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Understanding Immigrant Labor Market Stratification: What Can the Case of Recent Refugee Migration to Europe Contribute?
Abstract
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We analyze the role of personality traits in destination-language proficiency among recent refugees in Germany. While personality traits have been shown to predict educational outcomes, they have been largely overlooked for immigrants’ language acquisition. We extend a well-established model of destination-language proficiency and assume that personality traits’ effects manifest through the channels of exposure, efficiency, and incentives. Using longitudinal data and growth curve models, we find that personality traits significantly shaped destination-language learning. Openness to new experiences, conscientiousness, risk appetite, locus of control and resilience were positively related to destination-language proficiency, while agreeableness and neuroticism were insignificant. The positive impact of extraversion and the negative impact of self-esteem on destination-language proficiency were only marginally significant. For all personality traits, we observe that both the efficiency of learning and exposure to learning opportunities represented possible channels through which personality traits affected refugees’ destination-language proficiency. In sum, personality traits affect refugees’ destination-language proficiency and, thereby, contribute to sustainable economic and societal integration processes. We conclude by discussing implications for international migration research and policy.
Based on a field experiment conducted in Germany between October 2014 and October 2015, this article focuses on the disadvantages associated with the presence of a foreign accent in the early hiring process, when applicants call in response to a job advertisement to ask whether the position is still available. We examine whether a foreign accent influences employers’ behaviors via productivity considerations and/or whether foreign-accented speech is related to statistical discrimination or tastes among employers or customers that translate into differential treatment. To address these processes, we supplement our field-experimental data with information on job and firm characteristics from the texts of vacancy announcements and advertising companies’ homepages, on labor supply from the Federal Employment Agency, and on anti-immigrant attitudes from the German General Social Survey. Results suggest that while calling with a Turkish name did not result in a lower rate of positive replies, this rate was reduced for candidates who called with a Turkish accent. Turkish-accented applicants were told more often than the advertised position was already filled. Our findings suggest that the difference in response rates was not due to productivity considerations related to how well individuals understood foreign-accented speakers. Instead, results support the notion that the observed disadvantages were linked to discrimination based on employers’ ethnic tastes. While we found no indications pointing to the relevance of customer tastes or statistical discrimination, we cannot rule out these processes altogether. Our findings demonstrate that language cues can be more relevant than applicants’ names in shaping employers’ initial responses. They, thereby, highlight the need to consider multiple ethnic cues and different stages of the hiring process.
This is a cross-national study of ethnic-minority disadvantage in the labour market. It focuses on the experiences of the second generation, that is, of the children of immigrants, in a range of affluent western countries (Western Europe, North America, Australia, Israel). Standard analyses, using the most authoritative available datasets for each country, enable the reader to make precise comparisons. The study reveals that most groups of non-European ancestry continue to experience substantial ethnic penalties in the second (and later) generations. But the magnitude of these penalties varies quite substantially between countries, with major implications for social policy. This account of minority groups in different countries provides important information for policy makers considering their own responses to ethnic-minority disadvantage.
This chapter summarizes the literature on the evaluation of immigration policies. It brings together two strands of the literature dealing with the evaluation of labor market programs and with the economic integration of immigrants. Next to immigrant selection and settlement policies, there are four types of interventions that aim at improving the economic and social outcomes of immigrants: a) introduction programs, b) language training, c) labor market programs, and d) anti-discrimination policies. The chapter discusses problems associated with the evaluation of such programs, presents methodological approaches to circumvent these problems, and surveys empirical results and findings. It concludes with lessons from previous research and identifies avenues for future research.
Broadly defined, social stratification is an important part of many areas of study in sociology, but it also constitutes a distinct field on its own. Simply put, social stratification is the allocation of individuals and groups according to various social hierarchies of differing power, status, or prestige. Although divisions are often based on gender, religion, or race and ethnicity, the present entry focuses largely on socioeconomic inequalities, for the most part leaving other forms of social inequality to other entries. In this regard, social stratification is found in every society, even if it takes on slightly different forms. Uncovering what accounts for differences in social stratification—among societies and within particular societies over time—is a long-standing goal of the field. The classic works of early stratification sociologists—spurred by the work of Marx, Weber, and Durkheim—tended to be concerned with the question of “why” and “how” stratification arose in the first place. Although this debate continues to be an underlying motivation for much research on stratification, empirical research typically tackles questions for which evidence is more tangible. By the 1950s, stratification research was increasingly concerned with social mobility, though mostly within individual countries. By the 1980s, explaining cross-national differences in stratification became an important goal of the field. By now, stratification research is characterized by several debates. Although it has received somewhat less attention in the past decade or so, a classic debate centers on how socioeconomic position should be measured. Emphasis here has been on the applicability of measures of social class, status, and prestige. Although there are certainly important exceptions, differences in approach generally fall along territorial lines. European sociologists have tended to focus on relevance of occupation-based measures of social class, while North American sociologists have tended to rely on measures of socioeconomic status, which incorporate education as well as occupation. There have also been debates regarding the most effective ways to measure class and socioeconomic status. Yet other debates center on the importance of incorporating race and gender in studies of stratification. Finally, in recent decades emphasis has moved to the importance of education, both as a source of stratification on its own, and how it affects economic inequalities.
We study the causal effect of local labor market conditions and attitudes towards immigrants at the time of arrival on refugees’ multi-dimensional integration outcomes (economic, linguistic, navigational, political, psychological, and social). Using a unique dataset on refugees, we leverage a centralized allocation policy in Germany where refugees were exogenously assigned to live in specific counties. We find that high initial local unemployment negatively affects refugees’ economic and social integration: they are less likely to be in education or employment and they earn less. We also show that favorable attitudes towards immigrants promote refugees’ economic and social integration. The results suggest that attitudes toward immigrants are as important as local unemployment rates in shaping refugees’ integration outcomes. Using a machine learning classifier algorithm, we find that our results are driven by older people and those with secondary or tertiary education. Our findings highlight the importance of both initial economic and social conditions for facilitating refugee integration, and have implications for the design of centralized allocation policies.
This chapter discusses the research in economics on refugees and asylum seekers. Section 1 describes the trends in asylum seeking by source and host country. Section 2 presents a conceptual framework on why refugees might differ from other types of immigrants, and provides a new analysis comparing refugees to other immigrants in the United States using a sample of immigrants recently granted legal permanent residency. Section 3 describes a conceptual framework on why investments in host-country-specific human capital might differ between refugees and other immigrants, and presents a new analysis of refugee economic integration in the United States using synthetic panel data. Section 4 synthesizes the literature on the impact of refugees on sending and receiving communities. Section 5 discusses some political economy issues surrounding refugees, and their implications for modeling host nations’ asylum policy choices. The chapter closes in Section 6 with suggestions for further research.
The experience of the second generation of migrants gives a clearer idea of whether liberal developed countries of Europe and North America provide equal opportunities to all their citizens, irrespective of their ethnic or national origin. This chapter examines the relationship between patterns of ethnic disadvantage and the nature of each country's economy, its patterns of social fluidity, its conception of nationhood, racism and xenophobia, and the relevant government policies. It discusses the gross disadvantages that ethnic minorities typically experience in the labour market and the net disadvantages (or ethnic penalties) after controlling for individual characteristics, especially for educational level and age. The chapter also assesses the gross differences between groups to determine the overall extent of ethnic stratification in each society and the nature of the vertical mosaic.
Importing Inequality: Immigration and the Top 1 Percent
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