Evaluating Activation Across Institutions: The Labour Force Integration of New Migrants in Belgium

The swift and effective labour market integration of new migrants is a highly ranked policy priority. Consequently, policies across high-income countries progressively provide migrant specific Active Labour Market Policies (ALMP), such as language training or civic integration courses, but also stimulate enrolment in ALMP provided for all jobseekers, such as job search assistance. However, despite the fact that different types of ALMP are often organised by different institutions, our understanding of whether migrant-specific and general ALMP provide effective activation trajectories across different institutions is limited. Applying dynamic propensity score matching and hazard models to a representative 2005–2016 panel linking data across a wide range of registers for Flanders (Belgium), this study aims to address the synergy between migrant-specific and general ALMP. Findings show that participation in language and civic integration courses organised by the agency for integration stimulate the transition into stable regular employment, but also that approximately half of the cumulative return to participation is explained by a higher probability of registering at the public employment service for job search assistance. Amongst immigrants registered at the public employment service, participation in job search assistance is also found to facilitate the transition to stable employment. Hence, in addition to positive effects of participation in both institutions, civic integration and language programmes play an important role in stimulating participation in general job search assistance.