The labour market integration of immigrants: Setting the stage

1. The labour market integration of immigrants: Setting the stage Georges Lemaître & Thomas Liebig Non-Member Economies and International Migration Division Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs ACIME-OECD Seminar Lisbon, FLAD, 15 June 2007

2. What is at stake • Making the best use of immigrants’ skills and experience • Ensuring equal opportunities and social cohesion • A growing number of immigrants and of their children • Viability of current / future migration policy

3. Taking a human-capital perspective • The human capital of immigrants differs from that of the native-born • Are the skills and experience of immigrants appropriate in the host-country labour market? • If so, are they « equivalent » to those of the native-born – and does this matter? • What means are available to immigrants to « transmit » / « communicate » their skills and experience to employers?

4. Labour market outcomes and the factors affecting them: immigrants (I) • Outcomes are generally not as good as for the native-born, but there is great variation • Correcting for educational attainment tends to increase the differences • Category of migration is a key determinant, but outcomes converge over time • Controlling for country-of-origin tends to reduce differences in outcomes between countries • Part of the unfavourable outcomes is due to lack of language proficiency

5. Labour market outcomes and the factors affecting them: immigrants (II) • Foreign qualifications are now largely discounted on the labour market; foreign experience almost entirely • The jobs which immigrants hold are often below their qualification level • The functioning of the labour market matters • Immigrants are more sensitive to economic conditions • Early labour market entry is an important determinant of labour market outcomes in the longer run • Generally, there are problems to get into the labour market, but good wage progression once employed

6. Labour market outcomes and the factors affecting them: children of immigrants • Children of immigrants also have lower employment • The unfavourable outcomes are partly due to lower educational attainment, but employment rates tend to be lower at all educational levels • The earnings also tend to lag behind those of comparable other natives • The second generation generally fares better than young immigrants, and age at immigration matters

7. How can policy respond to these issues?

8. How can policy respond to these issues?

9. Differences in the employment/population ratios between native and foreign-born 15-64 years old, 2004/2005 average

10. Employment/population ratios by qualification level in Belgium, 15-64, women, 2001

11. Employment/population ratios by migration category 6 and 42 months months after arrival, principal applicants, Australia (arrival around 1995, aged 15-64 at arrival)

12. Percentage point gaps in employment/population ratios between natives and the second generation, 20-29 and not in education