immigrant sentiments
• Resentment towards immigrants from poor countries

3
Educational qualifications
4
Labour force participation rates of male
immigrants
Source European Union Labour Force Survey
1995-2000
5
Unemployment rates of male immigrants
Source European Union Labour Force Survey
1995-2000
6
Proportion in unskilled and low-skilled jobs
Source European Union Labour Force Survey
1995-2000
7
Empirical evidence

• Immigrants educational attainment many
  third-country immigrants with lower education and
  many with high education
• Labour force participation rates among
  third-country immigrants in Southern Europe are
  somewhat higher (labour migration), whereas they
  are lower in Nordic countries (refugee migration)
• Third-country immigrants have, as a rule, higher
  unemployment rates and hold more often unskilled
  and low-skilled jobs in EU-15 countries, but
  there exists substantial cross-country variation

8
Labour market structure and regulation

• In receiving countries with stronger demand for
  unskilled and low-skilled labour third-country
  immigrants are less disadvantaged compared to the
  native-born (e.g. in Southern EU countries)
• Recent immigrants are less disadvantaged when
  entering employment and with regard to job status
  in more flexible LM of liberal countries (UK and
  Ireland)
• Immigrant employment disadvantage (and welfare
  dependence) is higher in Nordic social-democratic
  countries (e.g. Sweden, Denmark, Finland)

9
Allow many/few immigrants of different
race/ethnic group from majority
European Social Survey (2002, 2004)
10
Allow many/few immigrants from poorer countries
outside Europe
European Social Survey (2002, 2004)
11
Allow many/few immigrants of same race/ethnic
group as majority
European Social Survey (2002, 2004)
12
Pro- and anti-immigrant sentiments Immigration
and

• Making country a better place to be
• Greece
• Portugal
• Italy
• Belgium
• France
• Austria
• United Kingdom
• Netherlands
• Germany
• Spain
• Finland
• Denmark
• Ireland
• Luxembourg
• Sweden

• Country's economy
• Greece
• Belgium
• United Kingdom
• Portugal
• Netherlands
• Denmark
• Germany
• France
• Italy
• Finland
• Sweden
• Austria
• Ireland
• Spain
• Luxembourg

• Country's cultural life
• Greece
• Portugal
• Italy
• United Kingdom
• France
• Austria
• Ireland
• Belgium
• Denmark
• Spain
• Netherlands
• Germany
• Luxembourg
• Sweden
• Finland

13
Pro- and anti-immigrant sentiments by education
14
Educational level of countries population
European Union Labour Force
Survey (1995-2000)